Overcoming Weakness. Encouraging Others

 We all have difficulties in life. 
‘Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.’ Ian Maclaren, 1897

I am someone who likes to help. I am happy when I can support someone.
But I am not always a model of selfless love. 

I am someone who likes to read, think and talk about my ideas. That is my gift from God. That is why I am a blogger.

But my strength is often also my weakness. 

My daughter once wanted to talk to me, but I didn't hear her. I was lost in my own thoughts.

She said, ‘Dad is visiting the moon.’

I can also be impatient in conversations because I want to say something. What does the Bible say about this?

You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; 
for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Jas 1:19–20 NRSV

My tendency is to make my voice heard. That can be good, but it can also be selfish. Some people are reserved when they should speak. I am not like that.

“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 
No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house. 

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.  Mt 5:14–16 NRSV

We must let God's light shine in our lives, but we often have to overcome our weak human nature so that Jesus can be seen in our lives.

Today I must listen to my wife with compassion. Today I must listen patiently and compassionately.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. Rev 21:7 NKJV

Those who conquer will inherit these things, and I will be their God and they will be my children. Rev 21:7 NRSV

If you want to follow Jesus, you must use your gifts from God every day and overcome your own human weaknesses.

Jesus promises to reward you and me eternally if we overcome with His grace.

What difficulty can you overcome today? Jesus wants to help you.

How can you help someone today? How can you be an encourager today?

War on Empathy

 There is a war on empathy. Incredibly rich businessmen and politicians are building empires as democracy trembles. In ancient Rome, constitutional government was trampled by a succession of ruthless emperors. In our time, we are seeing self-centred despots attempting to replicate this process.

In the 1960s and 70s we saw rapid advances in racial and gender equality, but it appears that the old ruling classes and would be emperors have had enough. The empire is striking back.
Of course no empire can endure long without a religion.

Vladimir Putin understands this well. He has abandoned communist atheism and embraced the flagship of the old Czarist Empire, the Russian Orthodox Church.

Capitalist predators in the US and elsewhere have joined forces with conservative authoritarian Church leaders. Imperial rulers must have economic and military power but they also need priests.

Hard line conservatives have always resisted racial integration and gender equality, but the tide of history was against them.

But when the human rights activists shifted their focus to gay rights, same sex marriage and unrestricted abortion, the old conservatives saw their chance to seize the moral high ground and turn back the clock 100 years.

Civil rights, racial desegregation, gender equality, fair wages, and universal health care became the targets for the new rulers. Social justice was supposedly not real justice, if justice mattered at all. Mercy and empathy were redefined as weakness.

A great nation with a strong economy became the only thing that mattered. Even the working classes voted for this. Who wants high inflation and mass unemployment?

If the wealthy become even wealthier, they will naturally create a wealthy country which would be good for everyone. So we are told. It is called trickle down economics, except that the trickle is often a very meagre trickle.

Then Christian preachers come to the aid of the rulers.

Jesus said we must love our neighbour as ourselves, but some preachers tell us Christian love is only a personal matter, and nothing to do with politics or governments.

If we only narrowly focus on the New Testament, we can reach this wrong conclusion. However, Jesus was a Jew in Israel. The Old Testament has a great deal to say about legal justice and the responsibility of government to care for the needy.

Then we are told that God’s laws for the Old Testament theocracy do not apply to modern secular governments. It is true that Christians are not subject to the laws of Moses, but the Old Testament laws express God’s principles of law and justice.

Of course we should not execute adulterers, but the Old Testament prophets strongly condemned financial greed and the neglect of the poor. If we isolate politics entirely from God’s clearly expressed ethical principles, we are not applying Christianity to every part of life.

So should the churches try to take control of governments? The historical examples of this have often been horrible. Think of the worldly hypocrisy in Rome after the Emperor Constantine became nominally Christian. Think of the Spanish Inquisition.

The new rulers are telling us that empathy is weakness. Very prominent church leaders are teaching this as a supposedly Christian doctrine.

Of course empathy can have bad consequences. A prostitute comes to a church looking for help. A naive Christian couple take her into their home and the young woman steals the husband’s affections and he leaves his wife.

A woman in a strong missionary organisation studies prostitution for her PhD. Then she becomes a prostitute herself.

These stories are not made up.

Jesus was known as a friend of sinners, but he did not sin. Not everyone can share the gospel in a bar or a brothel, but some Christians can and do so without sinning themselves.

