Devotions: To Have Compassion

Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Philippians 2:1-2 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

“Therefore” always means that what follows is based on what was previously said. At the end of the first chapter, Paul is encouraging the Philippians to live for and like Christ. These two verses really are the driving point for that exhortation: if there is anything good, if we expect any benefit, then we need to be unified in purpose and mentality. We will all have our differences, but we need to put them aside for the sake of the Gospel. If we are to have any of these good things (encouragement, consolation, fellowship, affection, compassion) then we need to be united, in harmony, humbly working toward the same goal of spreading the Gospel. We cannot have compassion if we are not compassionate, but we also cannot get it if we are divided, quarreling, striving with each other (or worse.) Godliness and its benefits cannot come unless we ourselves are godly and working toward godliness. Godliness and selfishness cannot mix, which is why Paul goes on to say in the next two verses that we should do nothing out of selfishness or conceit but rather out of humility. That is how God made life to work. We are chosen as vessels of compassion, but we must ­be that to receive it. Are you humbly working toward unity with others, or trying to gain your own agenda at any cost? Ask God to help you have humility so that you can be in harmony and unity with others.

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