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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +

+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +

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²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body. ²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

Today will be our last study of the section of 1 Corinthians 12:12-26, so let me review what we have studied up to this point. The overall message of the section is that Unity and diversity are essential in the body of Christ, that is, the church of Christ. This message places three responsibilities on you as a believer in Christ. The first responsibility, based on the subsection of 1 Corinthians 12:12-13, is that You should recognize the unity and diversity in the church of Christ. The second, derived from the subsection of 1 Corinthians 12:14-19, is that You should focus on facts stated about members of the church of Christ that we indicated are five. The first fact is that the church of Christ consists of several members. The second is that no believer can be separated from the body of Christ. The third is that each member is necessary for the functioning of the local church of Christ or the universal church of Christ. The fourth is that it is God who places each member of the church in the church to function as He wants. The fifth fact is that there would have been no church of Christ as we know it if it consists of only one member. The third responsibility, based on the subsection of 1 Corinthians 12:20-26, is that You should be careful how you treat members of the body of Christ. We indicated that there are five reasons that are necessary to bear in mind to help each believer carry out the third responsibility. A first reason You should be careful how you treat members of the body of Christ is because of the importance of unity and diversity in the church of Christ. A second reason is because each member depends on the other. A third reason is because even those considered weak are indispensable or are necessary members of the body of Christ. A fourth is that there are certain members of the body of Christ that require special attention. A fifth reason is that God constituted or composed the church the way He wants and for His purpose. A first stated purpose for God composing the church the way He did is to ensure there will be no division in the church of Christ. A second stated purpose for God composing the church the way He did, is to ensure we care for each other or have concern for each other. Believers having concern for each other is explained as sharing in negative and positive experiences of a fellow believer given, by using two conditional clauses in 1 Corinthians 12:26. The concept of sharing in the negative experience of a fellow believer is stated in the first conditional clause of 1 Corinthians 12:26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. This clause implies that believers are to suffer together with each other so the suffering of a particular member in a local church should be the concern of the entire local body of Christ. This implication raises the question of how a believer, or a local church should suffer together with a suffering believer. To answer this question, we took a detour to consider the doctrine of suffering. After this detour, we are now in a position to answer the question of how a believer, or a local church would suffer together with another suffering believer.

Recall that we indicated that “suffering” as we used it in our study of the doctrine of suffering means “any experience of pain or distress evident both physically and emotionally.” This being the case, it is difficult to conceive of how a believer could share in the physical or emotional pain of another believer so it can be said that a believer suffers with another. Take for example, if you are having headache, there is no way for another person to feel headache so as to share in your suffering. Consequently, to understand what a believer is expected to do when another believer is suffering, we need to revisit the word “suffer” in the conditional clause of 1 Corinthians 12:26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. We indicated that the Greek word (sympaschō) so translated “suffers” is used twice in the Greek NT although the word is used outside the NT with the meaning “to sympathize”. The other usage of the Greek word is in Romans 8:17:

Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.

The Greek word is translated “share in …suffering”, that is, “to suffer along with another” here in Romans 8:17 as well as in 1 Corinthians 12:26. It can even be understood to mean “to have the same thing happen to one.” This later sense makes it even more difficult to see how a believer could have the same thing that another believer is experiencing happen to the individual. Using the illustration that I have mentioned, it is difficult to see how you can have the same headache another person is experiencing happen to you even if you begin to bang your head on a hard object you may get injured but that does not guarantee that you will have the same headache another person is experiencing. Thus, it is difficult to conceive how a believer can “suffer together” with another believer as part of the meaning of the Greek word as used in our passage of study. Nonetheless, since the Holy Spirit through the apostle expects us to suffer with another believer, it seems that there is an English word that is used in the Bible that best describes what it means to suffer with other believers suffering. It is the word “compassion.” Thus, when we have compassion, we will indeed suffer with our fellow believers in their suffering. This may appear to be an overreach since the word “compassion” is not a listed meaning of the Greek word used in the passage we are considering. So, we will spend some time to explain the reason for our use of the word “compassion” as a word that adequately explains what is expected of believers in the clause of 1 Corinthians 12:26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.

