The Plumbline

Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. (Philippians 2:1-4 NLT) Are your hearts tender and compassionate? That might be a tough question for us to answer today because we can all say our hearts are 'tender' and 'compassionate' at least some of the time. The rub comes when we are asked if we act that way toward our enemies, those that irritate us, or 'get on our last nerve'. The other rub comes in that word 'act' - sometimes our tenderness and compassion can be nothing more than an 'act' put on to make us look go...