City Life Starter

Written by Efe Abbe

The Word

Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in faithfulness and truth; who keeps faithfulness for thousands, who forgives wrongdoing, violation of His Law, and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, inflicting the punishment of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”

Exodus 34:6-7 NASB

For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16 (ESV)

Seeing the crowds, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore, plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every disease and every sickness.

Matthew 9:36-10:1 NASB

Reflection

Right after the Israelites broke faith with God by worshipping a golden calf as their “god…who brought [them] up from the land of Egypt”(Exodus 32:4b), God reveals Himself to Moses. Moses pleads with God who is justifiably angry, not to abandon Israel, and makes a request to see God’s glory as a sign that God’s favor was still with him and the people. God generously grants Moses’ request and we hear God define His character with the opening attributes: compassionate and merciful. 

Though forsaking God is the one constant across all human experience, from God’s self-defined attributes we learn that God acts from His compassion and mercy to forgive wrongdoing and enact justice  i.e. God is not passive and will act mercifully even as He acts justly towards sinful humans. 

John, one of Jesus’ closest twelve disciples wrote “[n]o one has ever seen God; the only God [Jesus], who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known” (John 1:18 ESV). John spent three years walking with Jesus and saw that Jesus’ life showed us what God is really like. In multiple gospel accounts, we see that Jesus had compassion for people he met which moved Him to act to remedy the spiritual brokenness and physical needs of their lives. Ultimately God’s compassion and mercy led Jesus to give Himself as a sacrifice for humanity’s sins as God’s permanent way of offering us forgiveness and enacting His justice.

Application

It is tempting to view God’s compassion apart from His justice but this isn’t how God has defined His character. It is because He is just, that He acts mercifully towards sinful humans, otherwise we fail to grasp the weight of Jesus’ sacrifice (Luke 7:41-48). One result of missing the significance of Jesus’ sacrifice is apathy in our calling to make disciples of all people.

It’s when we grasp the enormity of God’s compassion to us in light of His justice, that we are moved to act compassionately towards others around us. Practically this looks like relying on the Holy Spirit’s power as we obediently take care of physical and spiritual needs, especially the spiritual need of calling those far from God to be reconciled to Him (2 Corinthians 5:17-20).

Prayer

Dear Father, we are dependent on Your mercy and compassion, more than we know. Please give us eyes that see, hearts that are deeply moved, hands that act, and mouths that tell of Your Good News. In Jesus’ name, amen.