To begin with, we should recognize that there are three words that are often used in the English in relationship to how one reacts to the suffering of others. The three words are sympathy, empathy, and compassion. Sympathy and compassion are found in our Hebrew Scripture and Greek NT Scripture but not the word “empathy” although some state that the concept found in the word “empathy” is found in the Scripture. I want to be clear that I mean neither the word “empathy” nor “empathize” is found in the Hebrew Scripture or Greek NT Scripture. I make this point because the word “empathize” is used in the Complete Jewish Bible (CJB), Today’s New International Version (TNIV), and the 2011 edition of the NIV in their translation of Hebrews 4:15 that we will reference later. There is probably a major reason the word “empathy/empathize” although often used in sociopsychological context is not found in the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures. It is because of its late entrance into the English language. The term “empathy” was coined only in the early 20th century where we are told that it played a great role in “the metaphysical-aesthetic speculations of Romanticism.”^¹ Nonetheless, since the appearance of the word in the English, there seems to be a confusion between the use of the word “empathy” and “sympathy” and so we need to be clear in the difference between the two words, especially since the three English versions we mentioned used the word “empathize” in their translation of Hebrews 4:15 and the NETS Primary Texts (A New English Translation of the Septuagint) used the word “empathy” in Proverbs 28:8 where majority of our English versions including the NET used such word as “kind” or “generous/gracious.”

The Concise Oxford dictionary helps in differentiating between “empathy” and “sympathy.” It defines “empathy” as “the ability to understand and share the feelings of another.” If we put it in another way, it is the ability to understand another person's thoughts and feelings in a situation from their point of view, rather than your own. This, in effect, is equivalent to what we say about putting oneself in someone else’s shoes or when someone says, “I feel your pain.” Let me illustrate what we mean. Suppose you see a roach crawl on someone’s arm, and you immediately feel a sensation over your arm or imagine what it is like for that to occur, that will be empathy. Empathy is not always negative but can be positive. If you attend the graduation from college of a child or a friend and you have the same excitement as the graduate, you have demonstrated empathy. On the other hand, the same dictionary defines “sympathy” as “‘feelings of pity and sorrow for someone else’s misfortune.” Suppose your friend’s parent died. If you are moved by what has happened although you are not experiencing the pain of your friend, that is sympathy.

Be that as it may, we indicated that the word “sympathy” is one used in the Hebrew Scripture and Greek NT Scripture where we have its illustrations. These illustrations give us more understanding of the range of words that may be associated with “sympathy.” When Nahash, king of the Ammonites died, King David decided to sympathize with his son by sending some of his men to his son although their intention was eventually misunderstood as we read in 2 Samuel 10:2:

David thought, “I will show kindness to Hanun son of Nahash, just as his father showed kindness to me.” So David sent a delegation to express his sympathy to Hanun concerning his father. When David’s men came to the land of the Ammonites,

The verbal phrase to express his sympathy is literally to console implying that the Hebrew word (nāḥǎm) translated “express sympathy” in the NIV may mean “to console” or “to comfort.” The three friends of Job on learning about his sufferings came to sympathize with him as we read in Job 2:11:

When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon him, they set out from their homes and met together by agreement to go and sympathize with him and comfort him.

The word “sympathize” is translated from a Hebrew word (nûḏ) that may mean “to comfort, sympathize.” The meaning “to comfort” is used in Job 42:11:

All his brothers and sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his house. They comforted and consoled him over all the trouble the Lord had brought upon him, and each one gave him a piece of silver and a gold ring.

In the NT, we find the verb “sympathize” used in two passages. It is used in connection with Jesus’ response to believer’s situation in temptation as we read in Hebrews 4:15:

For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin.

The other passage is related to the response of believers to their fellow believers who were suffering as we read in Hebrews 10:34:

You sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.

