A brief meditation designed to snap you back into the restoring power of God’s love.
2026-07-12
Forgiveness and Compassion Go Together.
As a pastor, I have officiated many funerals and memorial services. On such occasions, we send flowers and cards to the bereaved family and try to say thoughtful words to express our sympathy. The word sympathy (from the Greek sympatheia) means to share in another person’s affliction or suffering. Another word for sympathy comes from the Latin word compassio, which is the same English word compassion, meaning to share someone’s passion or suffering.
Compassion is something every Christian seeks in abundance, and as with all good spiritual things, we cannot produce it ourselves because it is a gift from the Spirit of God. Jesus showed compassion for all people by sharing our suffering and afflictions during his journey in our mortal flesh, and he still does.
However, we can still promote and cultivate the precious gift of compassion in a simple way (simple doesn’t mean easy). We can start by removing one of the biggest obstacles to compassion, if not the biggest, namely the attitude of condemnation (or unforgiveness). The apostle Paul instructed the church in Ephesus:
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).
See how the key to compassion is to forgive others just as Christ has forgiven us. Simply put, we cannot show compassion while condemning others; it would be a spiritual and logical contradiction. It sounds like a basic concept, but we, as individuals or as a church, will never grow in compassion as long as we hold on to our grudges against “sinners” or those who have hurt us. The apostle Peter agrees with Paul on this:
“Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing.” (1 Peter 3:8-9).
Notice how the thoughts connect one after the other as Peter writes. Being sympathetic and compassionate requires humility, expressed in forgiveness, which Peter explains as not returning evil for evil. Let’s see one more of those instructions from Paul,
“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:12-13).
Again, see how inseparable the two virtues are in the hearts of these apostles; compassion and forgiveness go hand in hand. Getting rid of the condemning attitude, grudges, and all forms of unforgiveness fosters a heart of compassion or sympathy that comes from Christ. One more quote, this time from Christian writer Henri Nouwen:
“This compassion pulls people away from the fearful clique into the larger world where they can see that every human face is the face of a neighbor. Thus the authority of compassion is the possibility for each of us to forgive our brothers and sisters, because forgiveness is only real for those who have discovered the weakness of their friends and the sins of their enemies in their own hearts, and are willing to call each human being their sister and brother.” (Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer).
Nouwen echoes the words of Paul and Peter and reminds us of something else Jesus told us. He told us not to look at the speck of sawdust in another’s eye while ignoring the plank in our own eye. Recognizing our own faults and sins with honest and humble eyes helps us forgive the sins of others and even understand why they failed; then we will be able to practice true compassion. True sympathy will always be coupled with forgiveness, as long as we admit that we are all made of the same fragile clay. May God help us to be living vehicles of his compassion for the world.
In Christ’s grace and love,
Alvaro.
Alvaro Palacio
This Month’s Video.
gcitorontoeast.org 