All those who seek to engage with the struggles and sufferings of others know the importance of emotional connection. And while feeling compassion or sympathy or empathy for another person certainly doesn’t mean we jettison Biblical standards, what it does mean is that we seek to enter into the emotional experience of another person.
We know that it matters. It is such a blessing when others feel our pain. But we also know that it costs. It is one thing to recognise and acknowledge the pain of others, quite another to enter into it so that we feel it with the other person. That asks much more of us. So why do it? Here are four quick reasons.
It’s Christ-like and expected
First, because to do so is Christ-like. The incarnation was the ultimate entering in. It is why ‘we do not have a high priest who is unable to feel sympathy for our weaknesses, but … one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are – yet he did not sin’ (Heb. 4:15). Jesus’ ministry was full of compassion. In his famous essay, B.B. Warfield surveyed every gospel reference to the emotions of Jesus and found that by far the most common was compassion. He has entered into our sufferings.
