Put On Compassionate Hearts

Colossians 3:12-13 gives more practical advice on becoming more like Christ. “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.” We can see here even more about our relationships with other people because how we interact with other people is extremely important in our Christian walk. It’s part of our testimony to the world about the life-changing Gospel and the hope it brings.

These verses once again give us our reason for why we need to do this, and at the risk of sounding repetitive, I’ll say it again: we are to do this because we have been saved, not so that we will be saved. This verse tells us that we are to “put on” these things because we are “God’s chosen ones” and “holy and beloved.” Anyone who’s been reading my blog for a while already knows my whole predestination spiel, so I won’t go on about that here. I’ll simply say that “God’s chosen ones” simply means Christians; it means real, true Christians who are “holy and beloved” by God. Just think of that! This passage talks about being nice and forgiving to people. “But they did this to me!” we say. Well, guess what? We sinned greatly against a God who is perfect and doesn’t deserve to be disrespected, hated, and disobeyed like we do. We are evil by nature (Matt 7:11; Luke 11:13). God is good by nature. And He has forgiven us undeserving Christians for every sin we have committed, are committing, and will commit. We sin constantly. People sin against us sometimes, and it’s not nearly as bad. So why can’t we forgive and be kind to others who don’t deserve it when we really think about the fact that we have done nothing to earn the perfect love and forgiveness of God?

With that little intro in mind, let’s dive in. “Compassionate hearts.” I think this is pretty self-explanatory, especially with the other components in the text. I’ll give two Biblical examples here, the first from Matthew 9:36-38: “When [Jesus] saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

Jesus saw all these people, helpless to save themselves and undeserving of salvation, and felt deep compassion for them. They couldn’t save themselves, only He could do that. So he tells His disciples to pray for them to be saved even though they’ve done nothing to earn it. He’s saying, “There are so many people who need salvation, but so few people to tell them about the Gospel. So pray for people to be saved so we can send them out to bring more people to salvation.” Jesus knew He wouldn’t be on earth forever, and his disciples were few. In order for the Gospel to spread, they needed more people so that it could grow and be passed to the next generation and the next and the next. We can assume the disciples did pray, whether it was now or later, because the Gospel has survived for 2,000 years and has spread to virtually all corners of the world! Jesus asked for prayer for the masses because He loved them and wanted them to be saved, knowing full well they couldn’t do it themselves.

Another passage showing Jesus’ compassion playing out is Mark 8:1-10. I won’t quote the whole passage, but this is the story of Jesus feeding the four thousand men (not counting their wives and children, so the actual number is probably much larger). He has compassion on the people who have been following Him and listening to His teaching for three days without eating any food. He knew they couldn’t make it back to their homes because they are all very hungry and would “faint on the way.” He didn’t want that to happen, not after they’d traveled so far to listen to Him. So he tells His disciples to get the bread and fish and He feeds them all. He loved these people and just gave them food because they were hungry. How great is that? It’s such a simple thing to do coming from the compassionate heart of Jesus.

There’s a very important thing to emphasize here: Colossians 3:12-13 says specifically to have “compassionate hearts,” which I take to mean as this: we should not simply just be compassionate because it’s what we’re supposed to do (though it is), but we should earnestly desire to be compassionate because we want to. Our hearts should long for it. We’ve already talked about sin coming from the heart and manifesting in our actions. That’s the old self, the unsaved self. The new self has genuine, honest compassion in his or her heart manifesting in real, loving action. Jesus, in the passages we just looked at, wasn’t simply compassionate because He was supposed to be. He was compassionate because it was His nature to be, because He really loved these people who needed Him. The verses could have all just said “He saw this so he did this.” No, they go into what He felt. “I have compassion on the crowd” (Mark 8:2). “He had compassion for them” (Matt. 9:36). He loved these people! He wanted to fill their spiritual and physical needs and still wants that today. As His people, shouldn’t we desire the same? Doesn’t God work His plans through His people? So, rather than just begrudgingly and dutifully being nice or something, we should be genuinely compassionate because it’s in our nature to be, because God is compassionate and has made us compassionate. And remember Jesus’ ultimate act of compassion when He died on the cross to pay for our sins. Nothing we can do can measure up to that.

Somehow I expected to cover the entirety of verses 12-13 in one post, but I guess considering my previous posts, it’s not surprising that this is so long already. What's great about this is that I'm learning so much more than I expected through writing this series, and hopefully you're learning too! So next time we’ll talk about kindness. I think I’ll close this out with a great verse from Luke as a reminder to be compassionate:

Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. (Luke 6:36)

Read the rest of this series:

1. Introduction
2. Appearing with Christ in Glory
3. Put Off Sexual Sin
4. Put Off Sins of Anger
5. Obscene Talk
6. As Fits the Occasion
7. Christ is All, and In All (Part 1)
8. Christ is All, and In All (Part 2)
9. Put On Compassionate Hearts

Christ is All, and In All (Part 2)

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these the wrath of God is coming. In these you too once walked, when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.

