And of some have compassion, making a difference: (Jude 22)
In our Christian desire to be Christlike, there is always a conflict between hating sin and loving sinners. We live in a world of things that trouble us. Some things make us angry as Christians. The Bible says that it is possible to be angry and sin not. (Ephesians 4:26)
As we travel through this book of Jude, we find the Lord dealing with this awful age of apostasy and the horrible things that it produces. When we come to the twentieth verse, He says, “But ye.” He charges Christians, those who are in the world but not of the world.
In Jude 22, we read, “And of some have compassion, making a difference.” This is what we need—compassion. (See Psalm 126:5-6) Compassion is having the hurt of others in our hearts. The greatest example of compassion is the cross of Calvary where Jesus Christ bore the hurt of our debt in His heart.
The Command to Care
In a time of apostasy, in a world that is getting worse and worse, God says that we are to have compassion. The wicked things we hear people say and the wicked things they do make people more difficult to love. The emphasis of this Scripture is that, when people are so hard to love because of their wickedness, we need to love them more than ever.
Read 1 John 3:16-18. The Bible says that we are to love “in deed.” Having compassion is not something we say, it is something we do. We should go out of our way to show compassion to people. Having compassion will take us out of the ordinary routine and cause us many “inconveniences,” but compassion breaks down barriers like nothing else can.
As we look at our lives, the people who cared were the ones God used to make a difference in our lives. Are we obeying the command of God to “have compassion”?
The Cry of the World
In Mark 9:14-22, we find the account of a man who brought his son to the disciples for healing, and they could not heal him. Those who were against Christ were ridiculing the disciples’ inability to help the man. We read that this father said to Christ, “Have compassion on us, and help us.” This man’s son was hurting. Anytime someone you love is hurting, you are hurting with him. This man cried out for compassion.
The cry of the world is for someone to care. God has put within our hearts the ability to make a difference in people’s lives. The reason we do not make the difference we could be making is that we are not caring. The world is crying out for someone to have compassion.
The Compassion of Christ
Christ is the greatest example of compassion. We are failing because of the time we have not spent with Him. His passion becomes our passion only as we follow Him. It is impossible to care as Christ cares for lost souls unless we follow Him.
God is teaching us in Jude 20-22 that, if we spend time in His Word, in prayer, and in looking for His return, we will be led into a fellowship with Christ that will produce compassion in our hearts. Christ can change each one of us into a caring person as we spend time with Him.
God’s Word says that we are to make a difference. We can make a difference by showing the compassion of Christ to the lost, by witnessing and winning people to Him.
Background Reading for Next Week: Jude 24-25; Revelation 5:1-5; Daniel 6:16-24; 2 Corinthians 9:8; Ephesians 3:20; Philippians 3:21; Hebrews 7:25; Jude 1-16; John 10:27-29; Ephesians 5:25-27