Go out of your way for others.

Mat 5:2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying…

Mat 5:41  And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain.

Go out of your way for others.

Why?

If they hit you you're supposed to let them hit you again.

If they sue you and take from you you're supposed to give them more.

If want you to walk with them a mile you're supposed to go with them double that.

Why?

COMPASSION.

We've been talking about this the last few studies and we have to KEEP talking about this because it's so incredibly important. We cannot ignore compassion we have to strive towards compassion at all costs to ourselves.

People think they don't need to be compassionate because it makes them appear weak. 

Someone hitting you again and again, over and over and you not making any effort to defend yourself. We've seen this sort of thing in the movies- the bad guy turned good who formerly loved fighting and hurting maybe even killing others- reforms and when he's picked on he doesn't fight back.  The movie portrays that hero type as being good, but in our reality we seldom see this sort of thing. It's more likely the one being hit just keeps on being hit and is called- weak. They could be super strong, heavily muscled but there is a different sort of weakness they are called in that situation. They are called 'chickens', weak willed, scared, wimpy, losers, fools, the list goes on and on.

Compassion is the greatest gift. It is compassion our Savior has shown to us.

 

The world twists the truth to lies, good to evil, evil to good, lies to truth. Satan has taken the greatest attributes and labeled them the weakest.

Selflessness goes hand in hand with compassion.

People are going to ask you to do things for them.

People are going to interact with you unless you've hidden yourself from everyone- and unfortunately some people do get to that point where they shut themselves away.

The average person will have to interact with others and in our interactions we have the choice to be compassionate or not- this is with ALL our interactions, not a select few. 

ALL our interactions must have compassion at their core. If they do NOT have compassion at their core then there will be something else there- and that something else  is selfishness.

Love and compassion go hand in hand. You can say love and that will encompass compassion.

Jesus wants us to LEARN compassion.

Jesus wants us to learn to put OTHERS before ourselves.

This is truly something we need to LEARN.

Jesus wants this of us, He's TEACHING us and it's a LIFE LONG LESSON.

We learn many lessons that we carry throughout our lives.

We aren't born automatically knowing everything.

You take a human being baby and let the child grow up without anyone to learn from then that child will be stunted in many ways.  There have been movies on this. Documentaries of those raised in the wild so to speak. In some instances the children grow up into savages, in others they grow up timid and reserved.  They don't grow up with the interaction of others and the chance to learn from others.  We learn amazing amounts of things from others. Our parents and relatives, our neighbors influence our earliest years- as well as teachers and daycare workers in a lot of cases.  As we age we are put in actual learning institutions where we are supposed to be learning all that is necessary to make us mature into well rounded, functioning individuals able to support ourselves and live peacefully with others. Then as we leave our learning institutions generally in a lot of work fields we are expected to continuously learn to keep up with the knowledge that is growing in our line of work. We also learn many things as we age, simply because we are exposed to life.

With Jesus as our TEACHER, His lessons are important for our eternity.  He is teaching us ETERNITY.

If we can't learn His lessons now, if we do not think it's important to learn His lessons now, will we even recognize our Teacher of Eternity? Will HE know us, His students?!

A child learns at the feet of his or her parents, we need to learn at the feet of our HEAVENLY Father, at the feet of our SAVIOR!

We need compassion at our core being. We need compassion in all we are. We need the compassion that only comes from our SAVIOR Jesus Christ. Compassion towards others ALWAYS!

In our Savior, in HIS LOVE, by HIS GRACE!