Passion for God Compassion for People

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Christ’s Appearance to The Disciples (Matthew 28) by Duccio di Buoninsegna (1308-11). Tempera on Wood. Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Siena.

Holy Passions

Many people mistakenly think that true Christianity is dull and insipid; that a faithful Christian is a person who tries to be nicer than he or she really feels like being. (Father, forgive the church for believing, promoting and perpetuating this error!) Thus, the idea of passion is usually reserved for steamy things that ought not to be mentioned on a church web page.

But the word simply means “an intense emotion or desire,” and one can have holy passions, deep longings to know and love God. Jesus Christ provides the ultimate example of this holy desire. In fact, we call the time of his sufferings, especially from the Last Supper through his death on the cross, Passion Week (this is why Mel Gibson entitled his movie, “The Passion of the Christ”). Passion is good and godly when directed in the proper ways and toward the proper ends.

Thirsting For God

Our motto, “Passion for God,” therefore, summarizes well a primary theme in the life of a faithful Christian: an intense desire to know God which holds tightly by faith to the promise of God’s love, even through suffering. One way the Bible expresses this idea is by the image of great thirst, as in Psalm 42.1-2:
       As a deer pants for flowing streams,
          so pants my soul for you, O God.
       My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.

The Apostle Paul did not spend much time in the forests and fields, so when he reminded the Christians in Rome to stir up their desire for God, he used a different word picture. Romans 12.11 says, “Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord.” The Greek word for “fervent” is in idiom; it literally means, “boil.” Our longing for a closer walk with the Lord is to be the boiling passion of our souls.

Weak Passions

C. S. Lewis correctly observed that our desires are not too strong, but too weak. Much about religion seems directed at quelling misdirected passions: do not taste, do not touch, do not enjoy. As a result, people imagine that God wants us to be passionless. But the truth is the other way around: “We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea” (C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory). At the Church of the Covenant, we are asking God to revive our souls that we might rejoice in him. We want to be more alive, more passionate, more full of the joy of the Lord — PASSION FOR GOD.

Passion Produces Compassion

Jesus was the most passionate person ever to live. He loved the Father with his whole heart, soul, mind, and strength. So passionate was he to do God’s will and to bring glory to God, that he gave himself up to death on the cross. Thus, passion gets its meaning from the work of Christ.

But we know something else about Jesus: he loved people. Often while he was here, he looked and had compassion. Of course, in doing this he was simply acting like his Father: the Lord shows compassion on those who fear him.

The Apostle John well understood how love for God and love for people are intimately connected. He wrote, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother” (1John 4.20-21).

Therefore, we are asking God to make us a loving and compassionate people, not loving in word or talk but in deed and in truth — COMPASSION.

The Church of the Covenant:
Passion for God, Compassion for People