TOV Week 3 Empathy and Compassion Teaching Only

John 11 shows that Christlike empathy does not respond to every person in the same way. Jesus loved Martha, Mary, Lazarus, and His disciples, yet His love took different forms according to what each person needed. He delayed going to Bethany because His disciples needed a deeper faith. He met Martha’s grief with truth, declaring that He is the resurrection and the life. He entered Mary’s sorrow, was deeply moved, and wept with those who were grieving. At Lazarus’s tomb, Jesus demonstrated compassion through action, calling Lazarus out of death and revealing God’s glory so that others might believe in Him. Empathy seeks to see, enter, and understand another person’s experience and needs. Compassion moves us to respond for that person’s good. When we submit to Jesus as Lord, we learn to consider another person’s true good, speak truth with love, enter the sorrow of those who are hurting, respond to the needs of others with compassionate action, and point people to the hope found in Jesus.