Hello and welcome back to the A United Front course. I hope that you are finding hope for your heart and help for your marriage as you study through the course lessons.
We are studying our way through the list of attributes given in Colossian 3 as a way of learning how to be a united front with our spouse. We began by learning what it means to put on a compassionate heart. We saw the compassionate heart of God displayed in the giving of His one and only Son, Jesus, to die as our atoning sacrifice. We saw the compassionate heart of Christ, who gave His very life’s blood to secure our eternal salvation. We understood that to put on a compassionate heart requires sacrifice.
Our hearts are not naturally compassionate, especially when we are hurting. Our old way of life seeks to wound and shame the one who has offended us. However, in Christ, we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). In Christ, we can respond to the sins of others in a compassionate way that empathizes with our offender and is willing to suffer loss to help them find freedom in the gospel.
Now, let us read Colossians 3:12-13 and continue in our pursuit of understanding the way that Christ teaches:
“Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” (Colossians 3:12-13)
Question 1. According to Colossians 3, after a compassionate heart, what are we to put on as God's chosen ones?
The act of being kind is something we often take for granted; and yet, it is probably one of the first things to go when we are angry or wounded. I had a wife once tell me that she wouldn’t give her husband a drop of water even if he were dying of thirst. Her anger over her husband’s sin of infidelity had driven out even the most rudimentary measure of kindness from her heart; but that type of thinking is of the flesh—the old way of life.
For many years now, there has been a concept circulating called "Random Acts of Kindness." The idea is to do acts of kindness randomly with the hopes that it will encourage others to do the same and thus make the world a better place. And while the idea is lovely, gospel kindness is much greater. The kindness of God is very intentional and purposeful. Being kind to strangers is easy—even an unbeliever can do it—but God calls us to a focused and sacrificial kindness that is supernatural and empowered by the Holy Spirit. As Luke 6:35 says, God "is kind to the ungrateful and the evil."
To understand the type of kindness we are talking about, let’s consider God’s actions toward the nation of Israel in Ezra 9:9, “Though we are slaves, our God has not deserted us in our bondage. He has shown us kindness in the sight of the kings of Persia: He has granted us new life to rebuild the house of our God and repair its ruins, and he has given us a wall of protection in Judah and Jerusalem.” (NIV)
Question 2. In what condition were the people of Israel when God showed kindness to them?