Empathy Isn't Compassion
I recently heard a businessman taking responsibility for a hire who wasn’t a good fit. A colleague said to the businessman, “If you let him go, he will be heartbroken! And don’t forget about the pile of financial difficulties that he and his family are already facing.” The businessman responded, “I have empathy for the guy. I can understand those feelings. But it would be a total lack of compassion to let him stay in a spot that isn’t healthy or good for him or the company.”
In his teaching about marriage and parenting, Paul Tripp makes the point that “every idol demands a sacrifice.” If you make an idol out of anger, you will sacrifice peace in your home. If you make an idol out of entertainment, you will sacrifice the time and energy that could be spent on more important things, like leading your family.
If EMPATHY becomes an idol, we sacrifice COMPASSION. Often, idols are good things that become main things. Empathy is a good thing in the church, as it is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. We are called to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. But if you make empathy an idol, you also sacrifice yourself. Rather than one person sitting in the darkness, now there are two. The light beckons, and it does so with compassion.
Here’s the difference. COMPASSION will sit with someone in the dark but refuse to leave them there. It will refuse to allow their emotions to have the final say. Compassion includes empathy, but it adds the extra action step of providing Gospel-driven help.
EMPATHY is a very important stop on the journey to COMPASSION.
Matthew 9:36-37 says, “When He [Jesus] saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to the disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
The compassion of Jesus calls us to have empathy for the harassed and helpless, and be compassionate shepherds who labor to bring a plentiful harvest out of darkness and into light. Without compassion, there is no harvest.
In his teaching about marriage and parenting, Paul Tripp makes the point that “every idol demands a sacrifice.” If you make an idol out of anger, you will sacrifice peace in your home. If you make an idol out of entertainment, you will sacrifice the time and energy that could be spent on more important things, like leading your family.
If EMPATHY becomes an idol, we sacrifice COMPASSION. Often, idols are good things that become main things. Empathy is a good thing in the church, as it is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. We are called to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. But if you make empathy an idol, you also sacrifice yourself. Rather than one person sitting in the darkness, now there are two. The light beckons, and it does so with compassion.
Here’s the difference. COMPASSION will sit with someone in the dark but refuse to leave them there. It will refuse to allow their emotions to have the final say. Compassion includes empathy, but it adds the extra action step of providing Gospel-driven help.
EMPATHY is a very important stop on the journey to COMPASSION.
Matthew 9:36-37 says, “When He [Jesus] saw the crowds, He had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to the disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore, pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.’”
The compassion of Jesus calls us to have empathy for the harassed and helpless, and be compassionate shepherds who labor to bring a plentiful harvest out of darkness and into light. Without compassion, there is no harvest.
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