There is a common sense principle to this order. How compassionate would it be, when others know we are Christians, if we neglect the needs within our own families to help someone or something we’ve never met or seen ourselves? How is it an acceptable demonstration of the love of Jesus when we see those in need, those suffering, or those who are hungry within our own town yet we send that $30 a month as an act and demonstration of our compassion to help those in far away lands? Within the New Testament, there’s a pattern to our compassion – we should focus on our family, then our community and church, within our state and nation, and then to the uttermost parts of the world. This is a similar pattern we see the focus of the church must be when actively spreading the gospel – our community, state, nation, and then to the world outside our own. Our love for the Lord ought to cause us to notice others in need and to reach out to them.
Compassion and the Christian missionary
Missionaries have the same basic Christian responsibility as every other Christian with the exception the Lord has called them into a level of compassion seen in the book of Jude. According to the teachings of the apostle Paul in the letter to the early Christians in Corinth: And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles? Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way (1 Corinthians 12:28-31). He also shared a similar teaching with the early Christians in Ephesus: And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:11-12). Missionaries have an extra burden placed upon them for a certain group of people. All it takes is to look at any missionary’s or missionary serving board’s website to see how the Lord will use the heart-felt and spirit-led Christian to extend the reach of the gospel of Jesus. For some missionaries, this may mean far-away places such as India or China, or maybe more local, such as America’s prisons or American Indians, or the inner-cities of the larger cities. Pastors, teachers, and others called into the full-time ministry also have a similar compassion as missionaries, but their calling is focused on domestic or local missions.
