Empathy vs Sympathy - and the cross

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Karl Peters

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The Teacher is always teaching me. I actually got this teaching from Him quite a while ago, but He asked me to start a thread on it today.

When I do something, I am very direct about it. When God does something, He always seem to have numerous reasons. Jesus going to the cross had many many reasons behind it. Our salvation via His sacrifice has to be the biggest, but one of the interesting things about the Christ taking on flesh is that it gave Him a new perspective. He then actually knew personally what it was like to be a man walking around in this world we live in. It changed the empathy He had for men into sympathy He had for men.

Now you won't find the word 'empathy' in your Bible because it didn't come into the English language until 1908, and strangely it kind of meant the opposite then. I still find the two easily confused myself. Yet there is a difference between feeling you understand what a person experiences and actually experiencing it for yourself. And this difference become very pronounced when dealing with the Kingdom of God!

We not only have the King, Jesus Christ, when we become Christians, but we also have the Kingdom of God because we have the King with us!!

Jn 10:9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
Heb 1: 14 Are they not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation?
Ps 91:11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.

So we sheep of His, hear His voice and enter through Him, and we find He Kingdom that includes those heavenly hosts called 'angels' who are sent to minister to us and watch over us, per the command of the King who we also know personally!

So it was that I found out that there is a few major differences between the KING OF KINGS/ Jesus Christ and those angels who He sends to minister to me. One difference is that He is God and so is not only far beyond my understanding but even beyond that understanding of the angels what serve Him. Yet another very interesting things I found was that He personally now knows what it is like to be a man that lived in the flesh. here on Earth.

He knows what it is like to feel pain, but the angels don't seem to know about that. Yeah - if you are walking and talking with them and you stub your toe on something, they can see that you are feeling something called pain, but they don't really understand how it can make you want to curse. The angels cannot understand how hitting your toe would cause a person to say something inappropriate, but Jesus does.

So what if you are the average man and you notice a great looking girl? The angles can tell you that the Lord doesn't want you doing that, but they can't understand how a man might say "WOW", because they can't understand how it feels to be you.

There were reasons for the Father having His Son take on flesh and wind up at the cross. If gave the Son a different and greater perspective about how it feels to be us men. Perhaps He should also come back as a woman, but that is not my decision to make. He at least does understand what it is like to walk around in this world in the flesh, unlike all the other heavenly hosts that have remained in heaven. In fact, He understands something I don't yet understand, and that is what it is like to have the flesh give out and die.

The angels can't talk to you about that like Him, and few other people around can be found to talk to you about it. Yet there is One we can talk to who can speaking with both empathy and sympathy. He can speak from experience - but it is not always so easy to believe Him even when He tells you that He has a place for you in heaven. I can't really understand what that will be like because I have not experienced it. Now the angels are good for talking about that with you, :)
 
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lforrest

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Hebrews 4:15​

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.
 

lforrest

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1. By coming to earth as a man Jesus is able to empathize with our weakness.This is a comfort to us, who experience the same hardships.

2. This exemplifies his holiness, as he experienced the same hardships, but this did not lead to him sinning. Further at the Judgement no one can stand before God with the excuse, "You don't know what it was like for me.".

3. This goes for the fallen angels as well, who would make an accusation against God that he couldn't live under his own rules.
 
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Karl Peters

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1. By coming to earth as a man Jesus is able to empathize with our weakness.This is a comfort to us, who experience the same hardships.

2. This exemplifies his holiness, as he experienced the same hardships, but this did not lead to him sinning. Further at the Judgement no one can stand before God with the excuse, "You don't know what it was like for me.".

3. This goes for the fallen angels as well, who would make an accusation against God that he couldn't live under his own rules.

Hebrews 4:15​

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

It is nice to see that you found a Bible version that uses 'empathize', more will use "sympathize" - but the meaning in the verses, as you wisely showed' is the fact that He, by taking on flesh, knows how we feel because He went through life in the flesh like us. It really does make a difference, even in Him who is the King of kings!!

How often we look at some rich privileged person who was put into positions of authority, yet they really never knew how it is to be the average person in this world. They might say something silly like, 'Let them eat cake" when they are just trying to get enough to get by. Recently I saw where some politian was saying something like 'let them all get electric cars'. The people are just trying to get to work and to many that means trying to find a bus take gets them to and fro at the right time.

Yet our King not like that non-understanding politian! His Father place Him on earth in a feeding trough, and make Him a construction worker, then didn't even provide Him a place of His own to live during His ministry. So when I talk to Him, unlike even when I talk to the angels in heaven who did not fall, I find a deeper understanding of my life and my struggles at work, with keeping my car running, paying my taxes, and even when it comes to listening to some of the leaders we have in this country. They are not like Him, and in so many ways! He understands us!

And that is important to get across to those who don't listen to Him!!!!

I often write: He is the KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS, and people be getting the wrong idea. He is that! He does command the angels in heaven. He even sends them to minister to the who will inherit salvation. Still, He will talk to you personally, and He will understand you personally. He not only aware of your problems but He understands how it feels to be a person having problems of this world. We can talk to Him and He will talk to us as someone who does have a deep understanding of what we go through!
 
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