“Ahhhhh, You’re All Growed Up!”

Francis A. Schaeffer said, “Biblical orthodoxy without compassion is surely the ugliest thing in the world.” (A Christian Manifesto)

Wow, pretty strong words, eh?! What’s your take on this claim? How would you re-cast this statement in a way another person might understand it… feel it… seek to “grow up in it”?

On a very practical level, it might sound like a family-of-origin anecdote like, “No, really, I’m sure my Dad loved me. Yeah, he always told it like it is! Hard and fast. Wham! No pulling any punches…. No way! He always told the truth; even if it hurt. Did he love me? Sure! He didn’t have to tell me he loved me… It was a ‘generational thing’… I’m okay with it… really.”

Hmmmm… Can “orthodoxy without compassion” get ugly?

The Bible says, “Do not withhold your mercy from me, O LORD; may your love and your truth always protect me.” (Psalm 40:11)

The God of the Bible is the perfect balance of Truth and Love. Justice and Mercy. Holiness and Compassion. Righteousness and Grace.

The Journey to Being “All Being Growed Up”
As Image Bearers of God—gone way awry due to our inherited and personal sinfulness—if we have been born-again by heart-broken repentance and beseeching Jesus Christ to be our rescuer-Savior and the Lord of our life, we also are on an ever-increasing, balance-perfecting journey of living out God’s balance of Truth and Love. Justice and Mercy. Holiness and Compassion. Righteousness and Grace.

And the following is one truthful, loving, powerful, and necessarily polarizing articulation of what this “balance-perfecting journey” looks like. Please take some time this week… every week… to internalize, share with your spiritual community group, and “Go Deep!” with the truth-full yet loving words from St. Paul to the early, infant, growing-up church in Ephesus.

“It was He (Jesus Christ) who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into Him who is the Head, that is, Christ. From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:11-16).

Go for broke… at getting all growed up… as you speak the truth in love… becoming more and more like The One Who Spoke in the Beginning… and speaks forever… The God of Love and Truth! Amen.

‘Till we’re gathered at the table again, “Consider then…” (Ecclesiastes 2:11),
JohnDoz