What is Sympathy and Compassion?

Biblical sympathy is the ability (not the necessity) to feel what someone else feels as well as the ability to understand how others feel. It is the capacity to feel another person’s feelings, thoughts, or attitudes vicariously, as a distinct and separate person, coming alongside a sufferer for their help and betterment. It is the ability to exercise grace or favor toward someone else, or to show kindness, in relieving sorrow and want from others. It is what a Christian is to express when he or she encounters someone suffering and wishes to be an aid to them in the midst of their trial, as well as, an instrument in the relief of their misery. In short, biblical sympathy and compassion are the ability to act as Christ did toward those who suffer. 

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