Focal Passage for 2010:
“And above all things have fervent love for one another, for love will cover a multitude of sins.” 1 Peter 4:8 (NKJV)
Weekly Passage:
“And be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.” Ephesians 4:32
This year, we are on a journey to learn to love as Christ loves. This week’s focal passage is Ephesians 4:32. We will be spending the next couple of weeks taking this verse apart and studying each portion of God’s command. Last week, we explored Scripture to learn what it means to be “kind”. This week, we will focus on “being tender-hearted.” “Tender-hearted” in this verse means compassionate. What does Scripture tells us about being compassionate? Turn to James 5:11 “Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord-that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.”
Now, this may seem like a strange verse to use to demonstrate compassion. This verse talks about perseverance and recounts the suffering of Job as an example of God’s compassion and mercy. Yet, the deeper we look into the truth of God’s Word, the more we begin to understand that the world’s definition of compassion and God’s definition of compassion are completely different! The world’s system teaches us to be independent thinkers. The world system supports the philosophy that man can be his/her own god and determine his/her destiny. But God’s Word is very clear that God alone established the foundations of this universe and HE alone is sovereign. No matter what we think, believe, hope, or expect, God is on the throne and EVERYTHING works according to His perfect will. In order for us to appropriately demonstrate compassion in a way that honors and glorifies the Lord, we must seek the Lord God and allow Him to teach us through His Word what HE expects from a compassionate heart!!
The Scholastic Pocket Dictionary defines compassion as “a desire to help someone who is suffering” (p.98). Yet, in James 5:11, God’s Word implies that the Lord’s allowance of Job’s suffering was a sign of God’s compassion. How can this be? Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.” 1 Corinthians 1:18 “For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.” How was God compassionate and merciful in His allowance of Job’s suffering?
In Job 1, we see the conversation between Satan and the Lord God. Before Satan can do anything to Job, he must first get permission from the Lord. In His allowance of suffering in Job’s life, the Lord God reveals more of Himself to us!! God is compassionate because HE alone sees our deepest need and HE alone fills that need. If we fast-forward to chapters 37-40 in the book of Job, we will see this compassion revealed. In chapter 37, Job questions the Lord as to why HE had allowed him to suffer. In chapter 38-39, the Lord gives Job an answer. Now, it is not the answer Job was looking for BUT it was the answer that Job NEEDED!!!
What did God reveal to Job?
•God laid the foundations of the earth
•God determined the earth’s measurements
•God alone fastened the earth to its foundations and laid its cornerstone
•God set the boundaries to the sea and determined where they would flow
•God made the clouds and gave them their purpose
•God gives the dawn its time and darkness its place
•God alone has power over life and death and has appointed each person’s days
•God created light
•God created the seasons and made each element with a specific and unique purpose
•God has given a thunderbolt its path
•And causes the rain to fall
•God has power over all the elements of the universe and each one obeys His voice
•God gives wisdom and allows man to have intellectual thought and reasoning
•God provides for each and every animal and knows when a new creature is born
•God guides the birds of the air and the beast of the fields
How did Job respond to God’s revelation?
•“Then Job answered the LORD and said, “Behold, I am vile; What shall I answer You? I lay my hand over my mouth. Once I have spoken, but I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.” Job 40:4-5
Job thought he needed to know WHY God had allowed his suffering but what Job really need to know was WHO God is, was, and always will be. God’s compassion is revealed in His utmost concern for our spiritual well-being. Giving an outline of “why” Job suffered would not bring Job into a more intimate relationship with the Lord God but allowing Job to experience the Lord God in His glory would bring Job to repentance and to a point of pure worship of the Lord God!!! My Friend, that is what ALL of us need!!!
If we are to be tender-hearted to those around us, we need to understand how God is tender-hearted to us!!! God ministers to our very core issue – our need for Him!! Then what are we to do??? We are to minister to the very core issue of those people God brings into our lives. We must love the Lord God with all our hearts, all our minds, all our strength, and all our souls so that HE is glorified through us. When others see Christ in us, they are drawn to the cross!!! We must be willing to love others enough to boldly share the Gospel of Christ, serve them as Christ serves us, and encourage them through truth so that they may come to know the Lord God as their personal Lord and Savior!!! There is no more perfect gift than the gift of Christ!! God reveals Himself to us through His Word and when we dive deep into His Word, HE will equip us with a Biblical view of Himself. HE will give us wisdom, discernment, understanding, and boldness to proclaim Him to a lost and dying world!!! Are you willing to be a vessel of the Most High???
When we become a vessel for the Most High, it is for His glory ALONE!!! No fame, fortune, recognition, or glory should be our goal. All that God does is for His glory and we are to offer that to Him as an act of worship. God is the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last, the King of kings, the Lord of lords, the Almighty God, the Great I AM!!!! Who are we to try to take any of His glory, honor, or praise for ourselves?!?! May our hearts be as John the Baptist’s!! “Then the next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! This is HE of whom I have said, “After me comes a Man who is preferred before me, for HE was before me”…”It is HE who, coming after me, is preferred before me, whose sandal straps I am not worthy to loose…HE must increase, but I must decrease” (John 1:27; 29-30; 3:30).