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. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

(Colossians 3:1-17 ESV)

Well, now that it’s been a good, long while since I last actually updated this series, I figured I may as well work on another part! I hope you stick around for the rest of the series (and maybe look back at old posts if you need to catch up), because there’s still so much to work through!

In my last post, we started on verses 9-11: “Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” We spoke about the lifelong process of being renewed, how this renewal is in knowledge of God’s will and how that is revealed in the Bible, and how we are being made into images of Christ. This is what it truly means to put on the new self, and like I said in the last post, we’ll see more of what that looks like in the rest of this series.

But this verse also shows that the whole idea of the new self is not purely an individual thing. Sure, we are supposed to follow these commands ourselves, and that’s a demonstration of our growing spiritual maturity, but also with our relationships with other believers and how we all affect one another. That’s partially what all the things of the old self dealt with, and that still applies here.

This verse specifically tells us to “not lie to one another.” Well that’s pretty obvious. There’s a commandment on that that literally everyone knows. That’s pretty simple, right?

Well, since I’m writing about this, you’ve probably already realized there’s more to it. Or rather, there’s a couple of reasons not to lie to each other besides the fact that it’s not nice (which it isn’t).

First off, let’s go to the one that sounds dark and scary. Lying is another practice of the old self, and the Bible calls Satan “a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44). So if we’re lying, we’re following the practices of Satan. That’s enough reason not to lie by itself, isn’t it? No Christian should be following the practices of Satan.

But there’s another reason not to lie. Let’s go to Ephesians 4:25. “Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” So obviously this verse says we should “put away falsehood.” Again, that’s pretty simple. But then the verse gives us the reason: “for we are members of one another.” The reason we aren’t supposed to lie to one another is because we are all one body!

Well, what’s the big deal about that? Let’s go back to Ephesians 4:15-16. “Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.” That’s a lot of words, so I’ll give you the basic idea here. As one body, we are all one structure with a mission: to bring the Gospel to the world. The church is supposed to “build itself up in love” so that it can be effective in this mission. This building up is done “when each part is working properly.” And this body is “joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped,” that is to say, every believer in the church. So if we’re lying to each other all the time, we aren’t working properly. We have defective joints. The structure is weak, it can’t build itself up properly. As a result, we are ineffective in our mission to bring the Gospel into the world! We need to be truthful to one another, even when it hurts, because when we are truthful, we can all grow together.

There’s one last part to this whole “being one body” thing. Our being one body is not by anything we do. It’s because Christ has saved us. “Here there is not Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, free; but Christ is all, and in all.” Back in those days (and in our days) regular life was full of racism. Jews hated Gentiles, Greeks hated everything and everyone not Greek, etc. But in Christ, we’re all one body. Those racial, physical aspects don’t mean anything anymore, at least when it comes to how we treat one another! I mean sure, maybe someone who’s big and strong is more able to help lift heavy things than someone who isn’t, but that doesn’t mean we treat the one who can’t any better or worse than the one who can. I knew a guy in a wheelchair who was convinced that everyone, including people at the church, was condescending to him because of his disability. The unfortunate thing is that in some cases it was probably true. And that shouldn’t be, especially in the church. We are all one body, we are all part of each other, united in Christ. And it’s only when we are united that we can be fully effective in our mission.

Read the rest of this series:

1. Introduction
2. Appearing with Christ in Glory
3. Put Off Sexual Sin
4. Put Off Sins of Anger
5. Obscene Talk
6. As Fits the Occasion
7. Christ is All, and In All (Part 1)
8. Christ is All, and In All (Part 2)
9. Put On Compassionate Hearts

Jesus' Birth (And Why It's Important)

Well folks, it's that time of year again. And we can no longer avoid this.

It's the obligatory Christmastime post!

Ah, Christmastime. A time when we celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, born in Bethlehem to a virgin and an adoptive father. We often realize this, even in the midst of all the stress that comes from draining our bank accounts on presents, slipping and falling off of rooftops to put up decorations, and dealing with those family members from obscure parts of the world who you forget exist and don't even like. But I wonder: do we often think of why Jesus' birth is so important?

And now you understand the obviously unclear blog title.

It's a simple question. And the answer is very well expressed by an old Christmas song, God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen:

God rest ye merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay
Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day
To save us all from Satan's power as we were gone astray
Oh, tidings of comfort and joy!

