Thursday: Compassion and Passionate
Daily Lesson for Thursday 23rd of January 2025
The God of the Bible is compassionate and passionate, and these divine emotions are supremely exemplified in Jesus Christ. God is sympathetic (compare with Isaiah 63:9, Hebrews 4:15), deeply affected by the sorrows of His people (Judges 10:16, Luke 19:41), and willing to hear, answer, and comfort (Isaiah 49:10,15; Matthew 9:36; Matthew 14:14).
Read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. In what ways does this passage call us to reflect God’s compassionate and amazing love in our relationships with others?
Image © Review & Herald Publishing from GoodSalt.com
We long to be in relationship with persons who exemplify the kind of love described in 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. But how often do we seek to become this kind of person toward others? We cannot make ourselves long-suffering and kind; we cannot make ourselves not be envious, conceited, rude, or self-seeking. We cannot muster a love in ourselves that “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things,” and “never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:7-8, NKJV). Such love can be exemplified in our lives only as the fruit of the Holy Spirit. And praise God that the Holy Spirit pours the love of God into the hearts of those who, by faith, are in Christ Jesus (Romans 5:5).
By the grace of God and the power of the Holy Spirit, in what practical ways might we respond to, and reflect, God’s profoundly emotional, but always perfectly righteous and rational, love? First, the only appropriate response is to worship the God who is love. Second, we should respond to God’s love by actively showing compassion and benevolent love to others. We should not simply be comforted in our Christian faith but should be motivated to comfort others. Finally, we should recognize that we cannot change our hearts, but that only God can.
So, let us ask God to give us a new heart for Him and for others—a pure and purifying love that elevates what is good and removes the chaff from within.
Let our prayer be: “may the Lord make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all, . . . so that He may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints” (1 Thessalonians 3:12-13, NKJV).
|
Why is a death to self and to the selfishness and corruption of our natural hearts the only way to reveal this kind of love? What are the choices that we can make in order to be able to die this death to self? |
(13)
There are two kinds of research activities. Some people do real research. They get involved in their subject, collect the data, create and test new ideas. These folk wark at the coal face. Then there are the meta-researchers who look at the research done by others and gather statistics about the research of others. They write papers with statements like, "Fifty-four research papers say this ... and seventy-two say that ..., and so on. I am not saying that such research is unnecessary, but they are a couple of steps away from the coal face in terms of fundamental research. They would not exist if nobody did the primary research.
We are in danger of becoming meta-researchers in God's love. There is a whole industry devoted to describing how we should talk about God's love, and we like to tell others that they have not used the right words, or that we should have included this or that idea in our description of God's love. Now some of that is useful and even illuminating but it is at the meta-level - a step away from the experience.
The coal face of God's love is to experience it first-hand. And the reality is that you do not experience love by reading about it. It is not a mystical experience like feeling good after thinking about God's love. It is about physical action. Paul says this:
We experience God's love when others share that love with us. And if we have been the recipients of that love it is our responsibility to pass that love on to others. That is how the Holy Spirit works.
How possibly does God demonstrate his love? God is not passive or distant but exuberant, warm, and highly relational. From the very beginning of creation, God’s passion was very evident. After creating everything, God expressed his passion with delight and said all was “very good” (Genesis 1:31). God created everything out of love, and He was very pleased with the work of his hands. Creating man in his own image was the climax of his passion. Unfortunately, after man sinned, since then God has been pursuing him with great passion for redemption. God is deeply committed to having an intimate relationship with us. God has a great passion for saving all mankind (1 Timothy 2:4, 2 Peter 3:9). This passion was climaxed by sending his only begotten Son to come and save us. God has a boundless passion for a purified people (the Church). He even tells husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the Church (Ephesians 5:25-27).
God is also passionate about His own glory. He desires we should not have any other gods besides Him (Isaiah 48:11, Psalm 115:1). God will never compromise on His glory. He is so passionate about it. He commands in His holy law that there is only ONE God. He alone should be worshipped.
God being a just God, is also very passionate about justice (Isaiah 61:8, Psalm 89:14). He instructs us to treat one another with justice. He longs to see the earth ruled with justice.
According to the Lesson, this is how we should respond to God's love for us:
1. Worship God;
2. Be compassionate towards others;
3. Let God change the heart.
Think about it!
In 1 Cor. 15:31, Paul says that he dies daily. Now certainly that doesn't mean that every day he suffered a heart attack. No, it means that every day he chose to be dead to sin and alive to Christ. He chose to live Galatians 5:16, to live a Holy Spirit empowered life, instead of operating out of the carnal nature, the flesh. If we live empowered by the Holy Spirit day by day, moment by moment, then the deeds of the flesh will be crucified in our life. Our lives will instead exhibit the fruit of the Spirit, because the Holy Spirit is directing and empowering our lives. The part given to us to do is to choose which God we will serve daily. God does the heavy lifting, or pulling. Jesus invites us to yoke up with Him, and discover that life with Him is easier and better than trying to do it on our own. (Matthew 11:29-30)
If we think we can stay neutral we will quickly discover that to not choose, is to choose the default position of the desires (lusts) of the flesh. I want, and we need to change the default position of our minds from carnal to spiritual. This is done by beholding the author and finisher of our faith, Jesus Christ, and day by day, and moment by moment staying yoked up with Jesus. Then we too will be passionate and compassionate for others.
Christianity was never meant to be a do it yourself project, but rather a let's do this together project. This way God gets the glory, and shares with us the joy.
The lesson poses a thought-provoking question: “Why is a death to self and to the selfishness and corruption of our natural hearts the only way to reveal this kind of love?” To be able to reveal this love can be understood in two ways: to recognize it and to express it.
The fruit of the Spirit provides an answer to both. First, it enables us to recognize this Love as being revealed and extended by God to humanity. Second, it allows us to understand that the believer's desire to reveal or express His Love is prompted by His Holy Spirit. In both instances, God's love for humanity is made manifest by His compassioned Spirit.
The second part of the question asks: “What choices can we make to die this death to self?”
When a believer accepts God's compassion and passion — His Grace expressed through love as perceived by the Holy Spirit — it marks the beginning of the journey of sanctification. This process, led by the Holy Spirit and grounded in faith, transforms the believer.
Let us, therefore, open our hearts and minds to the Holy Spirit, allowing Him to reveal God's compassion for humanity. As He leads us to manifest the fruit of His Spirit, we follow Him out of the darkness of this world into His marvelous Light; being saved by His compassioned Grace through faith - Gal 5:22-25.