The word “sympathized” in Hebrews 10:34 is translated from a Greek verb (sympatheō) that appears only twice in the NT, both in the book of Hebrews, that is, in Hebrews 4:15 and 10:34. The translators of the NIV used the meaning “to sympathize” to translate the Greek verb in both of its occurrences although, as we mentioned previously, the 2011 edition used the word “empathize” in Hebrews 4:15. Nonetheless, the word could mean “to suffer along with someone else,” and so means “to suffer with, to share in the sufferings.” Another meaning of the Greek verb is “to share someone’s feeling in the sense of being sympathetic with,” thus, means “to have or show sympathy for, sympathize with.” Thus, we see that the Greek word used in Hebrews 10:34 and that used in our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:26 have a common meaning of either “to suffer with” or “to sympathize.” Thus, considering the fact that the context of Hebrews 10:34 is suffering the meaning of the Greek word adopted in Hebrew 10:34 could also apply to 1 Corinthians 12:26 that is also concerned with suffering. I am saying in effect that if the meaning “to sympathize” is adopted in Hebrews 10:34 such meaning could also apply to 1 Corinthians 12:26. However, there is a problem with this because the Greek word used in Hebrews 10:34 more commonly has the meaning “to share in the sufferings.” Thus, the 2011 edition of the NIV instead of the meaning “sympathized” used in the 1984 edition used the expression “suffered along.” Hence, we rule out the use of the meaning “to sympathize” to describe the Greek word used in the clause of 1 Corinthians 12:26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. Also, since the word “empathy” is not so much a word found in the Scripture then we use the word “compassion” as the word that best interprets what is meant in the expression “suffers with” that is the meaning of the Greek word used in 1 Corinthians 12:26.

There are several reasons for using the word “compassion” to describe what is expected of believers in their relationship to their fellow believers who are suffering. First, our word “compassion” comes from a Latin word compati that means “to suffer with.” The Webster Dictionary indicates that it is a word in the 14th century that had the sense of “sympathetic consciousness of others’ distress together with a desire to alleviate it.” This would certainly be more in keeping with what the Holy Spirit wants believers to do when they see their fellow believers suffering. It is no wonder that compassion is associated with sympathy in the instruction regarding the attitude of believers towards each other as stated in 1 Peter 3:8:

Finally, all of you, live in harmony with one another; be sympathetic, love as brothers, be compassionate and humble.

Second, the word “compassion” is a word that is predominantly used of God as we may gather from the use of the word in the Scripture. Of the 63 times the word compassion is used in the NIV in the OT only in ten of these is it used for humans. Likewise, of the 13 occurrences of word in the NIV in the NT only in three usages does the word apply to humans. Interestingly, it is a word that the Lord used to describe Himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6:

And he passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness,

God’s compassion is evident in His response to the those who are afflicted or who are suffering as we read in Isaiah 49:13:

Shout for joy, O heavens; rejoice, O earth; burst into song, O mountains! For the LORD comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

If we are to be imitators of God as the Scripture demands, then we are to be compassionated towards our fellow believers.

Third, compassion is an action-oriented word, as we will demonstrate. God’s promise of restoration of Israel, which involves Him acting is related to His compassion as we may gather from Deuteronomy 30:3:

then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.

When He fed the crowd of over four thousand people, it was a demonstration of His compassion as we read in Matthew 15:32:

Jesus called his disciples to him and said, “I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. I do not want to send them away hungry, or they may collapse on the way.”

It is not only in the physical needs of people did Jesus Christ demonstrate compassion but also in their spiritual needs as evident from the fact that it was compassion that moved Him to teach the people as we read in Mark 6:34:

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them, because they were like sheep without a shepherd. So he began teaching them many things.

The display of compassion of the Lord Jesus to the suffering of people support our assertion that to suffer with other believers would require compassion as a practical way of doing what is expected of believers.

We have cited examples that involve God or the Lord Jesus to prove that compassion is an action-oriented word. The nature of compassion may also be noted from what humans do or fail to do. Yahweh described to Israel what would happen to them when they failed to obey the terms of His covenant with them. He would punish them with lack of food that men, who are prone to show compassion to their children by providing for them, would fail to do so, indicating lack of compassion as we read in Deuteronomy 28:54–55:

⁵⁴Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children, ⁵⁵and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.

The compassion of the father in the parable of the so-called Prodigal Son or as I prefer the Compassionate Father is shown to be action oriented because he ran to meet his wayward son as we read in Luke 15:20:

So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.

The point we are making is that the concept of sharing in the negative experience of a fellow believer stated in the first conditional clause of 1 Corinthians 12:26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it requires for us to be compassionate to those suffering.

