Moved with Compassion

How is compassion portrayed in Scripture? Let’s look at an incident from the first chapter of Mark.

“Now a leper came to Him [Jesus], imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, ‘If You are willing, You can make me clean.’ Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed.’ As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed.” (Mark 1:40–42)

It says that Jesus was “moved with compassion.” This response refers to the bowels—compassion is a gut feeling. The King James Version refers to the “bowels of compassion” (1 John 3:17). The “bowels of compassion” are where our deepest feelings lie—not in the physical heart, but in the gut. This is where it all begins. This is the source of everything.