Costly Compassion

“In the original creation, God made male and female to be together. Because of this, a man leaves father and mother, and in marriage he becomes one flesh with a woman—no longer two individuals, but forming a new unity. Because God created this organic union of the two sexes, no one should desecrate his art by cutting them apart.” – Mark 10:6-9, MSG

Compassion: sympathetic consciousness of others' distress together with a desire to alleviate it[i]

Compassion without truth is cheap. Truth without compassion is corrosive. These are the ditches we must avoid or see human suffering increase rather than be alleviated. As humanity continues in sinful decline, the natural outgrowth of that decline is the increasing number of areas where God’s truth is denounced, decried, and derided. This grows out of the core of our being, as born rebels and objects of God’s wrath. This grows out of wanting to be seen as one of the in-crowd. This grows out of a desire to be compassionate in a world full of suffering and brokenness. In the context of our passage this week (Mark 10:1-16) there are a number of ways that we see these realities working themselves out. Let’s begin by pointing out that there are those who simply deny everything about this passage as true. They think gender and marriage are societal constructs which make them malleable. They can be conformed to the society in which they exist. Therefore, when asked to define “woman” for instance, many people can no longer do so. This same foundational thinking is why, same said people, are unable to defer to any authority other than the individual for a determination on something so integral as gender. But, my appeal here is not to those who have discarded the entire idea of God or notion of the Bible being any sort of authority over one’s life. My appeal is rather to those who, I think to be often good intentioned. They are the kind of people who have some place for God and the Bible in their worldview. They would also be the last person to wear the labels of bigot, racist, homophobe, et. al. None of those labels will fit them because, they seek to be compassionate and non-discriminatory. I will be quick to affirm, we have more work to do in being compassionate to those caught up in the deceptions which underly this whole mess. Even if you are an incredibly kind person, if you are a “conservative Christian” most people’s preconceived notion of you is that you are hateful to those who disagree with you on these matters. Our work then is to undercut these preconceptions by our conduct and our public stances. Why can’t we be the ones whose lives create questions for outsiders? Can we live in such a devoted followership of Jesus (who Himself was full of compassion toward sinners and outcasts) that people who actually know us are left thinking, “Wait a minute? They are not at all like the SNL portrayal of Christians.” Might it be so. We need to have our hearts flooded with compassion for people caught in these lies. They are so confused by our culture. It is a culture that has told them that they can define themselves in relation to gender and sexuality and no one can tell them otherwise. It is a culture that has made gender and sexuality the defining characteristics of any and every individual, while simultaneously demanding that no one be defined or limited by their gender or sexuality. It is a culture that has hitched personhood to gender and sexuality in such a domineering way that every person must from the time they are very young be taught all about these matters and start forging their own identity from their preferences. To this we need to offer a compassionate and thoughtful alternative. What if the church became a safe-haven from the maddening world of sexuality and gender? Why can’t we be? Doing so does not mean giving away the truth on these issues. Much the opposite must be the case if we seek to offer any real help. We can’t help someone out of deception if we believe the same lie that has ensnared them. Only the light of truth can shine the way out of the deception of darkness. Anything less than truth will simply be a new trap to ensnare and damage ourselves and others. This is why, we must not appeal to our sensibilities or our culture’s ‘go to’ answers on this or any other matter. We must stick to the plain and revealed truth of God as clearly established in His Word. I know there are some who argue, rather stringently at times, for new interpretations of the Bible on these very issues. But, they are new interpretations. They are people who seek to find something in Scripture that the church has never found in Scripture. As many have well observed in various ways, anyone whose Biblical interpretation allows for or celebrates sexuality and gender in ways the Bible clearly prohibits, is someone who is standing on their head and telling you that you are upside down.  There is clarity here, and plenty of it. Jesus didn’t equivocate. He was clear on what is and isn’t marriage. He was clear on gender. He was clear on sexual immorality. The current embrace of anti-Biblical norms by some in these areas simply highlights how opposite the teaching and understanding of the church has been for millennia. This is not a case of something ‘new’ being understood. This is a clear case of something ‘new’ being read into the text for the sake of cultural relevance. Herein lies the trouble. Once we leave behind the clear teaching of the Bible on any one area, we cannot with any seriousness cling to it in another. The same God who says clearly that sexual immorality is unacceptable says that His Son died for all your sins, sexual immorality notwithstanding. If you give away the first half of that sentence, please understand you’ve also given away the second half. And so, at the end of the day, it is not the cultural elites or the leftist or queer theory or the homosexual agenda which is our enemy. Rather, if we listen closely and watch carefully, we hear and see the cursed Serpent about His same old game. He whispers and sometimes shouts- “Did God really say…?” His ways are subtle but nonetheless ruthlessly destructive. If He can convince you that you cannot be who you were ‘born’ to be AND hold to the Bible as true then He’s got you in a tough spot. If He can only bring you part of the way, pointing out say the ‘meanness’ of those who hold to Biblical sexual norms as played out in the worst-case scenarios that sadly do unfold; He knows you are not far from doubting the God who stands behind those rules. Here then we find our real enemy in these battles. Not people. Darkness in the spiritual realm. If we can do better at loving people rather than attacking them, there is much to gain. If we can do better at battling spiritual darkness in prayer, there is much more to gain. The reality is that those caught in a lie need more than truth shouted in their face. They need God to open their eyes. They need compassion to open their hearts. They need a freedom and personhood that is not found in gender or sexuality but only in the Creator Himself. Fellow Christ follower, on matters of gender and sexuality, we must be clear and compassionate. We must let this as all other areas of our lives become simple. Will we follow Jesus (and His teaching) when it comes to these matters or won’t we? Jesus’ compassion did not lack truth, nor did his truth-telling lack compassion. His life and death prove the point emphatically. Let us count the cost and follow Jesus in this area. Let us follow Him with hearts full of the self-giving love He exemplified.  

Further Resources:

[i] “Compassion.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/compassion. Accessed 28 Mar. 2022.

Harvest Lane Alliance Church