Posts Tagged: 1 John 3:16-18

“Sympathy and Responsibility”

On December 1, 2021 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

Here is part of a good reading from Hazelden:

“Meditation for the Day

Having sympathy and compassion for all who are in temptation, a condition which we are sometimes in, we have a responsibility towards them. Sympathy always includes responsibility. Pity is useless because it does not have a remedy for the need. But wherever our sympathy goes, our responsibility goes too. When we are moved with compassion, we should go to the one in need and bind up his wounds as best we can.

Prayer for the Day

I pray that I may have sympathy for those in temptation. I pray that I may have compassion for others’ trials.” (From Twenty-Four Hours a Day © 1975 by Hazelden Foundation.)

I was especially brought to a meditative halt by the sentence, “Sympathy always includes responsibility.”

The Bible (both the Old and the New Testaments) makes much the same point. Here is one example of many:

“1John 3:16   By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 17 But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? 18 Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.”

John is saying that loving and giving practical help go together. Love is not a feeling. Love is an action verb.

I have a good twelve-step friend (we’ll call him “Dick”, although that is not his real name) who picks up the phone when I’m having a rough day. Before long, he will ask, “What can I do to be of service to you?” Actually, he has already done it by picking up the phone and listening.

God, how can I practice responsible sympathy today?

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