Is Empathy a Sin? Are Empathy and Compassion different?

 “So what is the problem with empathy today?” he asks. “We are, in fact, told to weep with those who weep, but that assumes those who weep have a reason for weeping that is in line with God’s revelation.” James White. Conservative US Pastor.

So are Christians only allowed to feel empathy for innocent victims of sin or sickness but not for people who are suffering because of their own sin? This sounds like phariseeism to me.
Jesus showed empathy for sinners.

Jesus showed mercy to the woman caught in the act of adultery in John Chapter 8. Was this merely a cold judicial decision? Hardly. Jesus was accused of being a friend of sinners. He did not embrace their sin but neither did he lack feelings of compassion.

John Piper is an enormously influential conservative US pastor. He and his followers go so far as to talk about the “sin of empathy” … So if a promiscuous homosexual or prostitute is dying of aids, should we judge or love? Jesus did not condone sin but he always demonstrated heartfelt empathy with suffering people.

Hard line conservative preachers play clever games with words by trying to distinguish between compassion and empathy.

They play similar word games by saying a man must love his wife but she must respect her husband. As if love respect were quite distinct things. If you love your wife and you do not respect her, your love is not real.

Many Christians latch on to the statement that empathy is a sin, and the theological word games get forgotten. They become coldly judgemental and compassion fades away.

The horrific results are plain to see in culture and politics. Aggressive bible believers enthusiastically support government policies that deny affordable essential health care to poor people in a very rich and powerful country.

An American pastor preached on the Sermon on the Mount.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Mt 5:3 NIV

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Mt 5:7 NIV

The conservative culture warriors in the congregation were not impressed, but the pastor reminded them that these were the words of Jesus.

The reply was shocking. “But this doesn't work any more.”

American conservative fundamentalism has become so corrupted by self righteous culture warfare that it is sometimes hard to tell if it is any better than extreme post Christian liberalism.

What did Jesus say?

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. Mt 5:13 NIV

Then many will fall away, and they will betray one another and hate one another. 

And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray.
And because of the increase of lawlessness, the love of many will grow cold. Mt 24:10–12 NRSV

Lawlessness certainly undermines natural as well as Christian love, but harsh self righeous legalism is no less destructive. We can see this illustrated in the way Jesus denounced the pharisees.

If you teach that empathy is a sin, you are teaching doctrines of demons. You are in danger of being condemned as a false prophet.

God Feels your Suffering

 Life can be a hard test.

God did not create us for rejection and disappointment, but for love and fulfilment. Nevertheless, we are rejected and disappointed so often.

Do you know what? God also suffers because we so often reject and disappoint him. Nevertheless, he also loves you and me.

But maybe we doubt whether God really has such feelings. God wanted to show us how He really is, how He loves us and how He suffers for us.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NIV

Jesus was with Father God eternally before creation.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was with God in the beginning.
Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. Jn 1:1–3 NIV

Jesus is also God Himself and remains God forever but also man, for He came to us on earth to share in our humanity.

He came to us humans, but we all rejected and deeply hurt him.

He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognise him.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Jn 1:10–11 NIV

Jesus was born without an earthly father because God was his Father, but his contemporaries saw him as an illegitimate child. Can you understand how the people in his village would have tormented him?

When Jesus started healing the sick and offering his love to the outcasts of society, he was accused by the religious leaders of being possessed by the devil. Jesus delivered suffering Jews from demons, but the Pharisees said that Jesus was casting out demons by the power of the devil.

Jesus knew their thoughts and said to them, “Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.
If Satan drives out Satan, he is divided against himself. How then can his kingdom stand? Mt 12:25–26 NIV

Do you feel misunderstood and alone? Jesus understands. He has been there too.

Jesus suffered a lot, not because He lived wrongly, but because He was good. The enemies of God hate God and everything that is good. Jesus understands your broken heart and He is on your side.

The LORD is close to the brokenhearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit.
The righteous person may have many troubles, but the LORD delivers him from them all; Ps 34:18–19 NIV

Jesus does not promise His followers a life without problems, but He will help you in all your troubles.

Christian Empathy or Cruel Judgement

There are Christians who have been horribly abused. There are women who attempt suicide because of domestic violence and cruel domination or who need weeks of care in a psychiatric clinic.

There are boys and girls who flee their family home because of abuse. Then they are often just as badly abused on the street, or sometimes worse.

I once spoke to a young man who was begging on the street in winter. I asked him where he sleeps. He said he sometimes spends the night with some client.

