Sympathy
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Teach believers to avoid false sympathy, as it hinders the development of strong characters and perpetuates self-pity and misery. 159:3.11
Jesus taught that one cannot develop strong characters out of self-pity. 159:3.1
Avoid seeking unearned recognition and undeserved sympathy, instead strive for honesty and fairness in preaching truth and proclaiming the gospel. 156:5.19
The gospel should never be preached through coercion, but instead through respect for the personalities and spiritual power within each individual. 159:3.2
Jesus rarely showed pity, preferring instead to offer genuine sympathy and sincere compassion that was practical, personal, and constructive, never allowing familiarity with suffering to breed indifference or increase self-pity in those he ministered to. 171:7.3
Avoid false sympathy and do not offer consolation to those who give up without a fight. 159:3.11
Overmuch sympathy, like any virtue carried to extremes, may degenerate into serious emotional instability or even fanaticism, as Jesus warned against during a discussion on the importance of possessing well-balanced characters. 149:4.3
Allowing free expression of evil in rebels' hearts uproots sympathy for evildoers in all citizens of Norlatiadek. 54:5.9-12
Ignorance breeds suspicion, incompatible with sympathy. 52:6.4
Jesus urged his listeners to embrace sympathy without sentimentality, piety without sanctimoniousness, and reverence free from fear and superstition, cautioning against the dangers of both recklessness and presumption. 149:4.4
Bible parallels
Passages that the paragraphs cited above parallel, quote or reinterpret, from Duane Faw’s Paramony cross-references. Hover a reference to read it.
- Freely receive, freely give and love 156:5.19 — Mt 10:8b.
- Jesus knocks and men open 159:3.2 — Rev 3:20.