Compassion: Showing Care in a Careless World

by Charles R. Swindoll

Showing Care in a Careless World (Lifemaps) - Chuck Swindoll

Genres: Christian

68 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1984

About the author

Charles Swindoll has devoted over four decades to two passions: an unwavering commitment to the practical communication and application of God's Word, and an untiring devotion to seeing lives transformed by God's grace. Chuck graduated magna cum laude from Dallas Theological Seminary and has since been honored with four doctorates. For his teaching on Insight for Living, he has received the Program of the Year award and the Hall of Fame award from the National Religious Broadcasters as well as multiple book awards.

Reviews

[Trice · Rating 3 out of 5]

so sometimes having insomnia as a result of being sick for 2 days can have good results - reading this last night around 2am was one. I'm not a huge Chuck Swindoll fan, as he tends to be on the lighter side, but this was a strongly convicting, though short, piece on compassion, its meaning and how it is essential to the Christian life.

One small but very important point he made was one I'd never really paid attention to. The book centers on Jesus' conversation with the lawyer in Luke 10 that culminates in the parable of the good Samaritan. The lawyer had tried to justify himself (as we all do, or at least I know I do!) in his inadequate fulfillment of the Law: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” Trying to get out of it, or perhaps minimize the requirement, or perhaps avoid having to follow through by claim of uncertainty, he asks, "Who is my neighbor?" As Jesus so often does, instead of answering the question, he tells a parable and turns the question on its head.

The original question was "Who is my neighbor?" By looking toward the other person, it allowed the one asking the question to be protected and safe as he searched the horizon for that special individual who qualified as "my neighbor." Refusing to fan an irrelevant flame, Jesus shifted the emphasis so that the question worth considering at the end of the story is not "Which person qualifies as my neighbor?" but "What kind of neighbor am I?" You see, that question points the finger in the other direction - in the lawyer's direction, in your direction, in my direction.
To use today's terms, not "Is my neighbor really lost and therefore needy?" but "Is my neighbor's neighbor - namely me - really saved and therefore compassionate?" (36-37)

Maybe this all seems rather obvious, but I have to admit, though I understand the call upon us to be good neighbors, I usually remember this parable as showing that all are our neighbors and we should not restrict our helping. This was a refreshing, helpful, and, as I said, convicting recast of the conversation.
[now are there any other places we can use italics here?]

[Joy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is based on the parable of the good Samaritan. There is encouragement to demonstrate care and compassion to those we meet in daily life. One thing compassion is not is "a snob gone slumming." Conclusion: "When you allow your compassion to flow freely, you won't need a personal invitation...but, like the Samaritan, you'll stop, stoop, and serve." I always enjoy Swindoll's very warm, readable writing as well as his practical applications.