Many Christians try to help these people, but without God's love and wisdom our attempts are often in vain.

Tormented women are often told by pastors or counsellors that they must simply forgive. Of course we must forgive. Jesus taught that, but just forgive? Simply?

Does that mean she must stay with the husband who rapes and brutally beats her?

Jesus often spoke of forgiveness, but also of justice, compassion and practical help.
Harshly controlling women are often told to stay with their cruel tormentors because of wedding vows, even if the violence is against her small children!

For some abused women, Bible-based religion is like a torture chamber. They do not experience the love of God, but the Spanish Inquisition.

There are women who find prostitution more bearable than the captivity and slavery of a brutal marriage.

Some Christians refer to the strong teaching of Jesus against divorce. Jesus was addressing the brutal oppression of women, because rabbis allowed men to divorce their wives for any reason or no reason.

Jesus also said that the law of God should not be implemented to destroy people.

Then he said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. Mk 2:27 NIV

We could also say: Marriage was made for the good of man (and woman)  and not man (and woman) for marriage.

He answered, “Have you never read what David did when he and his companions were hungry and in need?

In the days of Abiathar the high priest, he entered the house of God and ate the consecrated bread, which is lawful only for priests to eat. And he also gave some to his companions.” Mk 2:25–26 NIV

The priest in the Old Testament defied God's law concerning holy bread, so he could help extremely hungry people, and Jesus judged the priest's actions as righteous.

Some Christians are harshly judgemental, as the pharisees were in the Bible, but there are also many Christians who are wonderfully compassionate, as Jesus was in the Gospels.

I know Christian women who visit brothels who share the love of God with genuine kindness. Teen Challenge is an international ministry that restores drug addicts with Christian love.

Many Christians provide practical help to homeless people who are often struggling to survive on the streets due to abuse or mental illness. I thank God for this help. I am personally acquainted with Christian women who used to be homeless.

I am convinced that our attitude towards broken marriages, runaway children, drug abuse and prostitution should not be one of moral condemnation, but of empathy and compassion.

Ministering Truth with Love and Gentleness

 In Tolkien's ‘’The Lord of the Rings‘’, ATHELAS is a powerful healing herb. The true king is also a true healer, and he applies the herb ATHELAS to terrible wounds.
This is a Christian allegory.

In the Bible, ATHELAS is the Greek word that means TRUTH.
In the New Testament, the true king is Jesus, but his true identity is veiled because Jesus lives an ordinary life among ordinary people, just like Aragorn in the Lord of the Rings.

In the Lord of the Rings, two heroic characters are stabbed to death with blades empowered by demonic witchcraft, namely Frodo and Eowyn. Aragorn, the king in exile, places the ATHELAS herb in hot, steaming water and applies the medicine to the fatal wounds.
When people are traumatised by dark and terrible experiences, only the truth can heal them.

Many Christians have some understanding of this, but lack the deep wisdom and love to apply the truth in a healing way.

In ‘’The Lord of the Rings‘’, it is the king himself who applies the healing herb gently and with healing skill.

It is not enough to explain the truth about the king to traumatised people. We must bring them with gentleness into the presence of the King himself.

Some severely damaged people can only tolerate medicine in very small doses. Sometimes we need to administer very small doses of truth with much love and patience.

In the New Testament, Jesus did not explain the full truth of who he is to the crowd when they came for healing. He healed the sick and he spoke in parables.

Timing is also crucial. Even with his chosen twelve apostles, Jesus did not begin by telling them that he was the eternal God who came down from heaven. He waited for the Father to reveal it to them.

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?”

And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, but others Elijah, and still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.”

He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven. Mt 16:13–17 NRSV

A young woman goes to church in search of God. She was abused as a child and became a prostitute. She feels more like a victim than a sinner and is very confused. How can we help her with love and truth?

The pastor confronts the issue of her sin, but shows little compassion for her as a suffering victim.

Timing!

We need to know when and how to give truth to hurting people.

To everything there is a season, A time for every purpose under heaven: Ec 3:1 NKJV

Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. Gal 6:1 NIV

Remember, truth must always come with grace and love. Truth without love often makes wounds worse, not better.

There is also a time for confronting sin and for strong preaching, but we must be sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit and the needs of the people we want to reach.

Ultimately, God will judge the world with truth and condemn anyone who has rejected Jesus, but we must never forget that we are not judges. Only God is the judge.