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Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12)

As we go through our day, we need to remember that we’re at war. We’re to have our armor on and be ready to do battle. Our lives and the lives of those around us depend on that armor. But, as vitally important as the armor of God is, one doesn’t tend to wear armor directly on the body. There are usually layers of padding and clothing beneath it to absorb sweat, prevent chafing, and preserve modesty and dignity. Under the truth, righteousness, readiness, and salvation, and behind the faith, we’re to wear compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.

I know, we keep returning to these things but that’s because they’re central to humanity and personhood, and therefore to Christianity. Even when we take off the armor, we’re to wear them. The first is compassion. This is the “feeling with” that Job’s friends spent 7 days doing. This is validating someone’s feelings (e.g., weeping with those who weep, rejoicing with those who rejoice.) But acknowledging someone’s feelings does not mean saying that they are correct about the cause of the feelings. Both lies and the truth may hurt, but that doesn’t make the lies truths or the truths, lies.

There are times when feelings must be addressed with the acknowledgement that they are a person’s feelings, not necessarily connected with the truth. We need to connect with people emotionally, and that may take some time. But that is not the end goal, it’s just one step along the way.

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