Sermon Tone Analysis

The Empathetic Christian

17 Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,

And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;

18 Lest the Lord see it, and it displease Him,

And He turn away His wrath from him.

God frowns on us enjoying other peoples misfortune.

We should not enjoy others suffering, but some do.

3 Lit.

it be evil in His eyes

The New King James Version.

(1982).

().

Nashville: Thomas Nelson.17  Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: 18  Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him.

People all around us have situations in their life that need our compassion, prayers, and understanding about what they are facing in order for us to be an empathetic Christian.

We, as Christians, do not have to travel a distance in order to carry out God’s work for us and to exercise the teachings of Jesus.

People all around us have situations in their life that need our compassion, prayers, and understanding about what they are facing in order for us to be an empathetic Christian.

In order for me to fully understand the meaning, I looked up the definition of a couple of words.

Empathetic, when I looked up our verses on the internet to gain some inside , the word empathetic was used and I thought it expressed this verse very well.

vicariously : experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another

Empathetic: involving, characterized by, or based on empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner;

vicariously : experienced or realized through imaginative or sympathetic participation in the experience of another

: involving, characterized by, or based on empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner;

We show our understanding and compassion toward people and their situations by either having experienced it ourselves or by imagination of how it would affect us if we were in the same circumstance.

Sometimes we do not take time to think about other peoples problems, we say we have enough of our own to care about others.

I am not saying we meddle in someone else’s affairs, do not get the wrong idea of what I am saying.

Spiritually, we need to be involved in others affairs and if asked, then we can help other ways.

The text I will use today is.....

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.

: involving, characterized by, or based on empathy: the action of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the feelings, thoughts, and experience of another of either the past or present without having the feelings, thoughts, and experience fully communicated in an objectively explicit manner;

 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

The New King James Version.

(1982).

().

Nashville: Thomas Nelson.15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep.

16 Be of the same mind toward one another.

Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

Do not be wise in your own opinion.

Reading these verses, there seems to be no real close connection between them.

But they all are rooted in selflessness or self-denial.

We can only bless our persecutors and not curse them if we are more concerned about their eternal welfare than we are about our suffering.

We can only rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep if our focus is off ourselves and on their situation.

There is another connection between these three seemingly disjointed verses: they all are rooted in selflessness or self-denial.

We can only bless our persecutors and not curse them if we are more concerned about their eternal welfare than we are about our suffering.

We can only rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep if our focus is off ourselves and on their situation.

We can only be of the same mind with one another and not be haughty or wise in our own estimation if our eyes are on the Lord and others, not on ourselves.

Selflessness is the thread that ties all three verses together.

To do this rightly-to both rejoice and to weep-requires that we not keep the world at arm’s length.

We can only be of the same mind with one another and not be haughty or wise in our own estimation if our eyes are on the Lord and others, not on ourselves.

Selflessness is the thread that ties all three verses together.

14 Bless those who persecute you; bless, and don’t curse.

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep.

16 Be of the same mind one toward another.

Don’t set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble.

Don’t be wise in your own conceits.

c ; ; [; ];

• Jesus calls us to turn the other cheek, to go the second mile, to love our enemies and to pray for those who persecute us ().

• He calls us to forgive so that we might be forgiven ().

d

• At the cross, Jesus set the example, praying, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing” ().

• As they were stoning him, Stephen prayed, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them” ().

The New King James Version.

(1982).

().

Nashville: Thomas Nelson.

• Paul wrote, “When people curse us, we bless.

Being persecuted, we endure” ().

• Peter advised, “Not rendering evil for evil, or insult for insult; but instead blessing; knowing that to this were you called, that you may inherit a blessing” ().

The idea of blessing has its roots in the OT, where blessings were treated as having great substance—great value (.).

In that context, the person bestowing a blessing was, in a sense, asking God to bless the other person.

In the NT, “blessing” translates the Greek makarios, which conveys the idea of fortunate or happy.

To meet persecution with blessing turns “eye for eye” legalism on its head (see ; ).

15 Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep.

“Rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep“ (v.

15).

Our text began, “Let love (agape) be without hypocrisy” (v.

9).

Agape love desires what is good for the beloved, so it would follow that we would rejoice or weep with the beloved.

Such is often not the case, however, because we find ourselves jealous of other people’s good fortune and judgmental about their bad fortune.

To “rejoice with those who rejoice.

Weep with those who weep” requires a high degree of discipleship—something to which we can aspire and for which we must pray.

“Be of the same mind one toward another“ (v.

16a)—to auto eis allelous phronountes—literally, “thinking the same thing toward one another.”

While this does not require us to agree at every point, it does require us to be agreeable.

“Don’t set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble“ (v.

16b).

The central thesis of this epistle is that we are all sinners (3:9) and are saved by the grace of God rather than by anything that we have done (3:24).

We are, therefore, equals under God’s grace.

“Don’t be wise in your own conceits“ (v.

16c).

This is good advice for every human relationship.

Humility draws people near, but conceit repels.

Quiet competence trumps loud semi-competence—perhaps not immediately, but certainly in the long run.

Gut-Level Friendship.

Gut-Level Friendship.

The New King James says that we are to “rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep” (v.

15).

Eugene Peterson offers this version: “Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down” (MSG).

Here we have the extremes of life.

To do this rightly-to both rejoice and to weep-requires that we not keep the world at arm’s length.

As long as we don’t let anyone get too close to us, this verse won’t apply to us.

By definition you have to walk close enough with people so that we know when they are rejoicing or weeping.

If we keep them on the other side of the street, we can wave in the distance, and keep on driving while listening to our favorite music on our iPod.

We can’t obey this verse long-distance.

And we can’t do if we stay super busy.