A Tender Heart

Without tenderness of spirit the most intensely righteous, religious life is like the image of God without His beauty and attractiveness.

It’s possible to be very religious, and firm, and persevering in all Christian duties, even to be sanctified, and be a brave defender and preacher of holiness, to be orthodox, and blameless in outward life, and very zealous in good works, and yet to be greatly lacking in tenderness of spirit, that all-subduing, all melting love, which streamed out from the eyes and voice of Jesus.

Many Christians seem loaded with good fruits, but the fruit tastes rotten. There is a touch of vinegar in their sanctity. Their very purity has an icy coldness to it. Their testimonies are straight and definite, but they lack the melting quality.

Their prayers are intelligent and strong and pointed, but they lack the heart-piercing pity of the dying Jesus. The summer heat in them is lacking. They preach eloquently and explain with utmost nicety what is actual and original sin and what is pardon and purity, but they lack the burning flame, that interior furnace of throbbing love, that sighs and weeps and breaks down under the shivering heat of all-consuming love.

Tenderness of spirit makes its home in the bosom of Jesus. It feels all things from God’s standpoint, and lives to receive and transmit the spotless sympathies and affections of Jesus. It understands the words of the Holy Spirit, Tenderness must be in the very nature, and forgiveness is but the behavior of that nature. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” (Ephesians 4:32)

- G.D. Watson