21 Bible Verses About Compassion

Psalm 103:8

“The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.”

Reflection: The line repeats what the Lord proclaimed to Moses in Exodus 34:6, “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.” The psalm goes on to explain it with a comparison: “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust” (Psalm 103:13-14). Between the two, verse 10 says what the compassion means in practice: “he does not treat us as our sins deserve.”

Isaiah 49:15

“Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you!”

Reflection: Zion has just said, “The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me” (Isaiah 49:14), and this verse is the Lord’s reply. The comparison allows that a mother may forget her child, then says the Lord will not, and verse 16 adds, “See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.” Verse 13 has already announced that the Lord “will have compassion on his afflicted ones.”

Lamentations 3:22-23

“Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

Reflection: The poet has just described his affliction, “the bitterness and the gall” (Lamentations 3:19), and these lines are what he calls to mind in order to keep hope. The Hebrew noun is racham (Strong’s 7356), and the NIV keeps its plural, “compassions.” Later in the chapter grief and compassion stand side by side: “Though he brings grief, he will show compassion, so great is his unfailing love” (3:32).

Micah 7:19

“You will again have compassion on us; you will tread our sins underfoot and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.”

Reflection: Near the end of Micah a question is asked, “Who is a God like you, who pardons sin and forgives the transgression of the remnant of his inheritance?” (7:18), and this verse answers it. Compassion here takes the form of forgiveness, with sins trodden underfoot and thrown into the sea. The word “again” assumes God has shown Israel compassion before, and verse 20 ties the promise to what he “pledged on oath to our ancestors.”

2 Corinthians 1:3-4

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”

Reflection: After his greeting, Paul calls God “the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort.” The sentence runs from what God gives to what it is for: the comfort Paul receives is meant to be passed on to “those in any trouble.” Verses 5-7 tie comfort to suffering, telling the Corinthians that “just as you share in our sufferings, so also you share in our comfort.”

Matthew 9:36

“When he saw the crowds, he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd.”

Reflection: Matthew places this after a summary of Jesus teaching and healing in “all the towns and villages” (9:35). The crowds are compared to sheep without a shepherd, and what Jesus asks of his disciples in response is prayer: “Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field” (9:38).

Matthew 14:14

“When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”

Reflection: Jesus had gone by boat “privately to a solitary place” (14:13), and the crowds followed him on foot. Instead of the solitude he went for, he healed the sick among them, and that evening he fed about five thousand men besides women and children. The Greek verb is splagchnizomai (Strong’s 4697), formed from splagchnon, the inward parts; Luke uses the same verb at 7:13, 10:33 and 15:20.

Luke 7:13

“When the Lord saw her, his heart went out to her and he said, ‘Don’t cry.’”

Reflection: At the gate of Nain, Jesus meets the funeral of a widow’s only son (Luke 7:12). Luke says his heart went out to the mother, and no one in the passage asks him for help. He touched the bier, told the young man to get up, and “gave him back to his mother” (7:15).

Luke 10:33

“But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him.”

Reflection: Jesus tells the story to an expert in the law who asked, “And who is my neighbor?” (Luke 10:29). A priest and a Levite each saw the wounded man and “passed by on the other side”; the Samaritan “took pity,” the NIV’s rendering here of splagchnizomai, the verb Luke 7:13 uses of Jesus. A list of costs follows: bandages, oil and wine, his own donkey, a night at an inn and two denarii, and Jesus ends with “Go and do likewise” (10:37).

Luke 15:20

“So he got up and went to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

Reflection: The younger son has rehearsed a speech asking to be made “like one of your hired servants” (Luke 15:19). His father sees him “while he was still a long way off” and runs to embrace him before any of it is said, and when the son does speak he never reaches the line about the hired servants (15:21). Later the same father “went out and pleaded with” the older son, who refused to come in to the feast (15:28).

Zechariah 7:9

“This is what the Lord Almighty said: ‘Administer true justice; show mercy and compassion to one another.’”

Reflection: The command pairs compassion with justice, and verse 10 names those it is owed to: “the widow or the fatherless, the foreigner or the poor.” Verses 11-14 recall that an earlier generation “refused to pay attention” to the same words through “the earlier prophets” and was scattered “among all the nations.”

Colossians 3:12

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

Reflection: The readers are addressed as people already chosen and loved, “holy and dearly loved,” before they are told what to put on. Compassion heads the list. Verse 13 adds forgiveness, “Forgive as the Lord forgave you,” and verse 14 puts love “over all these virtues,” as the quality “which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

Ephesians 4:32

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

Reflection: Verse 31 lists what to get rid of: “all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.” Kindness and compassion take their place, and both are joined to forgiveness, measured by what God did “in Christ.”

1 Peter 3:8

“Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble.”

Reflection: The command is addressed to “all of you,” and compassion sits in a list with sympathy, love and humility. The next verse sets it against hostility: “Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing.”

1 John 3:17

“If anyone has material possessions and sees a brother or sister in need but has no pity on them, how can the love of God be in that person?”

Reflection: The verse before defines love by Jesus laying down his life: “Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters” (1 John 3:16). Verse 17 applies that to possessions and a brother or sister in need, and verse 18 follows with “let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.”

James 2:15-16

“Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?”

Reflection: James’s example sits inside his argument about faith and deeds: verse 14 asks whether faith without deeds can save, and verse 17 concludes that faith “by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.” The words in the example are kind, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” and the fault James names is that nothing is done “about their physical needs.”

Proverbs 19:17

“Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done.”

Reflection: The proverb treats kindness to a poor person as a loan made to the Lord, with the Lord as the one who repays. It names no reward and no time; the promise is that “he will reward them for what they have done.”

Matthew 25:35-36

“For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”

Reflection: The words belong to the King in Jesus’ account of the Son of Man judging “all the nations” (Matthew 25:31-32). The righteous do not remember seeing him in need, and he answers, “whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me” (25:40). The same six needs return in verses 42-43 as what those on his left did not meet.

Philippians 2:1-4

“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.”

Reflection: Paul’s appeal rests on four things the Philippians share, the last “tenderness and compassion.” On that ground he asks them to be “like-minded,” to value “others above yourselves,” and to look each “to the interests of the others.”

Romans 12:15

“Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.”

Reflection: The command sits among short instructions on how believers treat each other and outsiders: the verse before says “Bless those who persecute you,” and the verse after says “be willing to associate with people of low position.” Romans 12:15 asks for both halves, joy shared as well as grief.

Galatians 6:2

“Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.”

Reflection: The verse before speaks of someone “caught in a sin,” whom those “who live by the Spirit should restore” gently, watching themselves meanwhile. Carrying one another’s burdens is called fulfilling “the law of Christ,” and verse 3 warns anyone who “thinks they are something when they are not.”