“Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering.”
Colossians 3:12 (NKJV)
I love how the Amplified Bible renders tender mercies as compassion.
Compassion is simply feeling what other people feel. Not just knowing that someone is going through something, but actually feeling it with them. Compassion is the word that describes Jesus’ instruction to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice (Romans 12:15). The Bible tells us to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6:2), and that is exactly what compassion is.
I feel you
To be clothed with compassion means that when your brother hurts, you hurt too cause we are members of one body. And I know it is easy for us to forget that we are one body (1 Corinthians 12:12–27).
Oh, we remember it when it is time for correction. We remember it when it is time to tell someone they are wrong. We say, “We are one body; if we don’t tell ourselves the truth, who will?” But when it is time to bear the burden of our brother, we are suddenly missing in action. Even when they are walking through deep pain. Instead of mourning with them, we ask questions like, “Is that why you are acting like this?”
I remember the morning my sister passed. After praying for hours, almost half the day, and not allowing them to take her body to the mortuary, I eventually came to the place where I said, maybe this is God’s will. I wrote on my status, “What do you do when God disappoints you?” This was coming right after I had announced that my sister was no longer breathing.
I remember vividly how some ministers reached out to me and said I should never say that. How can I use the word disappoint with God? How do you caution someone in the depths of their grief instead of mourning with them?
The compassion of Christ
When Jesus arrived at the place where they were mourning Lazarus, He had already said earlier, “Our friend Lazarus sleepeth, let us go and wake him” (John 11:11). He knew the end from the beginning. Yet when He saw how they were crying, the Bible says He was moved (John 11:33). He was so compassionate that He wept with them.
That’s not all.
One time when a sick woman was brought to Him and the religious people were murmuring because He wanted to heal her, He said, “Ought not this woman, being a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has bound, be loosed?” (Luke 13:16). When they brought the woman caught in adultery, He said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first” (John 8:7). He bore her burden by placing Himself in her reality.
Remember Prophet Ezekiel. When he witnessed the reality of his captive countrymen, he couldn’t prophesy. He was silent for seven days.
We need to learn to clothe ourselves in the reality of our brethren’s situation, so that we understand things from their perspective.
May we be clothed in compassion.
Prayer
I declare that I am clothed in loving-kindness I am clothed in compassion. I have bowels of empathy. I understand what my brother is going through. I understand what my sister is going through. I understand their pain, their difficulty, and their struggles And in the name of Jesus, I extend compassion to them (Matthew 9:36). Teach me to bear burdens rightly (Galatians 6:2). Teach me to see as You see Teach me to love as You love
In Jesus’ name.
Amen.
Shalom
