A Field Guide to Biblical Community Exemplo

Yesterday saw the first “one another” command in 1 Peter 3:8: unity. Today looks at others. “Sympathy” is not always well understood. Sympathy can be harder than empathy; it’s easier to “rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” if I’ve experienced similar loss as the weeping sister or felt similar feelings as the rejoicing brother (Rom. 12:15). Sympathy may take more work because we lack that shared experience or understanding! Sympathy invites care, comfort, and commiseration, even if we don’t fully “get it.”

In the book of Job, the suffering protagonist calls his friends “miserable comforters” because they tried to theologize, logicize, and inform Job’s brain amid his heart- and soul- level suffering (Job 16:2). But his friends’ first actions were beautifully compassionate: “They raised their voices and wept, and they tore their robes and sprinkled dust on their heads toward heaven. And they sat with him on the ground seven days and seven nights, and no one spoke a word to him.” Job’s friends sympathized and comforted Job best before saying a word (Job 2:11–13)!

Sympathy relates to the three more “one another” commands in 1 Peter 3:8:

“Brotherly love” is affection and pursuit of another’s well-being, equaling our pursuit of our own. In Genesis 4, Cain murdered his brother Abel. Instead of being his “brother’s keeper,” Cain was his brother’s destroyer (Gen. 4:9). “Brotherly love” for our siblings in Christ stems from Cain’s greatest contrast: Jesus, our own “eldest brother,” displayed “greater love . . . that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13).

“Humility" is “count[ing] others more significant than yourselves.” Jesus modeled this on our behalf, “taking the form of a servant [and] becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:3, 7–8).

And Ray Ortland defines “tender-heartedness” as deeper than “not willingly caus[ing] pain” and being “eager to relieve it.” My friend Ben Fort goes further: “this would change our responses to racism, sexism, and the burden of singlehood,” among other hurt areas. This, too, reflects Jesus’ heart.

As God’s Spirit produces fruit in us, we know our pursuit of love, tender-heartedness, and humility — like any “one another” command — starts with Jesus. Our pursuit of them is obedient worship to him.

1) How does today’s reading impact your view of “sympathy,” “love,” humility,” and “tender-heartedness”?

2) With whom could you pursue these “one another” commands today, and how? Pray that God would open a door for you to live this out and then boldly practice!