Compassionate Love Needed

In a home where love reigns, where one has compassionate love toward the other, you will find the wife submissive to the husband, the husband loving the wife, the children obeying the parents – not in a compromising way, not letting down the standards of righteousness, but in obedience to God's Word which says, “Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility” (1 Peter 5:5).

Some think they can have the love of God in the heart and ill-will toward another at the same time. Ill-will and love do not dwell together. The other person may have done wrong. He may even have sinned; but if one has God's love in his heart, he has a love that will cover a multitude of sins.

There is too much discord in many homes today, and a hard spirit exists. A husband and wife can become so accustomed to being together that they forget God's injunction to show courtesy and respect one to the other. The wife may say, “My husband is so very surly, it is no use.” But the wife can take much of that spirit out of her husband by her acts of kindness; and he, likewise, can change the attitude of his wife by the things he does for her.

There are those who are always attempting to set the others right in the home. It is a big undertaking to try to set others right. If it is necessary to reprove one, or if he has failed and repented, the trouble is to be forgiven and forgotten. It is well to remember that God had compassion on us when He forgave us our sins and trespasses. The Word says, “put on . . . bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, . . . forbearing one another, and forgiving one another” (Colossians 3:12, 13). Love – compassionate love – keeps the sweetness in the home under trying circumstances.