Matthew 7:12

New International Version

So, in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

For Meditation

Adolph Eichmann was notorious for the heartless massacre of Jews in the holocaust of Nazi Germany. How terrible was Eichmann? One has to hear some stories attributed to him during those evil days to know. One such story involves a mother and her baby. Adolf supervised his first mass execution of Jews in a pit they had dug out for that purpose. As the soldiers got ready to fire on their victims, one woman raised her baby and pleaded with Eichmann to kill her but take her baby. The desperate appeal of the nursing mother seems to have touched a nerve in the chief executioner of the holocaust. His clasped hands behind his back loosened, and he shifted uneasily with watery eyes. But suddenly, his body stiffened. He clicked his heels together in the typical Nazi salute stance and gave the fatal order. The assassins’ bullets cut through mother and baby and rained on all the others in the hole that became their mass grave. 

The question I ask is this. Did Eichmann have any feeling for what the woman felt in the pit that day? Couldn’t he share what she and the others felt? Would he have done it if he had had any human feeling? 

That is anybody’s judgment, but my point is this. Most of us, like Eichmann, lack empathy—the radiant ability and capacity to feel with others. We cannot feel what people go through in their pain and sorrow like this woman and the millions of people the Nazis slaughtered. But empathy is the key to the Golden Rule Jesus laid down in Matthew 7:12.

So, in everything, do to others what you want them to do to you, for this sums up the Law and Prophets.  

This saying of Jesus is a universal truth. We cannot feel for others until we put ourselves in their position and condition. It is only then that we can relate to them in the right way. For empathy is Christlike.

Jesus put Himself in our pathetic situation and came down from His lofty throne in heaven to die to save us. He loved the world so much that he had compassion and empathy for us. Christ took our place on the cross and died for us. And now, as our Great High Priest in heaven, He can empathize with us in our weaknesses when we go through temptation. He can do this because He suffered through them all and yet was without sin (Hebrews 4:15).

Let us, therefore, become like Him, who empathizes with us, so we too can feel with others. Let us step into the pain of those who go through suffering and walk with them with empathy for the Father’s glory. For that is our calling in Christ Jesus (1 Corinthians 10:31).

Amen!