The Love and Compassion of Christ—Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

The Love and Compassion of Christ—Am I My Brother’s Keeper? Devotional Reading August 17, 2023

“But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, Longsuffering and abundant in mercy and truth.” —Psalm 86:15

Compassion: The spiritual practice of compassion is often likened to opening the heart. True compassion arises when one genuinely feels for others in their problems or suffering and positively makes a genuine attempt to help them.

The Bible story of Cain and Abel (see Genesis 4:1-13) reveals the lack of two characteristics of Christ—Love and Compassion.

An individual’s perception and definition of love are impacted by many factors, a healthy or unhealthy home environment as a child, learned behaviors, life’s rugged experiences, and chosen values as reflected in their lifestyle. Our values are reflected by our priorities and indicate whether or not we have a healthy definition of love for God, ourselves, and others.

The Love Chapter—1 Corinthians 13

Because God knew that sin would impact our ability to discern and possess Righteous Love, an entire chapter is dedicated to the defining characteristics of love. In Paul’s era, there was much hatred between the Jews and Gentiles. Since God’s character is Love, without agape love, we cannot possess the loving hearts required to have a meaningful relationship with Christ and others. We will also lack the ability to positively love ourselves.

The result of Adam and Eve not loving God enough to completely trust Him brought devastating consequences to their lives. Think deeply about the act of their eldest son killing his brother. My heart aches just thinking about the heinous death of Abel and their intense grief. Without love, our hearts change into hearts that possess the bitter fruits of unrighteous character traits.

“Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, ‘Where is Abel your brother?’ He said, ‘I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?’ ” —Genesis 4:8-9

Certainly, Adam and Eve loved Cain, their firstborn son, but Cain could not respond to his parent’s love because he possessed a spirit of disobedience against God. Cain’s heart was filled with the bitter fruits of hatred, jealousy, and anger against his brother Abel. Following God’s rejection of Cain’s sacrifice, the demonic spirit of hatred escalated and he killed Abel, his only brother.

“For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.” —1 John 3:11-12

“The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked, Who can know it?” —Jeremiah 17:9

Let’s focus on Cain’s response to Christ. Afterward, when the Lord asked, “Where is Abel?” Cain asked, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” But the true meaning of what Cain said was, “My brother is not my problem.”

Most of us cannot imagine speaking to Christ with such dishonor and disrespect. Even so, there is no limit to the wickedness in the human heart. Our hidden thoughts will always be brought to fruition by our spoken words and our actions.

Reflection: Do I have a heart filled with the love and compassion of Christ as evidenced by my willingness to alleviate the sufferings of others?

Although we would hesitate to speak the words, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” when we fail to have a compassionate heart by caring and extending help to alleviate the sufferings of others the true status of our unloving heart is revealed.

“God has ordained according to the law of ministry that we should comfort one another in tenderness and love when great sorrows come upon us. No man lives unto himself.” EG White

Scripture: “If anyone with earthly possessions sees his brother in need, but withholds his compassion from him, how can the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us love not in word and speech, but in action and truth.” —1 John 3:17-18, BSB

Prayer: Lord, we pray to have Your abiding love and compassion in our hearts along with the desire to help those in need. In Jesus’ Loving Name, we pray, Amen.

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