Colossians 3:12-14 - “Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.”

The guy had listened to me talk during several sessions at a pastors’ conference…Toward the end of the week, he decided to drink a cup of coffee with me and risk saying it straight. It went something like this: “You don’t fit. You’ve got the roots of a fundamentalist, but you don’t sound like it. Your theology is narrow, but you’re not rigid. You take God seriously, but you laugh like there’s no tomorrow. You have definite convictions, but you aren’t legalistic and demanding.” Then he added: “Even though you’re a firm believer in the Bible, you’re still having fun, still enjoying life. You’ve even got some compassion!”

“You’ve even got some compassion!” Like, if you’re committed to the truth of Scripture, you shouldn’t get that concerned about people stuff-heartaches, hunger, illness, fractured lives, insecurities, failures, and grief-because those are only temporal problems. Mere horizontal hassles. Leave that to others. Our main job is to give ‘em “the gospel.”

Isn’t there an all too familiar trend that the more conservative one becomes, the less compassionate? I want to know why. Why either-or? Why not both-and? I’d also like to know when we departed from the biblical model. When did we begin to ignore Christ’s care for the needy?

Maybe it was when we realized that one is much easier than the other. It’s also faster. When you don’t concern yourself with being your brother’s keeper, you don’t have to get dirty or take risks or lose your objectivity or run up against the thorny side of an issue that lacks easy answers.

If you really want to live, choose compassion over head knowledge. We need both, but in the right order. Come on, let’s break the mold and surprise ‘em. That’s exactly what Jesus did with you and me and a whole bunch of other sinners who deserved and expected a full dose of condemnation, but got compassion instead. Others won’t care how much we know until they know how much we care.
(From Chuck Swindoll’s devotional Day by Day with edits.)

Today let us come to our Lord who chose us and has shown us his “like a mother, like a father” compassions. Let’s pray for our churches that he would let his holiness and “dearly loving us”  be known more fully in us and through us.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vx9Xe8RA6Pk

-AP