Empathy Is Vital to Loving Others

Empathy is on the decline among young people, according to researchers. Empathy is the ability to look at things from someone else’s perspective, to feel what they may be feeling, and, without prompting, to offer them help if they need it. This decline in empathy may account for why we hear more people arguing that they have no responsibility to seek the wellbeing of others. Their own wellbeing is all that matters, not the wellbeing of others. The wellbeing of others is their own responsibility.

This attitude is a very self-centered one and is certainly not in harmony with Jesus’ teaching and example. Jesus himself saw to the well-being of others, commanding the wind and the waves to be still when the disciples’ boat was in danger of being swamped; healing the sick, the blind, and the lame; expelling demons; restoring a young girl to life and instructing her parents to give her something to eat; miraculously feeding five thousand people rather than sending them away to buy food and having them feint from hunger on the way. Jesus must have also known that some of the people did not have money to buy food. They would have gone hungry.

The decline of empathy in any segment of the population, young or old, the decline of the ability to put oneself in someone else’ shoes, is a cause for concern for Christians ministering to the vulnerable in our society. It makes them even more vulnerable than they already are.

Empathy is also an important ingredient of the love of others that Jesus taught and exemplified during his earthly ministry. God is able to empathize with us because God in the person of Jesus experienced the human condition. God also created humankind and he has known each of us from the time we were in our mother’s womb.

If we are lacking in empathy, we can learn to be empathetic, which is the point of the second article of the two articles to which I am posting links. The link to the first article, “What is empathy? Learn about 3 types of empathy” is https://takealtus.com/2020/06/empathy-1/. The link to the second article, “Being empathetic is important. Can you learn empathy?” is https://takealtus.com/2020/07/empathy-2/.

We can not only learn to be more empathetic, but God desires that we become more empathetic. Consequently, God works in us to have the will and the power to enable us to become more empathetic. As I noted earlier, the ability to empathize with others is a vital ingredient of loving others. We can put ourselves in their place and understand from where they may be coming. We can feel what they are feeling. Without urging we can seek to offer them a helping hand.