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Has
anyone ever told you you come across like a rigid fundamentalist hell fire
and brimstone preacher? Jesus shows compassion for human frailties even to
those who don’t deserve it.
 pparently, you have the idea that
someone who preaches fire and brimstone doesn’t have any compassion
for the weaknesses of others. But do you know who was the first Christian
“fire and brimstone” preacher?
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. . . on the
day when Lot left Sodom, fire and brimstone rained from the sky to destroy
them all. So it will be on the day the Son of Man is revealed. |
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—Luke 17:29–30 |
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That’s right. Jesus. He
who “shows compassion for human frailties even to those who don’t
deserve it” nevertheless warns us of the dire consequences of
sin.
To help you grasp this point,
read the story of the woman caught in adultery (John 7:53–8:11). Jesus
did not condemn the woman. But He told her, “Go, and from now on do
not sin anymore.” In other words, He did not just pat her on the head
and say, “There, there. It’s all right to shack up with someone
as long as you believe you ‘love’ him.” No. He told her quite
plainly to change her ways. Why? Because if she didn’t, she was in grave
danger of the same fire and brimstone rained down on Sodom. “Go, and
from now on do not sin anymore.”
Now that, however
“rigid” it might sound to many persons in today’s world of
secular humanism, is compassion.
Christ came into this world because
of His compassion for our slavery to sin. Though He was in the form of
God, Jesus did not deem equality with God something to be grasped at. Rather,
He emptied himself and took the form of a slave, being born in the likeness
of men (Philippians 2:6-7). And though He was in the form of God, He
taught us gently and compassionately, and He took all the hatred and insults
patiently, without retaliating—or calling down
“fire from heaven,” as James and John once asked Him to do (Luke
9:54). He did this all to redeem us from sin,
to show us what true love
is.
But that’s not the end of
the story.
Christ will come again, to judge
the living and the dead. In this second coming, though, Christ will come
in glory, not meekness, and He will be wearing a blood-stained cloak (Revelation
19:13) to remind us what our sins did to Him the first time. And at that
time those who have refused to acknowledge and
repent their sins—that is, those who
have rejected His gentle mercy—will find out
what fire and brimstone is all about.
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The
Saviour[’s first coming] was to fulfill His plan of love, to
teach men by gentle persuasion. This time [at His second coming],
whether men like it or not, they will be subjects of His Kingdom by
necessity. |
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—From a catechetical
instruction
by Saint Cyril of Jerusalem, bishop
(Office of Readings, First Sunday of Advent) |
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