Compassionate Commission

“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” (Joh 3:36 AV)

One wonders how much our efforts to win the lost would change if we could get into our minds and hearts the truth of the wrath of God.  Not so much the eventual judgment that will come because of it.  Rather, the present condition of the lost soul as it suffers from the wrath of God.  Sometimes this wrath can be easily seen by the circumstances which the soul suffers.  An illness, accident, financial hardships, marital problems, etc.  However, most cannot be easily seen but are still as real.  A lack of peace, strife, anger, malice, arrogance.  All effects of an unconverted heart.  When I consider the passage above, I cannot help but be reminded by the Spirit of God the compassion which should reside in the heart of the saint for all those who do not know Christ.  God is angry with them and they live under the judgmental hand of a God who is not pleased with sin.

Growing up in such a large family, it was not unusual to witness an estranged relationship between my father and a sibling.  If it was a younger sibling, the evidence of this strained relationship seemed to be more obvious.  The thing is, the younger the sibling (to a point), the harder it was for that sibling to see they were not in may father’s good graces.  They were either oblivious or they has something else going on that was far more important to them than their relationship with Dad.  There were times when my younger sibling had to be made aware of Dad’s disappointment.  We could see it clearly.  Dad made little effort to comfort or comport with his erring child.  What bothered us most is the erring child had no idea what he was missing.  He had little clue of the wonderful nature of a reconciled relationship with Dad.  It bothered us enough to tell our sibling that Dad was mad at him or her and he or she should go and apologize.

This is the way it should be for the saint and the sinner.  If we cannot see the wrath of God abiding on the lost soul, then he becomes a mere statistic.  He becomes another soul whom we pass a tract to or even win for the purpose of a number.  He becomes another trophy in our collection rather than a restored sibling who can now enjoy fellowship with the God who created him.  If we could simple step back and see both God’s position and desire compared against the condition and position of the lost soul, perhaps our soul-winning would be motivated by compassion rather than something we do because we are goal oriented.