C IS FOR COMPASSION
FAMILY MATTERS
November 2011
THE TWELVE C’S OF LOVE:
1 Corinthians 13 and More…
C IS FOR COMPASSION
Introduction
We all have our personal definition of what love is and how it is to operate but what is there that can serve us as an objective definition by which we may affirm or change our own? That is the reason behind why God gave us 1 Corinthians 13: it is a living example of how He defines it. Until we are able to accept and seek to live out His definition, then, and only then, are we in reality about understanding it. The One who is Love has to define it for us.
The King James Version of the New Testament used the word “charity” for this passage but that word has undergone a redefining because of its use in our culture as an act of charity. Both the Greek and the Aramaic make use of love – a God-love – based in the concept of “agape.” It is not a mere human love; it is divine in its Source and in its understanding.
You can read 1 Corinthians 13 and substitute the name of Jesus for the word love. Try it and see how it flows. Jesus is God’s definition of what His love is like in action and in essence. He defines it for us when He tells us He is the Good Shepherd and the Good Shepherd actually dies for His sheep. 1 John also defines it this way. Compassion is a love which is willing to give itself away for the sake of another. It also does it with no questions asked. It sees the other as worth dying for.
Marriage and family life thrive on such compassion. We are in the relationship for the sake of the others in it. We act toward them out of our compassion for their well-being. How we act toward them is born out of this compassion alone We are there for them. We are in it for them. God is empowering us to give ourselves away for their benefit. We are life-gifting them. All those living within such a relationship are blessed of God beyond measure.
The real test of compassion is in how it gives itself away for the sake of the other. Our giving is prompted by our love and our love is prompted by His love for us. Doing it for any other reason is not enough, for it is in giving for their benefit that the giving proves itself to be of Him. It is following and fulfilling His example.
A great example of such a love in action can be found in Mark 1 when Jesus is confronted by a leper. A leper represents a human being in great need who is totally repugnant to human nature and life’s sensibilities. We don’t have to be told to run the other way. But what does Jesus do? He embraced him. He receives him as an equal, and He demonstrates how God loves him. Then He healed him. He knew the man’s deep inner need beyond that of the body alone, and He reaches out in love to meet his full need.
Another example is with the Prodigal when the father sees him heading home, sick, broken, and at the end of his rope. He runs to embrace him, showers him with a father’s affection, and announces to the world, “This is my son who was dead but is alive again…!” Can you imagine such a reception in being welcomed home without being told how rotten you are?
Still another example is when Jesus was being crucified and He prays for the Father to forgive them for what they are doing to Him. That’s not exactly when they heard from the two who were crucified with Him.
And another one is when Christ dies for the sins of the world when most will never accept Him and others will trample His gift as if it means nothing. Yet He did it for them just in case they ever change their minds and seek Him and His saving grace sometime down life’s road. Didn’t He die for you and me while we were still sinners? While we were still His enemies?
How this challenges us when it comes to our expectations of our partners and kids. How we want them to be toward us and what we expect from them?
What are the expectations we place on others? We want others to be cleansed and healed before we are asked to embrace them. To have the Prodigal pay for the pain he has caused and the embarrassment and shame created and then maybe he might be forgiven. Hell would not be hot enough for one who betrays us much less nails us to a cross.
What does God expect of them and of us? He expects them to allow His love to save them and His grace to transform them so He can share His peace and eternal life with them in His Name. He is thrilled to embrace them and to call them His own. They may have disappointed Him but He is not about to disappoint them. He welcomes them Home!
Are we putting our stuff on them or seeking God’s stuff for them? That is how love operates. It knows the leper’s true need, the Prodigal’s full potential, and the pain to be suffered by those who offend us for whatever reason. And it responds with the deepest joys of Heaven in welcoming another Home.
We want them to be better kids but maybe God wants us to be better parents and then they will become better kids. We want others to be loving toward us but maybe we need to be more loving toward them. Compassion does not wait around for others to respond or act; it acts as God would and leaves the results up to Him.
1. Compassion sees the big picture…
and acts accordingly
It deals with eternal values and hopes…and works within the present context with eternal values in view. This allows it to see the ending from the beginning…hope moved toward fulfillment. It envisions what can and needs to be and moves toward that goal in hope and joy.
