February 20, 2022

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts Colossians 3:12

Intro: Growing up, every Sunday morning I polished my shoes

We had to look our best for church – besides that,
– I had a grandfather who taught my mom,
• “You can always judge a man by his shoes”
• if she lived by that rule, she would have never dated my dad
– Paul uses clothing as a metaphor – the changing of our values, attitudes, and behavior
• we are to discard our old lifestyle and become our new self in Jesus
◦ Peter makes a similar point:
Do not let your adorning be external . . . but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart . . . which in God’s sight is very precious (1 Pe. 2:13-14)
• as a guide to changing our spiritual apparel, Paul provides a list of virtues to compliment our ensemble
◦ today we’re going to begin working our way through that list

Paul’s first concern is that we know who we are

Can you see why this is important?
– Jesus’ critique of Pharisees:
This people honors me with their lips,
but their heart is far from me (Mt. 15:8)
you clean the outside of the cup . . . but the inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence . . . . For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Mt. 23:25-27)
• if all we have is a list, it will seem our lives are meant to be rule-based
◦ that’s how people make themselves pious without transformation
◦ and how they appropriate rules in order to pronounce judgment on others
• God works from inside out – virtues express who we are
Eduard Lohse, “In this list, the accent is not placed on a certain disposition, but on the action through which the new [self] reveals [its] identity. To be sure, were it only out of [our] own resources, [we] would be incapable of such actions. . . All these virtues are fruits of the Spirit.”
– in this instance, Paul emphasizes three words:
1. Chosen: Imagine growing up in an orphanage
• every night you pray that someone comes and chooses you
• I think it’s important for us to know that we’re wanted
Jesus to the disciples: You did not choose me, but I chose you (Jn. 15:16)
2. Holy: This is like a mark God puts on us
• how he identifies us as his people; we belong to him
You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy (Lev. 19:2)
3. Beloved: Grendal’s wife, Monica, recommended a YouTube video to me
• a message Henri Nouwen gave on being God’s beloved
◦ I just finished a biography of his life and learned that this became his passion in his final years
Nouwen in Life of the Beloved, “We are the Beloved. We are intimately loved long before our parents, teachers, spouses and friends loved or wounded us. That’s the truth of our lives. That’s the truth I want you to claim for yourself. That’s the truth spoken by the voice that says, ‘You are my Beloved.’”
• this is what Paul is telling us – this is who you are

At the top of the virtues list, “Put on . . . compassionate hearts”

The Greek language behind these two words is colorful
– both of them refer to internal organs – our “inward parts”
• when Bible refers to our viscera–heart, kidneys, bowels–
◦ it is reaching for the most sensitive source of our emotions
Peter O’brien, Paul is “expressing strongly and forcefully what concerns the personality at the deepest level, especially in [our] capacity for loving.”
• these same two words in Philippians 2:1 are translated affection and sympathy
◦ they refer to emotions, longings, mercies, and empathy
– behind these words is the very nature of God revealed in Jesus
• when God gave Moses the fullest possible revelation of himself,
◦ the first words he spoke were:
The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious (Ex. 34:6)
And in Lamentations:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness (Lam. 2:22-23)
◦ Paul refers to God as
the Father of mercies and God of all comfort (2 Cor. 1:3)

In verse 13, Paul will define our forgiveness in terms of its quantity and quality
– it is to be identical to God’s forgiveness of us
• I believe this is true of each of the virtues
◦ all of them are reflected in Jesus Christ
◦ even the opening words, chosen – holy – beloved are used in reference to Jesus
• so if you need an example of a compassionate heart, you need look no further than Jesus:
◦ who when a leper came to him and said, If you will, you can heal me, we are told,
Moved with compassion [Jesus] stretched out his hand and touched him and said to him, “I will; be clean” (Mk. 1:41)
◦ when Jesus saw the crowds that had come to him,
he had compassion on them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd (Mt. 9:36)
◦ a woman who had committed many sins, loved Jesus much because he had forgiven her much (Lk. 7:47)
◦ then there was the adulteress that Jesus refused to condemn (Jn. 8:11)
– Jesus is the incarnation of a compassionate heart

There is one more thing I want to say about this
– several places in the New American Standard Bible reads, Jesus felt compassion
• this may seem like I’m splitting hairs,
◦ but for Jesus compassion was not a mere feeling
◦ he was compassionate – he was and is compassion itself
• feelings come and go
◦ they alternate through pity, condescension, disgust, and contempt
◦ but a compassionate heart produces a state of being
◦ it is an automatic and consistent attitude and response to others
– when Jesus told his disciples how to love everyone, the example he gave them was God:
and you will be sons [and daughters] of the Most High, for he is kind to the ungrateful and the evil. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful (Lk. 6:35-36)
• we cannot give greater emphasis to what Paul is saying than Jesus did in those verses
◦ what we experience from God, finds its home in us
◦ it reconfigures our inner parts

What is the opposite of a compassionate heart?

A hard heart – one that cannot be moved
– a hard heart can refer to stubbornness – and is related to a stiff neck
– it can be unfeeling – is never moved with pity or compassion
– a hard heart can be dense – stuck in old paradigms
• the disciples should have discerned something when Jesus fed a crowd from meager rations
. . . they did not understand about the loaves, but their hearts were hardened (Mk. 6:52)
Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened? Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? . . . Do you not yet understand? (Mk. 8:17-21)
A compassionate heart is an open heart
– once we make a judgment about another person,
• we close off the possibility of a having different perspective
◦ we cannot learn something new about them
• a compassionate heart resists judgment
– the open heart makes room for all the other virtues
• room for peace and understanding
• room for new information and insights
• room for God to do something new and unheard of

God can do something with a compassionate heart

He can do something that connects the heart to everyone
– most everyone we know can look at a photo of a starving child,
• or the sad face of an abused puppy, and feel pity
• but few of us can look into every human face and feel compassion
◦ that is what God feels for every human person
◦ that is the ultimate work he performs in his children
– a compassionate heart can connect to everyone and everything
• a tiny mustard seed matters, because it shelters a mystery
◦ it not only contains the power of life and growth,
◦ but it is also a symbol of something infinite and eternal
• Evagrius taught, every created thing carried a revelation of God
“These he has produced, as the letters of the alphabet, so to speak, by his power and his wisdom, that is to say, by his Son and by his Spirit . . . .”
Olivier Clement, “The world is the gift of God. We must know how to perceive the giver through the gift.”
◦ a compassionate heart sees the world through new eyes

Conclusion: Now we know one item to add to our wardrobe

Every piece of clothing we wear, we put on for a reason
– for instance, we put on the whole armor of God to defend ourselves from the schemes of the devil
What is the reason for putting on compassionate hearts?
The answer is in the first two verses of this chapter
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth (Col. 3:1-2)
How can my awareness rise above my anxieties and distractions?
Is it even possible for me to put my mind on transcendent realities?
It is, if first of all I am willing to allow God to share with me
his compassionate heart
We are dressing up for this!
A greater awareness of the kingdom of God
An awakening to God in this present moment
A consciousness of things above and beyond,
to escape the prison of worldly things
and enjoy fellowship with our Lord Jesus