Mark Tabata’s Weekday Devotionals:
Wednesday January 28 2026
Beware The Heart Lacking Compassion
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Proverbs 28:14-Happy is the man who is always reverent, But he who hardens his heart will fall into calamity.
Callous indifference towards human life seems to be a characteristic of our day and age. Indeed, this was also a trademark of the ancient world divorced from the influence of the Bible and Jesus Christ. One author, writing about how the Lord impacted the ancient world in the form of caring for the sick, has noted:
“Dionysius, a Christian bishop of the third century, described the existing behavior of the pagans toward their fellow sick human beings in an Alexandrian plague in about A.D. 250. The pagans, he said, “thrust aside anyone who began to be sick, and kept aloof even from their dearest friends, and cast the sufferers out upon the public roads half dead, and left them unburied, and treated them with utter contempt when they died” (Works of Dionysius, Epistle 12.5)….When epidemics broke out,” says Howard Haggard, the Romans “often fled in fear and left the sick to die without care.”2 Haggard further notes that the Romans saw helping a sick person as a sign of human weakness; whereas Christians, in light of what Jesus taught about helping the sick, believed they were not only serving the sick but also serving God. Thus, Christianity filled the pagan void that largely ignored the sick and dying, especially during pestilences. In so doing, it “established the principle that to help the sick and needy is a sign of strength not weakness.”3This Christ-motivated humanitarian behavior, so admirably displayed by his early followers, also introduced “the notion that because God loves humanity, Christians cannot please God unless they love one another.” This, as Rodney Stark puts it, was revolutionary.4…The early Christians unequivocally rejected the callous, inhumane culture of the Greco-Roman world. They saw each person as having a redeemable soul, and therefore it was God-pleasing to nurture and nurse any and every person, regardless of his or her social status. Because eternal life awaited all those who believed and died in Christ, life on earth was not the ultimate value. Even if one died while caring for the sick, a greater and better life lay ahead; moreover, if a sick or dying person came to see and accept Christ’s forgiveness, another soul was gained for eternal life. That kind of behavior was totally foreign to pagan thought. Very few of the early Christians who, out of love, risked their lives as a result of tending to the contagiously sick and dying have had their names recorded in history. But one name that is known is Benignus of Dijon, a second-century Christian who was martyred in Epagny because he “nursed, supported, and protected a number of deformed and crippled children that had been saved from death after failed abortions and exposures.” 5 Saving physically frail, unwanted children was an affront to the Romans. It violated their cultural norms. Recall the words of Seneca, the first-century Roman philosopher: “We drown children who at birth are weakly and abnormal” (De Ira 1.15).” (Alvin J. Schmidt, How Christianity Changed the World, 242-244 (Kindle Edition): Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan)
The Word of God teaches the value of caring for the sick and the injured. When the leaders of Israel refused to help those who were afflicted, God promised to punish them for their hardened hearts. Indeed, because the shepherds did not care for those who were injured as they should have, the sheep became prey for others.
Ezekiel 34:4-10-The weak you have not strengthened, nor have you healed those who were sick, nor bound up the broken, nor brought back what was driven away, nor sought what was lost; but with force and cruelty you have ruled them. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. 6 My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” 7 ‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the LORD: 8 “As I live,” says the Lord GOD, “surely because My flock became a prey, and My flock became food for every beast of the field, because there was no shepherd, nor did My shepherds search for My flock, but the shepherds fed themselves and did not feed My flock”—. 9 therefore, O shepherds, hear the word of the LORD! 10 Thus says the Lord GOD: “Behold, I am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their hand; I will cause them to cease feeding the sheep, and the shepherds shall feed themselves no more; for I will deliver My flock from their mouths, that they may no longer be food for them.”
God would punish these leaders for their lack of compassion, and He would Himself be the “Good Shepherd.”
Ezekiel 34:16-I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick; but I will destroy the fat and the strong, and feed them in judgment.”
Does not Jesus also teach us the value of compassion and empathy in the Parable of the Good Samaritan?
Luke 10:33-35-But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was. And when he saw him, he had compassion. 34 So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. 35 On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, gave them to the innkeeper, and said to him, ‘Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.’
Jesus teaches us to learn to love to love everyone, even our enemies (Matthew 5:44-45). May we always be on guard against a hardened and indifferent heart that refuses to show compassion and mercy for the suffering.
Help us, Lord. Create within us a heart of compassion. Amen.