📖 Biblical Definition
"Bowels" — the KJV’s favored translation of the Hebrew meʿim and the Greek splanchnon — names the seat of compassion, mercy, and tender affection. It is the somatic theology of love: deep feeling is located in the gut, not the head. "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering" (Colossians 3:12). Christ was repeatedly "moved with compassion" — the Greek esplagchnisthe, literally "moved in His bowels" — whenever He saw a crowd, a leper, a widow, a need (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; Mark 1:41; Luke 7:13). Modern English has lost the word; modern hearts have often lost the thing. Recover both.
📜 Webster 1828 Definition
BOW'ELS, n.
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1. The intestines of an animal; the entrails. 2. Figuratively, the heart, the seat of pity or kindness; hence, tenderness, compassion. Bowels of mercy, scripture phrase for tender affections.
📖 Key Scripture
Colossians 3:12 — "Put on therefore, as the elect of God... bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering."
1 John 3:17 — "Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"
Philippians 1:8 — "God is my record, how greatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ."
Matthew 9:36 — "When he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them."
⚠️ Modern Corruption
Modern Christianity calls compassion an opinion; Scripture locates it in the gut.
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The biblical anatomy of compassion is somatic, not abstract. Christ's compassion in the Gospels is not a philosophical position; the verb describes a visceral movement in His core. The same is asked of the saint: 1 John 3:17 says the believer who sees need and shutteth up his bowels of compassion does not have the love of God in him. The test is not opinion; it is response.
Modern Christianity often substitutes opinion for compassion. We feel sympathy at a distance, post about it, and move on. Bowels-of-mercies theology is closer in. Open the wallet. Open the home. Open the schedule. Open the bowels. The love of God dwells in the saint who responds with the gut, not just the head.
🔗 Greek & Hebrew Roots
Hebrew meʾah (H4578); Greek splagchna (G4698).
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H4578 — meah — bowels, inward parts
G4698 — splagchna — bowels; deep affections
G4697 — splagchnizomai — to be moved with compassion
Usage
"Modern Christianity calls compassion an opinion; Scripture locates it in the gut."
"1 John 3:17 tests love by response, not opinion."
"Open the wallet. Open the home. Open the bowels."