Colossians 3:12 "Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."
No matter what age you are and no matter what your circumstance or situation, as a Christian, you have within you the capability for compassion.
When we are indwelled by the Holy Spirit at the point of salvation, one of the by-products of becoming a Christian is the objective opportunity to see things as Jesus sees them. When we are able to see things like Jesus sees them, then we will experience compassion.
One of the best illustrations of compassion in the Bible is when Jesus looked at Jerusalem and wanted to gather everyone like a mother hen gathers her chicks. Jesus sees everything the way His Father sees it. Also, Jesus sees everybody the way His Father sees them. In order to experience compassion, especially for others, we must be able to think about how Jesus feels instead of how we feel.
Being compassionate is not always easy. The three absolutely essential ingredients for compassion are Objectivity, Empathy and Unconditional Love. Let me define those three words in terms that will help everyone understand them.
1. Objectivity happens when we get out of the way, when what we see is not about us, and when we think first about God’s view before our own.
2. Empathy happens when we objectively feel someone else’s concerns, while minimizing our own feelings.
3. Unconditional Love happens when we love like Jesus loves, with a love that is pure, unselfish, and righteous.
The key to compassion is to act upon His perspective. To see compassionately, feel compassionately, and think compassionately is only glorifying to God when we act or respond compassionately. For example, when someone is hurt, if we see, feel and think without speaking or touching or responding in some way, we have not displayed compassion. When we kiss the “owie” or say the comforting words or send the note of compassion or send the text, then we’ve expressed compassion.
Jesus showed His compassion for us when He gave His life for our sins. He put everyone else first and with perfect objectivity, absolute empathy, and unconditional love. We cannot be perfect about this, but we certainly can try harder. Whenever anyone in God’s family shows another family member compassion, we should praise God. We live in a very un compassionate world at times. Doing unto others what Jesus would do unto them would be very, very compassionate. There is so much more we could do, if we only cared as much, took the time, and followed through with acts of kindness like Him.
Let’s have a compassion contest and see who can be the most sincerely compassionate. God will be rooting for you and, after all Jesus showed us how.
Compassionately yours, Pastor Fred
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