Tim Keller.
He is the second of my seminary theological heroes to go the way of all the earth. (R.C. Sproul was the first.) Keller died on May 19th after a lengthy battle with pancreatic cancer. By all reports, he was faithful to the end. According to his son, some of his last words in prayer were, “I’m thankful for the time God has given me, but I’m ready to see Jesus. I can’t wait to see Jesus. Send me home.”
Keller was a pastor and teacher to far more than those he ever met. Through his prolific writing and speaking, he impacted lives across the globe. There’s no doubt he will be remembered for generations. Is it too soon to call him the C.S. Lewis of the 21st century? Maybe. But I suspect he will enter the evangelical “pantheon” with much the same respect and gratitude. And the position is well deserved.
Thank you, Tim. You will be missed.
Compassion and Conviction
Not long ago, I lead our students through a three-week study on what the Bible has to say about love and sexuality. Taking my cue from none other than Miley Cyrus, I entitled the series, “Love Me Better” (see her hit single “Flowers” for more on that). One of the points I tried to drive home was that, contrary to popular belief, the Bible’s vision for love and sexuality is better than what our world has on offer right now.
Of course, not everyone agrees. Thus, in the second week of our study, we spent time looking at Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4, trying to discern some guidance for how to engage those who disagree and/or don’t align with the Bible’s vision. I commend the passage to you for reflection.
Here was a woman who clearly failed to align herself with the Bible’s vision for love and sexuality. Five husbands, currently living with a man who was not her husband. Jesus could have shredded her in condemnation! But he didn’t. Why?
Because Jesus loved with compassion and conviction. In fact, he rarely came down hard on people mired in sin…though he had a habit of confronting religious people who wouldn’t admit their sins. These two aspects of Jesus’ love, compassion and conviction, are essential for us to recover today as we engage with those who disagree with the Bible’s vision for love and sexuality (and a host of other topics).
Follow Jesus
Reading that, you might be thinking, “Aren’t those two, compassion and conviction, sort of opposed?” That’s a fair response. I recognize there’s a tension between the two. How do we have deep and sincere compassion while holding steadfast to our biblical convictions? That’s a fantastic question.
My answer might dissatisfy you, but here is it: follow Jesus. What do I mean by that?
Let’s start with the second part of the answer, Jesus. Consider this from John 1:14, “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
Full of grace and truth. This is what I have in mind when I use the terms compassion and conviction. That Jesus was full of grace, gentleness, kindness, compassion for people. And that Jesus was full of truth, righteousness, knowledge, and biblical conviction. Jesus was both unwaveringly committed to loving people, and he was unwaveringly committed to loving God. He did not falter in his softness towards people in need, nor did he falter in his firmness towards the truth of God’s word.
That much we can handle. But the first part of the answer is where we feel the rub: Jesus calls us to follow him into this tension. We must not choose between grace and truth, between compassion and conviction. Rather, Jesus intends to cultivate both virtues in our character, allowing the Spirit of wisdom to guide us when to lean in with compassion or press in with conviction. When Jesus teaches us to love God and love neighbor, he welcomes us to participate in this tension of love just as he did.
We don’t get to choose. We simply must follow.
Keller on Love and Truth
In talking about this tension, Tim Keller wrote about love and truth in his book, The Meaning of Marriage. (I think Keller’s terms are roughly synonymous with my terms, compassion and conviction.) I like how he puts it when he says:
Love without truth is sentimentality; it supports and affirms us but keeps us in denial about our flaws. Truth without love is harshness; it gives us information but in such a way that we cannot really hear it.
Did you catch that? On the one hand, Keller says, if we only have compassion, we keep people in the dark about their sins and need for a Savior. And that’s not really compassion at all, but what Keller calls “sentimentality”. Compassion without conviction is like a Hallmark movie that leaves you feeling good about yourself, warm and cozy inside a fuzzy blanket of affirmation. But it’s not rooted in anything – at least not anything deep and true and meaningful. In that way, sentimentality is empty and without substance because it doesn’t deal fairly with reality, the reality of our brokenness, our sin, and our need for salvation.
On the other hand, Keller says, if we only have conviction, we communicate something true but – to quote the Apostle Paul – we’re like “a noisy gong” or “a clanging cymbal” (1 Cor. 13:1; 14:6-12). That is, what we’re saying isn’t intelligible to people; our hearers can’t make sense of it. And that’s not really conviction at all, at least not in any useful sense. Keller calls conviction without compassion, “harshness”. Harshness is like a protestor with a megaphone but with the volume turned up so loud that their voice is distorted, and therefore, no one can hear them (and, I might add, eventually people tune out such voices).
If you’re anything like me, I’ve seen a lot of harshness come out of the church in recent years. Whether it was about sexuality, abortion, voting, Covid-19, gun rights, racism, or something else, you don’t have to look very far to see how followers of Jesus haven’t in fact followed Jesus. In the evangelical crowds of which I’m a part, sadly, we’re pretty good at being harsh – at holding on to our convictions without having compassion for people. Now, I’m not throwing stones. There have been moments where I was guilty of this too. But God have mercy on us for taking solace in our agreement with Jesus’ truth, while walking out of alignment with Jesus’ way.
This was one of the many things I appreciated so much about Keller. He treated even his ideological opponents with the utmost respect. In public debate, he was known for stating opponents’ viewpoints just as well (or better!) as they would. Then, and only then, would he deconstruct, criticize, and offer a biblical viewpoint as a better alternative. He never raised his voice. He never intimidated with his presence. But neither did he back down. He offered neither sentimentality nor harshness. Keller was mastered not only by the truth of Jesus, but by the way of Jesus. He offered a compassionate conviction that treated everyone with the respect due a fellow divine image-bearer.
Two Errors
Some may take issue with me at this point, “Jon, are you suggesting we just need to be nicer to people? That sounds rather “agenda-ish”. This generation – and this world – need to know the truth!” No, that’s not what I’m suggesting. In fact, as much as some of our compassion-conviction scales may run heavy towards conviction, the scales of our students’ generation run heavy in the opposite direction. It’s fair to say that Gen Z is compassion heavy, such that at times what they offer the world is closer to “sentimentality” than true compassion. While those my age and up often fail to walk in Jesus’ way by clinging to “truth”, the temptation of our youth is to fail to walk in Jesus’ way by clinging to “niceness” (thus, never having a hard conversation, never standing apart from the crowd, and/or never bearing the scorn of the cross).
The point is we all tend to be a little “heavy” to one side of the compassion-conviction scale, and both are errors. Both are deviations from the narrow way of Jesus. He is the only one who had an equal measure, a just scale, of compassion and conviction. With perfect wisdom he was compassionate when compassion was called for without losing his convictions, and he maintained his convictions when making them known was called for without losing his compassion. And because of this, he is not only a faithful high priest and blameless sacrifice on our behalf, but he is the founder and perfecter of our faith. In Jesus, we find forgiveness and freedom to follow his lead.
So ask yourself… On which side of the scale do you run heavy? Which aspect, compassion or conviction, do you find easier to give up on in a pinch?
The reality is we all need Jesus. We all need his Spirit. We all need his character-transforming grace. We all need divinely-granted wisdom. And God is not stingy in the giving.
Tim Keller helped me see - in theory and in practice - that you can love people while holding together compassion and conviction, just like Jesus. Thank you, Tim.
Really a wonderful read. So sad to hear about Tim Keller, yet he leaves us a legacy. Great points for us to consider and put into action. Thank you