Compassion

I’ve been preparing for our small group study. We will be studying Paul’s letter to the Colossians. The whole letter speaks to me at various levels but Colossians 3:12 really snagged me.

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves
with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.”

I could write a lengthy summary of this verse but I don’t want to lose you. The thing that really spoke to me is “compassion” and this idea of “clothing yourself”. What does it mean? Well, clothe is a verb which means it requires action. Webster defines clothe as “to cover with” or “to provide with”. Paul is saying to us, cover yourself with compassion. Just as you would dress yourself you are to take action and be compassionate. It is something you do, not something you are.

So what then is compassion?

Webster defines compassion as “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress
together with a desire to alleviate it”.

Wow, that means we don’t just sit around and feel sorry for the unsaved, for the poor, for widows, for orphans or for any other ungodly injustice. We do something about it.

And there is the problem. It’s the doing! As believers we have received the greatest gift of all; grace.

Ephesians 2:8-9 says “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith
– and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no
one can boast”. But James 2:19 & 20 points out “…Show me your faith
without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do…You foolish man, do you
want evidence that faith without deeds is useless?”

We are saved by faith alone but it is not a faith that is alone. Faith leads to deeds (works). Compassion isn’t what we feel, it’s what we do. Believer, who will you show compassion today? I implore you to do something with your faith. Don’t keep it to yourself. That’s called greed. We all need to break out of our worldly cocoon and act.