For without a willingness to suffer for another, love cannot be genuine. When chaos arrives, the devil will ruthlessly exploit this shallow commitment, revealing how quickly a love without empathy grows cold.
Scripture tells us that God cares deeply for the broken, including those whose hearts struggle to feel empathy. We are commanded to bear one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2), a task that requires a compassion we often lack on our own. This is not achieved by our strength, nor does it give us a place to judge others. Instead, we must rely on Christ, for it is God who works through us to produce His Fruit—love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, and goodness (Galatians 5:22-23). Let us therefore embrace the urgency of the gospel, which calls us to extend the same grace we have received to those who need it most.
We can read the scriptures through Christ's lens or we can read them through the lens of a broken, judgmental person. One reveals life and grace; the other reveals only an eye of judgment, revealing that we are broken without Christ.
For God is Love and whenever we fail to love, we see everything through our lenses.
We serve a God who not only loves us but empathizes with us. While the devil's love, devoid of empathy, curdled into hate, God's love is fundamentally different. To see Jesus on the cross and to truly feel the weight of His sacrifice is to be compelled to follow Him for life. He did not arrive as a king, a prince, or a man of wealth, yet when He promises, "I will provide," His word is absolute.
In His faithfulness, God understands our struggles and gave the very best He had: His only Son. This gift—offered so we could be saved and spared from torment—is the ultimate proof that God loves us and feels our pain with us. Never allow the people He has entrusted to your care to make you forget that you, too, are profoundly loved by Him.
Never forget: God cares.
Claiming allegiance to Jesus without the capacity for empathy is a contradiction; such a person does not belong to the Good Shepherd. Consider the difference between Judas and Peter: Judas betrayed Jesus out of a self-centered lack of empathy, while Peter, though he fell, repented and embraced the cost of discipleship. That is the mark of accountable, authentic love.
For without a willingness to suffer for another, love cannot be genuine. When chaos arrives, the devil will ruthlessly exploit this shallow commitment, revealing how quickly a love without empathy grows cold.
