CompassionA person of compassion is one who feels the needs of others and whose compassion is not something that can be turned on and off like a water faucet. It is always on. It is a constant burden of life. This is why so many reject the commandment to love others: because love and compassion require resources of personal strength and wisdom in action. Loving your neighbor as yourself is a matter of who you are, not, primarily, of what you decide to do. We can "afford" to be compassionate only if we know there is abundant compassion for us, toward us, by persons who have appropriate means. This is primarily God: "We love because he first loved us" (1 John 4:19). The perfect love of God toward us casts out fear (v. 18). Think of the role of fear in the Good Samaritan story! So, our experience of God's love is what allows us, empowers us, to set aside anger, selfishness, lusting, and so on in our relationships to others. From Renewing the Christian Mind: Essays, Interviews, and Talks. Copyright © 2016 by Willard Family Trust. All rights reserved. Used with permission of HarperCollins Publishers.
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