…be sympathetic …
Summary: To be sympathetic is to resonate with another person’s heart. Being sympathetic is an important component of love. Being sympathetic is essential in the Body of Christ.
Peter has been explaining what it means to submit to God. We are to be obedient to Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:2) and follow his example. He has been teaching on the importance of being “holy in all you do” (1 Peter 1:15). Peter has outlined how we apply this in our lives, both in the civic realm and in our own homes. Now his focus has turned on the body of believers, the church.
Yesterday Peter encouraged us to be like-minded. Today he begins the process of explaining how to do that. He will tell us to be sympathetic, love each other, be compassionate, and be humble. We begin by looking at the first of these of like-mindedness traits; being sympathetic.
Occasionally, I have been known to play the guitar. Whether I play well or not (I don’t!) is not the point here. The point is that guitars can illustrate the principle of being sympathetic. When two strings are tuned to the same note, plucking one string will cause both to vibrate. If I mute the first string, the other will still sing.
Being a sympathetic human is similar to being a sympathetic string. When one person experiences pain or joy, a sympathetic person feels the same pain or joy in their heart. The same emotion resonates in both hearts.
If we are to be like-minded in the Body of Christ, we need to be sympathetic. Without that ability, we close the eyes of our heart. Without the eyes of our heart, we cannot love. Being sympathetic is an essential component of love. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13:1, “If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.”
Now imagine that where you attend church the people are sympathetic. What would that be like? If someone was hurting, how would others respond? If someone was happy, what would that be like? And what if someone had recently come to know Christ, but didn’t yet know or understand the teachings of the Bible?
The heart of the sympathetic person “sees” hurt and joy, but it also sees the uncertainty that comes with not knowing. The sympathetic person resonates with the fear of not being accepted. The sympathetic heart embraces and sings to the heart that is tuned to Jesus. It doesn’t matter how that person is dressed, what they sound like, or how much they know. The sympathetic heart recognizes another sympathetic heart.
Application: Practice ”seeing” with your heart.
Food for Thought: If someone asked you to help them become more sympathetic, what would you tell them?
Have you met Jeff, Rich, Rob, Tad, ect…
The reason for my answer is because I’m not yet experienced enough to properly help guide someone as much as Ron, Jeff, Rich, ect. I would try to be a part of helping them as much as I could but I know that I am limited in this area. It would be a lesson I would be eager to be a part of to help me grow spiritually to help later.
Just realized reading everyone’s comments is helping me grow spiritually so I can help someone later on. Thank you everyone that comments, your comments do impact lives and help kinda like a butterfly effect.
Tim,
Thank you for your affirmations today. You are a blessing to me. I also think you have an intuitive sense of what being sympathetic means.
When a person steps out to intentionally help others, when someone does something for others that they cannot do for themselves, that is really demonstrating what being sympathetic is all about.
This would seem to me to be a very strange question. Something has happened, something has made them feel they are not or were not a sympathetic person. I would ask them what they mean, get more details. Get them to open up on what prompted this question.
I can’t change a persons heart, but I can do my best to try understanding their problem and provide direction. If they are a believer, they need to allow Jesus to rule their heart, If they don’t know Jesus we could take care of that.
Mark 1:41, Moved with compassion, Jesus stretched out His hand and touched him, and *said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”
Romans 12:15, Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.
Ron,
I appreciate your thoughts on today’s question. Actually, I think your answer is fantastic! You have showed us one of the key skills needed for being sympathetic: listening. Trying to understand people is what this is all about. Well done! 🙂
(You get a GOLD STAR today!! ⭐️)
First of all, excellent devotion. I like how you defined and illustrated sympathy and its importance in the church body. Sympathy or compassion (I think those are closely related) motivated Jesus often (Matthew 9: 35 – 38).
I am humbled by anonymous’s answer. I also like Ron’s response verse choices in the comment above this one.
If someone wanted to become more sympathetic, I would encourage them to be discipled or learn by observing someone who has been sympathetic to them. I would also encourage them to see people as Jesus sees them. To do that, they might observe how Jesus sees people from His life on earth as recorded in the gospels.
Rich,
Observing Jesus is alway a great answer! As examples go, I agree with Tim that you are an excellent model for learning to be sympathetic. You “see” with your heart, and while that is not something that is easy to teach, it is important to strive for.
I would probably ask them if they knew the meaning first,..I had to look up what sympathetic means,..from the definition I have it is: feeling compassion for someone or a situation,…example,..I could feel bad for someone who lost their job or loved one
A lot of it really has to do with listening,..one can hear and not be compassionate about what they are hearing,..we all know that hearing and listening are two different things,..
Then I would ask them to use it in sentence so I could understand what they need to be more sympathetic with,..I have learned that when I speak things out,.. the meaning becomes very clear and I wind up answering my own questions,..kinda like how scripture backs up scripture,..the more I read out loud to myself and even in my head the more clear scripture becomes and the more I use it in my everyday talk with others,..
So,..I would need to be more compassionate in my listening in order to help anyone else be more sympathetic with theirs.
John,
I had to look the word up, too! It is interesting in that “sympathetic” and “sympathy” are related, but not the same. Sympathy suggests that one has pity for another, but that is like looking down on someone. Being sympathetic, is more like relating to another person with an attitude of affirmation.
I appreciate you drawing a distinction between “hearing” and “listening” too. You are right. In a sense we have to hear with the ears of the heart just like we see with the eyes of the heart.
Thank you!
👍🏻