Compassion is an individual mandate given in the New Testament. The New Testament is the covenant given to individuals to bring them back to God. In contrast, The Old Testament is the covenant given to nations to guide them in the path of justice, law and duty.
To embrace the mercy of the New Testament and ignore the justice of the Old Testament is to receive a squishy, mushy form of Christianity that has no spine to stand on its own. In this instance, mercy and tolerance become the watchwords that guide day-to-day interactions in an increasingly selfish world. Evil is tolerated because judgment is intolerant.
How quickly man forgets that law was given to guide man in the path that he should go. If there is no law, there is no punishment. If there is no punishment, there is no fear of doing wickedly, and men go according to their own hungers. Lawless men do not moderate themselves, and they do not set expectations for those around them to behave moderately.
Without the law to govern life, compassion may be easily swayed by the tides of public sentiment. Each individual must, therefore, obey the given Law, and require that representative government do the same.
The Law was given to establish a system of government where justice prevails. An individual rendering of the Law established more and more systems to create obedience. Down through the years, this expansion of simple law resulted in the New Testament Scribes and Pharisees, who touted their own righteousness through obedience to the complex system.
New Testament is for individuals. Old Testament is for nations. The nation is not required to conform to the individual mandate of compassion and loving our neighbors - that is the duty of every follower of Christ in their daily walk through life.
Governments at every level are required to administer the law in justice and equity and to preserve freedom

A version of this article was published on Thoroughfare of Freedom (http://thoroughfareoffreedom.blogspot.com)