Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.” (Matthew 25:34-40)

You will notice that Jesus didn’t tell us why these people were sick, imprisoned, naked, hungry, or thirsty because He knew that compassion with strings attached was not compassion at all. I personally used to be very conflicted about giving money to homeless people because I was concerned they would end up buying drugs or alcohol. I had tied conditional mental strings to my charitable act. It is the beauty of sincere, unconditional giving that defines true compassion, not the ledger of its proper use. I want to make it clear that I am not encouraging careless giving. We clearly need to direct others away from their self-destructive behavior, but we need to make sure our acts of kindness are free of the red tape of pride. Jesus couldn’t guarantee that we wouldn’t use His salvation gift to score another sinful high, but that didn’t stop Him from offering the greatest gift of all to mankind. Jesus died for us while we were still sinners so we need to have that same mind when we serve others. If we are to be Christ-like, we need to swallow our righteous pride and conclude our acts of kindness with the benediction, “Forgive them for they know not what they do.” We must care for frogs because the Prince of Peace may be a mere kiss of compassion away.