3 January 2013
Philippians
2:1-2 So if there is any
encouragement in Christ, any incentive of love, any participation in the
Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind,
having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.
Sometimes it is interesting
to note the choices that translators use when translating a text from one
language to another. The challenge is in understanding what the author had in
mind when he wrote what he did. Now the word affection is some translations is
replaced with the word tenderness and sympathy with that of compassion, both
are similar but are not the same.
Tenderness is feeling the
pain of someone you love, it is more than affection, it is like that stabbing
twinge in the belly when you see a persons suffering and you feel the
tenderness for them. Compassion is trying to do something to make it better, these are not abstract emotions but emotion driven
to action. Jesus loves us tenderly, He feels our pain, our loneliness, our fear
not only does He feel this, but He has compassion on us and He wants to take
from us those things that cause our hurt. We so often choose to observe rather
than participate, where Jesus chooses rather to participate in our lives.
Be encouraged today to be
tender to others and to have compassion on them.
David
Point to ponder: Jesus loves you tenderly, love others likewise.
No comments:
Post a Comment