Sympathy or Empathy

Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. —Romans 12:15

It is significant that the first of John’s “signs” in his gospel was performed by the Lord at a wedding, the last at a funeral. The one was performed in life’s happiest hour, the other in life’s saddest hour. In the one Jesus rejoiced with those that rejoiced, and in the other He wept with those that wept.

There is a difference between sympathy and empathy. Sympathy is to express sorrow for another’s sadness.  Empathy is to experience sorrow as though you were going through the same sadness as another.

Empathy is illustrated in Hebrews 13:3— “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them: and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.”  When you pray for another believer in prison, you should put yourself in their situation— “as bound with them.”  When you pray for a brother or sister who is suffering adversity, you should pray for them “as being yourselves in [their] body.”  That is, as if you were also suffering the same affliction… laying in the same hospital bed… or going thought the same trial.

How real empathy would change how we pray for one another!