Seeing With Compassion
The sermon emphasizes the importance of cultivating a sense of compassion and pity for others, and allowing that to move us to act in their behalf.
A.W. Tozer emphasizes the importance of compassion in our emotional lives, illustrating how feelings are a natural part of being human. He notes that in a world filled with conflict, emotions fluctuate frequently, yet they are essential for a full human experience. Tozer highlights Jesus' example in Matthew 14:14, where His compassion for the suffering led Him to action, demonstrating the ideal balance between intellect, feeling, and will. He encourages us to embrace our emotions, as they can lead us to act with love and kindness towards others.
Text
"Excitement, perturbation, feeling." These are states of mind we are all familiar with. In a world as violent and full of conflict as this these come and go, blaze up and die down in the average man's bosom a hundred times a day. The normal man and woman will in the course of a few months experience every degree of emotion from near ecstasy to mild dejection without apparently being any the better or the worse for it. Of course I have in mind here only the normal man and woman. The psychopathic personality lies outside the field of this study. The emotions are neither to be feared nor despised, for they are a normal part of us as God made us in the first place. Indeed the full human life would be impossible without them.
One recoils from the thought of the man who lacked all feeling.
He would be either a cold, naked intellect such as inhabits the pages of the science-fiction novel, or a mere vegetable, such as is sometimes found in the incurable wards of our mental hospitals. The right relation of intellect to feeling and feeling to will is disclosed in Matthew 14:14. "And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick." Intellectual knowledge of the suffering of the people stirred His pity and His pity moved Him to heal them. This is how it was with the ideal Man whose total organism was perfectly adjusted to itself; and this is the way it is with us in a less perfect measure.
Sermon Outline
- The Normal Human Experience
- The Right Relation of Intellect to Feeling
- The Ideal Man
- Jesus' total organism was perfectly adjusted
- This is the model for our own lives
Key Quotes
“Intellectual knowledge of the suffering of the people stirred His pity and His pity moved Him to heal them.” — A.W. Tozer
“The right relation of intellect to feeling and feeling to will is disclosed in Matthew 14:14.” — A.W. Tozer
Application Points
- We should cultivate a sense of compassion and pity for others, and allow that to move us to act in their behalf.
- A healthy relationship between intellect, feeling, and will is essential for a full and meaningful human life.
- We can learn from Jesus' example in Matthew 14:14, where His pity for the suffering people moved Him to heal them.