THIS LITTLE ARTICLE HAS BEEN A WHILE IN COMING. Some are like that. They gestate over a period of time until they are ready to flower. Then wild horses could not hold it back. Yesterday, at a certain time of day (some readers will understand why), the whole subject of empathy raised itself before me like a banner on which I had to place the words. I knew then that it would hunt me down until I dealt with it. After that, it always happens the same way. I wake up in the night with ideas which I have to write down in OneNote on my phone so that they will be ready and waiting for me on my computer in the morning. Then I think I’ve finished with the ideas and start to go back to sleep. Then another wave of them comes at me like a tsunami. There is nothing more I want to do than go back to sleep but it will not let me and so on goes the phone again. This can go on for hours! So it was last night with this subject of empathy. “But why?” you might ask. “What is so special about empathy? Isn’t that kinda New Age or left-wing?” Really, I have to laugh. Here begins the article…

A number of months ago — in May I think it was — I became aware of a rather extraordinary phenomenon. It was being reported that the so-called “Christian Right” and the MAGA people were saying that empathy is a sin, that it is not biblical, and that it is exclusively symptomatic of New Age lily-liveredness and of the left-wing ‘bleeding heart’ brigade. I realised in an instant that these folks do not have a clue about the nature of the Christian character and that what they were claiming is nothing less than a pack of lies. But that such a way of thinking should come from such people does not surprise me. There is an arrogant harshness and hardness (and smugness) afoot in that circle of people (especially in the USA)  which I believe is the antithesis of the loving empathy to which a disciple of Christ is called. I see that harshness and hardness (and smugness) very clearly in Donald Trump and his MAGA acolytes and it has now become de rigueur in those circles to dismiss empathy as being unbiblical, a worthless component of character, and symptomatic of left-wing tendencies.

Before I go any further, let me say a word or two about “wings”. Some time ago, I used to think that I was kinda “right-wing” but not in a political sense, just in a conservative sense. That was until I realised how unempathic and lacking in love and compassion so many right-wing people are; how they thrive on “sticking it” to the left, always having to ‘score points’ over the other. Right-wing pundits can even become multi-millionaires solely through roasting ‘woke’ lefties on podcasts and in public events! The left is no better. Those two factions exist solely to “roast” each other and they are stuck in a perpetual adversarial mode of existence, disputing and arguing, indulging in vain and worthless controversies, which the Bible soundly condemns (e.g., 2 Timothy 2:23-25). One sees that very clearly when watching the UK Parliament in session. It is agonisingly adversarial and all about point-scoring and posturing. So, quite some time ago I renounced “wings”, and now I am no wing whatsoever… and now I get roasted by both!🤣

So now I want to briefly address this question: “Is Empathy a necessary part of the Christian character?” If I wanted to answer that in the affirmative or negative right now I would utter a wholehearted “YES!” In fact, I do not believe that it is possible to be a genuine disciple of Christ without empathy. I would go even further and suggest that genuine empathy in the disciple of Christ is a sign of regeneration, of being ‘born again’. There. I said it. Now I will go on to prove it…

First question: Did Jesus exhibit empathy? He most certainly did… massively! We see this, for example, in the account of the death of Lazarus. “When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled” (John 11:33). If that isn’t empathy, then what is it? This whole episode in John 11 displays not mere sympathy but actual empathy of Jesus with Mary and Martha, identifying with them so much that Jesus Himself also wept (John 11:35). In fact, Jesus is the epitome of empathy. As the Scripture says: “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who was tempted in every way that we are, yet was without sin” (Hebrews 4:15). That is not mere sympathy; it is empathy. Jesus sympathises with our weaknesses because He can empathise with them because He underwent temptation too. He has experienced humanity and can thus empathise with our situation. In fact, isn’t that what lies behind the incarnation, which must also be an act of empathy — identifying with us because He has actually walked in our flesh? We can go even further and ask, “Isn’t the atonement the ultimate act of empathy”? Sure enough, we find both the incarnation and atonement presented as acts involving empathy in a passage in the Letter to the Hebrews:

“Now since the children have flesh and blood, He too shared in their humanity, so that by His death He might destroy him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. For surely it is not the angels He helps, but the descendants of Abraham. For this reason He had to be made like His brothers in every way, so that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, in order to make atonement for the sins of the people. Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted” (Hebrews 2:14-18).

