Page 2 - Compassion - August 2018 - Truth & Tidings

between the two chapters? You did! The ent unto death, even the death of the cross”
eternal God of Genesis 1 is the personal (Phil 2:7-8, KJV).
God of Genesis 2. William Kelly calls this the lowliness of
This fact, that God is a personal, loving, love. Emptied of reputation, the Lord Jesus
with-us God, is the foundation of our com- Christ humbled Himself to suffer, moving
passion. In Genesis 3, a very short time af- among us in our sin. He didn’t come for a
ter Adam and Eve sinned, we see this in few hours and go back to His ivory palaces
action. Adam and Eve have ruined God’s that night. He didn’t declare God’s love in a
perfect creation and changed heaven and grandiose statement and return to heaven
earth with a single bite. Even so, we find the with blinding light. He came as a lowly
Lord God walking in the cool of the day man, and He came here to be with us. He
looking for them. “Where are you?” He touched our diseases when no one else
asks. Everything is ruined. The wheels of would come near. He rolled up His sleeves
time that will one day see God’s Son suffer and got muddy hands so we’d see. He
for sin lurch forward, yet God still wants to helped our unbelief, and He cried real tears
be with us. Not to destroy or berate, but to for God’s sheep without a shepherd. He
be with us. Sin started with humankind lived and He died for us, going even to
and causes our suffering by separation, but death on a cross.
compassion starts with God, Who suffers
with us. No matter how difficult things get, In God’s eyes, the cross defines com-
He remains the Father of Compassion passion. The one Who suffers with us is the
(2Cor 1:3), waiting quietly, suffering be- one Who suffered for us. Sin brought sepa-
side us, arms cradling our steps. Perhaps ration, pain, loneliness, weakness, and
you’re more like the person in pain at the death, so the Lord Jesus went there for us,
start of this story. Others cast weak smiles right to where the problem was. He knows.
for you, and their whispers bring no com- Beloved, God will never ask you to do
fort to your gloom. Beloved, He knows. He something, to endure something, or to sur-
is always whispering, “Where are you?” vive something that He Himself, in Christ,
from the lowest, thickest darkness. has not done. You might ask where God is.
Why me? When is this going to end? But in
Our Compassionate Savior your asking, you must know that God is
Philippians 2 isn’t a Bible passage for right here, right with us. He will suffer with
the faint of heart. In it, the Apostle Paul us each step of the way until there are no
exhorts the Christians to serve each other more tears or sorrows – until there is no
in order to build a strong, compassionate more pain, death, or sin. Trust me when I
fellowship. Don’t let anyone convince you say, from experience, He has never stopped
that compassion, that suffering love, is for whispering, “Where are you?” to those
the weak. These relationships must run who are suffering.
deep, and be full of the character of the
Lord Jesus Christ. He “made Himself of no Our Compassionate Fellowship
reputation, and took upon Him the form The verses in Philippians 2 that con-
of a servant, and was made in the likeness of vince us of the compassion of the Lord
men: And being found in fashion as a man, Jesus Christ require great responsibility,
He humbled Himself and became obedi- too. Here and in other places, the strange

2 TRUTH kTidings I Compassion