2. Compassion seeks the mind of Christ…
and allows it to control its own thinking
It has a worldview based on possessing the mind of Christ. This means that God’s agenda supercedes their own. Thinking His thoughts after Him and for Him lads into the fulfilling of His will in His way.
3. Compassion seeks the will of God for itself…
regardless of the price to be paid
Doing His will pleasures Him and all who follow Him. us. It knows by faith that His will is the best we could ever achieve. Its truth in Him allows it to abandon itself to the doing of His will, knowing the is the best that could ever be achieved.
4. Compassion holds nothing back…
it knows how to give itself away…giving its all
It is never in it for itself, therefore it has nothing to lose by giving its all in His Name. As John the Baptist understood, “He must increase and I must decrease.” It is in it for Him and for the others. To this end it gives its all.
5. Compassion is its own reward…
it rejoices in its own being and doing…
it is of God and experiences God in the process of giving itself away.
Its joy is in knowing what all this means to God. It pleasures Him, and what pleasures Him is a joy to the child being faithful to Him. It experienced God in the process and in the outcome and this makes it all worthwhile and filled with joy.
6. Compassion never gives up or in or out…
it prevails, it renews, it gives its all
Love never runs out of steam for its Source is in God alone, and it cannot give out or up. The giving of its all is how it is put together. When God is the Source of its very being, it partakes of things eternal.
7. Compassion seeks to glorify God…
because it loves Him with all its being
Loving is never an end in itself…it is for His glory. Human love may be self-serving, but divine love is not. Like Jesus, it is committed to the one being loved and to the One who is the One calling us to love as He loves us. If God is glorified, then it is how it needs to be.
8. Compassion is His love being realized…
and shared to the glory of God
Loving with His love is the greatest achievement possible. At the same time it is the greatest privilege possible. What His love is channeled through us, we find our life’s purpose and mission being fulfilled. Now we know of a certainty He is in it.
9. Compassion is over-mastering…
it takes over because it gives total control to the Lord of its life
It tells us Who is in control and why…it raises us up to where we could never go or be apart from Him. We know He is in it and it is pleasing to Him for in His control there is peace and joy. Because it overmasters us, it carries us far beyond our own limitations.
10. Compassion knows no limits…
there is never a time not to love…
it would never think in terms of time or costs or limits…
it just goes on giving
His love is complete and unending…and ours is to be of the same. There is none He does not love…and that becomes our challenge in Him. The Cross demonstrates its unlimitedness. There os a cross for us to bear as well.
Conclusion:
Compassion knows how to relate…and Christ is the Example. Everyone whom Jesus encountered knew exactly where they stood with Him. He had one way of relating. It was in love.
It knows when and why to relate…and His Holy Spirit is its Guide and Enablement. With the woman at the well who understood her self-condemnation, He accepted her and affirmed her and convinced her of God’s love. That is when forgiveness healing became real to her.
It is life-giving in its relating…for the love-gifting is of Him. Jesus gave of Himself to all in need, and He did it in ways that met their deepest need as well as an eternal one. They knew God had encountered them in Him.
It is Godly to the core…for He is its true Source. With Him there was never a question of motive. He was there for them, and acting on their behalf. Like the rich young man they might walk away, but they did it knowing they had seen the Way, the Truth, and the Life.
It honors God in every way…for that is the true nature of God-love. When God-love is present, lives are changed and challenged. They knew they were in the presence of Heaven itself. This love is not from below; it is indeed life from Above.
It gives life and light and hope to all who receive it…because He is in it. Paul reminds us in Ephesians 1 that we are “blessed with all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus.” To be possessed of His love is to have it all. There is no holding back on God’s part.
The greatest gift of all is one’s compassion…and all who receive it know He is in it. Being loved like that transforms something within us. We can never be the same ever again. And it makes such a difference we cannot escape experiencing God within it.
The world is dying for want of such a love…and we are commissioned to share it.
Dr. Emil J. Authelet
NEXT MONTH:
C IS FOR CELEBRATION
