Resources to Help You Meditate
Resources to Help You Meditate
What Does It Look Like to “Put on” Compassionate Hearts?
Kindness, Mercy, Compassion
Paul knew of the love of God before he encountered the risen Jesus, as did anyone who read the Old Testament. The earliest and most complete words about God are, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, . . . ” (Ex. 34:6–7). But when this divine self-revelation stood firm through the Hebrews’ interminable spiritual adulteries and was then condensed into the person of Jesus, God’s love became the organizing center of life, and our imitation of that love became thick and rich. Paul’s list in Colossians 3 captures much of it: “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
I will look at compassion. Yet compassion’s close neighbors—kindness and mercy—deserve mention. Kindness is our active response to God’s kindness and can appear apart from any particular occasion. The one who receives kindness may have been kind or unkind, problem-free or suffering. Kindness is first thoughtful and then acts. I immediately think of a couple from our church who came over for dinner on a December evening, carrying a large, wrapped box, which turned out to be a new coat for my wife. They knew she had a coat hanging in the closet that would keep her warm enough. They also knew it was showing its age, and we were not in a position to replace it. We are still inspired by their expression of love.
Caring for One Another
Edward T. Welch
Edward T. Welch guides small groups through 8 lessons aimed at helping ordinary Christians create a community where people bear one another’s burdens and care for each other in times of trouble.
Mercy, too, is our response to God. He shows you mercy, then you show mercy. If we have been sinned against, we treat people in a way that their sins do not deserve. “Mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). When we see misery around us, it catches our attention, and we act to relieve it. In the Old Testament, mercy is almost exclusively about God’s ways toward his people. When the Spirit is given, mercy identifies God’s people.
Compassion shares features with mercy and kindness. It is a response to God’s compassion, and it prefers to act. God’s compassion sees human infirmity, physical needs (Matt. 15:32), and oppression (Matt. 9:36). It is most glorious when he responds with compassion to those who have turned away from him and are being overtaken by the resulting darkness. What distinguishes compassion is its intensity. It is a heart moved to the very depths, and it is on a mission. It is the heart of a mother for her nursing child, the heart of a good father who watches over his children (1 Thess. 2:7, 11). God’s words in the book of Hosea convey this intensity. Do the rebellious people think he will treat them like he did Sodom and rain fire on them? An ordinary god would, but not the Holy One.
How can I give you up, O Ephraim? How can I hand you over, O Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I treat you like Zeboiim? My heart recoils within me; my compassion grows warm and tender. I will not execute my burning anger; I will not again destroy Ephraim; for I am God and not a man, the Holy One in your midst, and I will not come in wrath. (Hos. 11:8–9)
A human spouse might wisely leave an incorrigible liar and betrayer. God, instead, is moved in ways that can barely be expressed. His desire goes deep into his bones. He feels it.
The Good Samaritan
This brings new depths to the story of the good Samaritan. He was, indeed, kind. And he was merciful. But, even more, he loved deeply from the heart. “But a Samaritan . . . had compassion” (Luke 10:33, 15:20).
I recently went with my wife’s family to visit a brother who must live in a care home. When we walked in, he noticed us, and his face showed emotions that we thought were no longer possible as he announced, “My family!” At that, the two women among us cried. Their love was palpable, responding both to their brother’s present condition and his momentary awareness of people he loved and who loved him. They felt it. Then, of course, they had to do something, so we took their brother out for lunch, bought him some Christmas presents, and had the longest of goodbyes. The two who cried continue to pray for him every day.
He is the compassionate God. He keeps you on his heart, once and for all, and is happy to keep telling you such things.
Weeping is often compassion’s signature. Find compassion in Jesus’s response to a hard-hearted Jerusalem: “And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it” (Luke 19:41). Paul responds in a similar way to the Corinthians: “For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you” (2 Cor. 2:4). Paul also writes to us all when he said, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom. 12:15).
Even if you are not a crier, you can probably remember a moment when your compassion was aroused. Perhaps you lost a parent when you were young. You meet an eleven-year-old girl who has just lost her mother, and you feel undone for her.
Paul writes, “You are in our hearts” (2 Cor. 7:3). Compassion identifies something deep within the person, and there is no place deeper than the heart. There, the other person remains and is remembered. In certain relationships, it asks for the depth of feeling to be returned.
We have spoken freely to you, Corinthians; our heart is wide open. You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections. In return (I speak as to children), widen your hearts also. (2 Cor. 6:11–13).
In this passage, Paul stretches the reach of compassion from family members—“children”—to dear friends. In these relationships, we speak openly and love deeply. Weeping is quite fitting. At David and Jonathan’s parting moment, “they kissed one another and wept with one another, David weeping the most” (1 Sam. 20:41). Paul writes to Timothy, his dear companion, “I remember you constantly in my prayers night and day. As I remember your tears, I long to see you, that I may be filled with joy” (2 Tim. 1:4).
Grow in Compassion
How can we respond? First, consider the compassion of God to you. If you have been forgotten and shamed, or old sins still stir up guilt, you may be prone to sterilize his words of kindness and mercy—God, perhaps, is nice and tolerates you, barely. Compassion, however, will not be scrubbed of its intensity. He is the compassionate God. He keeps you on his heart, once and for all, and is happy to keep telling you such things. He is free with his love because Christ, through his death, has brought you to God.
Then, you take small steps. The apostle Peter writes to a church that has been sincere in its love, and then he invites them further in, “love one another deeply, from the heart” (1 Pet. 1:22). That is, love as God loves you. This means we can grow in compassion. It begins by opening a bit more space in your heart for the person to whom you are talking, or the person you hope to pursue after church, ears attuned to what is especially important to that person—what is on their heart—so you can have them on your heart. Then, you do something. You remember, you pray, you send a text. You open more room for the child in front of you, or the spouse, or the neighbor, and insist that the Spirit gives you what Peter asked of us, to love deeply, from the heart. That is the heart of compassion.
Edward T. Welch is the author of Caring for One Another: 8 Ways to Cultivate Meaningful Relationships.
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