Unbridled Compassion As A New Godly Attribute

Last week I mentioned a podcast I did with Del Tackett where we discuss the problems resulting from the imbalance of either focusing too heavily on the “masculine” or “feminine” traits of Christ. He mainly focused on how our society has started to shift towards the extreme of the “feminine” characteristics, specifically as a response to the mainstream stigmatization of masculinity.

I want to dive a little deeper into this concept of achieving balance. In my experience, I have found that most issues people face, particularly as it relates to their faith in the church, can be traced to an imbalance somewhere. Additionally, one of the main tools being used by people in the Great and Spacious Building to attack the Doctrine of Christ is also rooted in imbalance.

One of the difficulties with this lies in the fact that these attributes are, at least in theory, righteous qualities to embody. Tolerance, mercy, compassion. Who would say that its bad to focus on any of these? No one.

The problem occurs when we decouple one of these traits from it’s opposite, or to use the phrase coined by Dr. Jared Halverson, its “polar positive.” By doing so, when we lean into any of these “good” qualities at the exclusion of its polar-positive, it can actually become a vice.

Joseph Smith once said “by proving contraries, truth is made manifest.” The phrase “proving contraries” would be more accurately translated as paradoxes in today’s vernacular.

Thinking of God as paradoxical can be difficult for a lot of people to rectify with their personal belief of a perfect God that is “the same yesterday, today and forever.” However, when we look at God’s attributes and even aspects of the gospel, paradoxes start showing up everywhere:

Is God merciful or just?

Are we saved by faith or works?

The Tree of Knowledge or Children for Adam and Eve?

We must lose our life to find it.

These are just a few examples of seemingly opposite or contradictory ideas that we have to wrestle with along our path of discipleship.

I also want to be clear that we are not trying to blunt or neuter the scope of these virtues. Rather, God wants us to learn what response along the full spectrum of justice/mercy, courage/caution, obedience/tolerance, etc., is appropriate for any situation.

The great lie being told by those in the Great and Spacious Building and the Religion of Academia is that the extremes of certain “polar positive” traits, and even just the traits themselves, are undesirable, oppressive, unsafe, etc.

They want unbridled compassion, mercy, tolerance, etc., but only for the causes that they support. If it's not a cause they support, they want it de-platformed, defunded, canceled, etc. Their incredible success is driven primarily because they’ve been able to associate these qualities solely with LOVE.

The term love has come to be grossly undefined and nebulous. So many people have a different understanding of what this word means, and that is the origin of many of the problems we see in the church and society in general. Is it a noun? Is it a verb? Is it a commitment and a bond? To me, the pure love of Christ would be the willingness to care for others' long-term well-being. Not tolerance for the here and now.

To combat this push, we need to become more comfortable dealing with the paradoxes of the gospel and the nature of God. We also need to teach our kids that the “right” path doesn’t lie in any one specific trait (other than maybe charity, but that’s a story for another day) but that “by proving contraries, truth is made manifest.” Thanks for reading.

Best,

Greg Matsen