Irina-Georeta Timofelov-Tudose and Cornelia Mairean go to great lengths to detail compassion within their joint article, Workplace humor, compassion, and professional quality of life among medical staff. They go on to describe compassion as the emotional fulfilment one gets from caring for others (Timofelov-Tudose, Mairean, 2023).
The Christian worldview ranks compassion as a virtue of God, and thus an ideal that needs met by man. It is believed, through this spiritual lens, that God has instilled His image within each person leaving them with an innate knowledge of right and wrong, as well as wisdom, the ability to make a living, forgive, extend mercy, and show compassion.
Though atheism allows each person to assign and define purpose for their own respective life, theism, and thus Christianity, assigns the purpose of each person’s existence to God’s character, meaning God is whole, perfect, and our purpose is solely to serve and love Him and live in the mirror of His image. Scripture reveals God’s character in many ways and lays a foundational roadmap for followers to learn, live by and form a covenant with God.
Timofelov-Tudose and Mairean discuss the defining components of compassion in their article, including kindness, common humanity, mindfulness, and indifference (Timofelov-Tudose, Mairean, 2023). Galatians 5:22-23 states, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” The fruit that is discussed in this verse, are innate and ideal virtues that God wishes us to keep and possess. It is commonly discussed in chapter 1 of … that God issued commands in His Word, which can be referred to as moral laws, the moral compass or framework for which people know is right or wrong. Galatians 5:22-23 ends with “…against things there is no law” (English standard version bible, 2001, Galatians 5:22-23) which may mean the fruits of spirit fall under the will of man and not under the moral laws God has detailed in scripture. If this is true, acting and living with compassion requires a close relationship and participation in the covenant man has made with God. Man’s spirit is an extension of God (Bogue, Hogan, 2022) and so, it would be assumed that the fruits of the spirit are the characteristics man must strive for to live in His image.
When practicing medicine, and remaining true to the Christian beliefs, one may believe that acting compassionately toward others is a way of honoring God and embodying His character. Humans were created to channel the virtues of God (Bogue, Hogan, 2022), compassion being an essential and innate virtue.
Bogue, D.W., Hogan, M. (2022). chapter 1: Foundational issues in Christian spirituality and ethics. (In Practicing Dignity: An Introduction to Christian values and decision-making in health care). URL: Grand Canyon University – Digital Resources (gcumedia.com)
English Standard Version Bible. 2001. Crossway. Galatians 5 | ESV.org
Timofelov-Tudose I.G, Mairean. C. 2023. Workplace humor, compassion, and professional quality of life among medical staff. Workplace humour, compassion, and professional quality of life among medica…: GCU Library Resources – All Subjects.. (oclc.org)
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