Jesus Christ, the Creator God, was born into this earth. While this in itself is a miracle, the greatest miracle came when He lived a perfect live, preached the Word of God, suffered and died in our place for our sins and rose again. What the greatest miracle is is that He reconciled us sinful human beings to the God of the universe when we couldn't do it ourselves. And that, my friends, is the true meaning of Christmas.

This is a short post, but I just wanted to mention this to get people thinking about it. So, this Christmas, remember to praise Jesus not only for being born, but for His life and death and resurrection. Merry Christmas, all!

A Response to One of Jon's Sermons, "Abide"

I should note right now that this is not a rebuke, a refutation, or any kind of response like that, nor is it an addendum, because honestly I agreed with everything Pastor Jon had to say and I think he said everything there was to say.

Anyway, I literally just finished listening to this sermon, mainly because two weeks ago my wife said it was really good and I should listen to it. After hearing her description (which involved the words "You can't be part of five Bible studies because that's just dumb and you can't apply all that to your life, etc..."), I wondered if it was subtly her trying to get me to listen because I needed to learn something. I also worried that the sermon would go to the other extreme of no Bible study at all because it's a waste of time. Thankfully it didn't do that. It turned out to be a very practical sermon about how the Bible is meant to save and to equip us with what we need to be on mission (a term I hear all the time used in many different ways that probably aren't all correct).

My regular readers (a rare bunch indeed) will know that I love the Bible and that I talk about Bible study a lot. They may recall my many posts about reading the Bible, studying the Bible, and even the Bible studies I've written out on this blog. But I can't help but feel like I may have neglected a few things, or that perhaps when Jon talked about people going to too many Bible studies, someone (my wife maybe) may have thought of me. (Although to be honest, I have yet to actually find even one decent Bible study in Thurston County to go to that fits with my school schedule, and I certainly would not go to five.)

The reason I talk so much about Bible study is because no one actually reads their Bible anymore. You have no idea (well, you might actually) how many Christians I know who have Bibles and never open them except on Sunday. I'm not angry about it, just sad.

Why is this even an issue? Why do I care so much? Jon mentioned a verse, one of my favorites, 2 Timothy 3:16-17: "All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be competent, equipped for every good work." (If that sounds different than what Jon said, it's because I'm using the English Standard Version of the Bible and I'm pretty sure he uses the NIV). I'd personally never thought about the fact that the training and reproof and whatnot aren't the point. They are the means through which we are equipped to do the good work of spreading the Gospel. So it follows that, if we don't read the Bible, we aren't taught, reproved, corrected and trained to do the work. We are supposed to do it of course. But the Bible is God's means to teach us how. It's how He corrects and reproves us so that we can not only say we are Christians, but actually live out a Spirit-filled life. That life is the evidence to people that there is something that has changed us, a reason for our hope and joy. God uses the Bible to convict us of sin so that we will avoid sin in our lives. Avoiding those sins shows that there's something different about you. The Bible is how we know what needs to be done for people to be saved!

Another reason I talk so much about Bible study is because without the Bible, Christians are weak. So many Christians are spiritual infants although they've been saved for years. They are deceived by false teachers, "tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine" (Eph. 4:14), and long for spiritual milk rather than real, solid food (Heb. 5:12-14). In a world full of deception and lies, where even the church itself is full of false doctrines and teachings that are un-Godly and un-Biblical, we need to be strong. We need to be able to distinguish good from evil. We need powers of discernment. That's actually why I started reading. I don't want to be deceived. I want to teach my wife and kids so that they aren't deceived either. When we aren't deceived, we're more effective in evangelism in my opinion. There's a such thing as just reading and not being effective, but to be more effective, we need to know the Bible.

But what about those who use the Bible to advance bad things, like killing God? Jon mentioned that too. That's why we need good Bible teachers, which are a tragic rarity in the world now. Even Timothy had a teacher (2 Tim 3:14). I'd personally recommend John MacArthur or John Piper. I'd also recommend Jon Needham (clearly all the good pastors are named John in some spelling or another), although since everyone who reads this probably already goes to Coram Deo, you already probably listen to him. You don't need to listen to all of them, mind you. But if you have no idea where to find good teaching, those are good, Godly people who you really can't go wrong with. And obviously just listening to sermons is not being on mission (again with the Jon reference). But it is good to have a good, Biblical, Godly teacher to go to.

So yeah. I just really wanted to write a response to that sermon. Again, I'm not trying to add anything to it, because frankly it's spot on. I just wanted to share my view, and why I care so much that people actually read the Word of God and grow and become effective. And it's not that I am (oh no I am not). I'm growing too. I'm still learning how to talk about Jesus and salvation to people. But if I want to be able to speak the Word of God into people's lives, I'd better know it, right?

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. (Romans 10:14-17)