Children face many challenges as they grow up. They count on the significant people in their lives to provide truth and guidance. They model themselves after these people, and take their words into their hearts. This is fine and good if the words are positive and truthful:

you are loved,

you’re worth my time and attention,

God made you perfect just the way you are,

you’re fun to be around,

you have a good mind.

But lies and half-truths can hurt the child’s heart:

no one likes you,

you are stupid,

you’re not worth the air you breathe,

you are a burden,

you can’t do anything right.

These lies form cage bars which, when reinforced over the years, keep a child securely bound.

That’s where I found myself at twenty years old. After years of unsuccessfully trying to break the bars, the lies I believed, I gave up. I was stuck in that cage. Death was the only way out. And so, I curled up in the corner and waited to die.

Then Jesus found me. He woke me up and told me He had removed the bars. He called me to the freedom He offered those who followed Him.

I celebrated the freedom. I danced around my cage with excitement and devotion to my Savior. I told everyone who came near me about the freedom that He paid for. I soaked in His love and loved Him back with all that I had.

But I didn’t leave the cage. The problem was I still saw the bars. The lies were still binding me because I believed the lies over the truth. They were more familiar. They made more sense. They felt right. They were what I was taught and were frequently being reinforced by people I respected. I must have misunderstood what Jesus had said. I questioned the definition of the words He used and convinced myself that He wasn’t talking about me. I was fine where I was no matter how hard it felt at times.

Over the years, fellow Christians told me they loved me. Some even got in the cage with me so they could feel what I did. They acknowledged the difficulties of my environment and offered me pillows and a blanket to make me more comfortable in my bondage.

But a few Christians loved me enough to continually redirect my attention to the bar-less doorway. They challenged, coaxed, and urged me to see the truth. They didn’t try to make my cage more comfortable. That would have just enabled me to stay where I was. They didn’t offer to stay in the cage with me, validating my belief about the bars. Instead, they confronted my choice to believe the lies and gave me the information I needed to gain freedom.

Which Christians loved me like Jesus loved people when He was on the earth?

Did Jesus come to free us from sin or to make us more comfortable in our cages?

I think people today confuse empathy with compassion. Empathy is feeling with, understanding, and sharing the feelings of another person – while compassion is feeling for them with the desire to help alleviate their suffering. Empathy is a feeling that often comes before compassion which turns that feeling into helpful action. Empathy is a feeling. Compassion is action.

Jesus has compassion on us. He feels deep sorrow for the pain our choices cause us. But He doesn’t leave us there. He paid the price to free us and He gave us His Word to counter the bars we see in front of us.

Jesus walked the earth with compassion. He didn’t enter anyone’s cages, agreeing with how hard and painful life was, and commending them for the ways they had made their cages more comfortable. Instead, He consistently called people out of their cages. He spoke the truth no matter how comfy the cage was. He offered freedom – not acceptance of their plight.

I have looked but cannot find any place in the Bible that Jesus affirmed the lives of sinful people and left it at that. He ate with them. He talked with them. He accepted them as beloved people.  But He called them out of their sin. He preached repentance. He told them to “sin no more”. He told His critics that He had come to the sick and the lost. He taught about the kingdom of heaven. He called them to follow Him and to tell others about Him. And He commissioned His followers to do the same.

I hear frequently that we need to love all people like Jesus did. I totally agree. However, if we’re going to love people like Jesus did, then let’s love people like Jesus really did. Not how modern culture says He did. Now how our personal convictions make us feel He did. Not how other people claim He did. But how the Bible shows He did. Let’s compassionately and courageously love people enough to call them out of their cages and into the arms of their Savior.

Scriptures

Sin is Bondage and Leads to Death

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. John 8:34 

Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-10 

Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? Romans 6:16 

Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach and is expelled? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a person. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.” Matthew 15:17-20 

Why Jesus Came

From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Matthew 4:17 

For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” Luke 19:10

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Luke 4:18-19 

And when Jesus heard it, he said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.” Mark 2:17 

… God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38 

Repentance

You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect Matthew 5:48 

Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, “See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.” John 5:14 

Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.”]] John 8:10-11 

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. Luke 9:23 

If your right eye causes you to sin, tear it out and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell. Matthew 5:29 

Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Hebrews 13:4 

Don’t Sin Yourself as You Help Others Out of Their Cages

Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Or do you not realize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail to meet the test! 2 Corinthians 13:5 

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” Luke 17:3-4 

Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? Matthew 7:3 

No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it. 1 Corinthians 10:13 

Directions from Jesus

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20 

That is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:19 

The Authority of the Bible

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17 

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17