“Because He Himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted”. That is a pure statement of empathy. He understands us ‘first-hand’ because He has walked on earth in our flesh. This is an extraordinary thought which should fill us with a deep sense of assurance when we realise how Jesus’ empathy with us has created a union which can never be broken. As A.H. Strong puts it:

“We may, indeed, be thus united to Christ without being fully conscious of the real nature of our relation to him…Christ and the believer have the same life. They are not separate persons linked together by some temporary bond of friendship,—they are united by a tie as close and indissoluble as if the same blood ran in their veins” (A.H. Strong, Systematic Theology, Vol.3, Pickering Inglis, 1981, f.p.1907, p.802).

So you see that the empathy of Jesus with us is a vital part of Christology. He has walked in our flesh so that He understands first-hand our nature. Even more, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus actually BECAME sin on our behalf when He was on the cross in a state of forsakenness by the Father. He was being identified as one of us and taking on Himself in our place the hellishness that we deserved. Surely, the atonement involved the utmost in empathy! That is the love of God in action. The incarnation of Christ shows Jesus as empathically involved with His human creation. The atonement of Christ involved Him being treated as if He was sin itself in our place. One could meditate on all this empathy for a long time.

There are many other instances of Jesus’ empathy. There are a number of occasions when it is said that “Jesus had compassion”. The right-wingers would say at this point, “Yeah, well that is compassion but that is different to empathy”. Actually, generally speaking, all those ‘professional’ right-wingers do not have real compassion either. But the point here is that one cannot really have deep compassion for another unless one has empathy. Compassion inevitably involves empathy. It is when one imagines the plight of the other and thus identifies with it (empathy) that compassion can then begin. It is empathy which begets compassion — the ability to identify with and thus understand the suffering of another. But the main lesson here is that if Jesus had empathy — and He most certainly did as He was empathy personified — then surely we should too.

Who says that empathy is not in the Bible? The Bible is full of it. Paul said, “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep” (Romans 12:15). That is an injunction to be empathic. “Carry one another’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfil the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). So is that. “Remember those in prison as if you were bound with them, and those who are mistreated as if you were suffering with them” (Hebrews 13:3). That is empathy par excellence in action.

Christian empathy is not ‘schmaltz’; it is not sentimentality; it is not emotionalism or mawkish slush; it is not “New Age” (as I have seen it put: let the reader make the connection). Empathy is being deeply human as humans were originally intended by God to be. When we are told “Love your neighbour as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18; Matthew 22:39; Galatians 5:14; James 2:8), that automatically makes you empathic for you are forced to put yourself in the neighbour’s shoes and say, “Is this person being treated by me at least as well as I would treat myself?” Bear in mind that loving your neighbour as yourself (and therefore being an empathic person) is of equal importance as ‘Loving the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind’ (Matthew 22:38-39). “No other commandment is greater than these” (Mark 12:31). So this is vital stuff, my friends, and not to be taken lightly, or, worse to be dismissed.

Lastly (otherwise this could easily turn into another book!), empathy is a central part of the love that is exclusively Christian. That love is known as Agapé, from the Greek, ἀγάπη, agapé. This is the essence of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13. Such love is not just an emotional response to another but it always involves action. If no action takes place, then it is not agapé. It is impossible to experience the fullness of agapé without empathy. When the other is suffering, the one who experiences agapé feels that suffering of the other as if it were his or her own. That is empathy. When the other is delighting, the one who experiences agapé feels that delight of the other as if it were his or her own. That is empathy. When the other is struggling, the one who experiences agapé feels that struggle of the other as if it were his or her own. That is empathy. Empathy is what makes agapé spring into action.

Paul concludes his first letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13, by saying: “These three remain: faith, hope, and love; [πίστις, pistis; ἐλπίς, elpis; and ἀγάπη, agapé] but the greatest of these is ἀγάπη, agapé”. Do you see the clear inference there? Agapé is greater than faith or hope. Imagine that! Well, that should not surprise us because “faith without deeds is useless” (James 2:20) and is no faith at all. If there is no real agapé in a person’s character, then there is unlikely to be any faith. And how can one have hope in anything if one is devoid of faith or love (agapé)? This is why I said above: “I do not believe that it is possible to be a genuine disciple of Christ without empathy. I would go even further and suggest that genuine empathy in the disciple of Christ is a sign of regeneration, of being ‘born again’”. I stand by this absolutely. The true Christian is able to stand in the shoes of others (metaphorically, of course) and understand why they are as they are, why they believe what they believe, and why they do what they do… and then take the appropriate loving action as a result of that. Without empathy (understanding why the other is who he or she is) one’s evangelism is made more difficult and less ‘tailor-made’.

So, to answer the question I posed earlier in this article, “Is Empathy a necessary part of the Christian character?”, I can only answer absolutely in the affirmative. I find the denial of this deeply disturbing and symptomatic of the burgeoning degeneration and apostasy across this earth.

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2025
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]

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