How should we go about suffering with other believers or be compassionate towards such individuals? The answer is that it all depends on the nature of the suffering. Recall, we have already considered the various kinds of suffering. So, the way we suffer with or show compassion to a fellow believer suffering depends on the kind of suffering. If the suffering is physical, we show compassion by taking actions that would reveal our concern for our fellow believers. If the suffering is concerned with illness, then one way to show compassion is to pray for the believer who is suffering from illness. This we learn from what the psalmist stated about his unanswered prayer for the sick as we read in Psalm 35:13:

Yet when they were ill, I put on sackcloth and humbled myself with fasting. When my prayers returned to me unanswered.

The psalmist would not have described what he did when his prayer was not answered if it was not out of compassion that he prayed for those who are ill that probably were hostile to him. So, we contend that an action one should take to show compassion for a believer whose suffering is due to illness is to pray. Of course, it is possible that the believer suffering may not be aware that you are praying for the individual and so there may be the need for second action. The required second action that will prove compassion or suffering with another believer is to visit such a person provided the person is not suffering from infectious disease. Visiting the sick is an important action that when Jacob was sick, we read of his son, Joseph, visiting him as stated in Genesis 48:1–2:

¹Some time later Joseph was told, “Your father is ill.” So he took his two sons Manasseh and Ephraim along with him. ²When Jacob was told, “Your son Joseph has come to you,” Israel rallied his strength and sat up on the bed.

That visiting a sick believer is a way to demonstrate compassion is implied in what the Lord Jesus stated in Matthew 25:36:

I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

The expression “look after” is translated from a Greek word (episkeptomai) that also may mean “to visit,” that is, to go to see a person with the intention of rendering help to the individual. This meaning of visiting someone with the intent to help is reflected in Moses’ visit to suffering Israelites in Egypt as we read in Acts 7:23

Thus, to look after a sick believer is to visit the person with the intention of rendering help as needed. Anyway, the Lord Jesus indicated that visiting the sick is certainly a kind of good work expected of those who are believers. It is true that the Lord spoke of visiting Him when He was sick, but He did not mean Him personally but visiting of those who are believers in Him as implied in the question and answer given in Matthew 25:44–45:

⁴⁴“They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’ ⁴⁵“He will reply, ‘I tell you the truth, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

We will cite this twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew later when we consider another demonstration of compassion that a believer should display in a different suffering situation other than sickness.

We have considered demonstration of compassion for the sick because it is physical suffering. Another physical suffering that demands believers show their compassion in action to those suffering is that of persecution that may or may not lead to imprisonment. Whether persecution leads to imprisonment or not, a demonstration of compassion to a fellow believer suffering persecution is to pray for such an individual. We know that this is a proper demonstration of compassion because of what the early church did. When Apostle Peter was put in jail as part of his persecution for preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, the church prayed for him as we may gather from Acts 12:5:

So Peter was kept in prison, but the church was earnestly praying to God for him.

It seems that the instruction of the Holy Spirit through the human author of Hebrews regarding how believers should respond to their fellow believers being persecuted involves praying for them. We say this because of the instruction in Hebrews 13:3:

Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.

The command Remember is a command to care for, to be concerned about someone. In the context of the command Remember, the command of remembering someone in prison includes praying for the person. Similar to a believer suffering sickness, it is necessary to visit, where possible, a fellow believer in prison because of our common faith in Christ. We include visiting as an act of compassion to persecuted believers, especially those who are in prison because of the statement of our Lord Jesus that we cited previously, that is, in in Matthew 25:36:

I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

The visit of believers in prison is commendable as an act of compassion that will be appreciated by the believer in prison. This, we may deduce from the commendation of Onesiphorus by Apostle Paul as we read in 2 Timothy 1:16:

May the Lord show mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chains.

Onesiphorus was commended because he often refreshed the apostle. He either constantly met the physical needs of the apostle while in prison or he encouraged him spiritually. Either case would have involved visiting the apostle while in prison. If the apostle commended Onesiphorus for visiting him in prison, then it makes sense to include visitation of a persecuted Christian in prison as a demonstration of compassion. The point is that when a believer is suffering persecution, it is necessary to visit such a person to provide encouragement to them to remain faithful to the Lord. This kind of encouragement is in part what we have in the encouragement of believers by Apostles Paul and Barnabas during their first missionary journey as we read in Acts 14:22:

strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said.

The encouragement of these two apostles reminds the new converts of the inevitability of suffering in the Christian faith. When you visit a believer who is suffering because of the person’s faith regardless of the nature of the persecution, it will be necessary to remind the believer that persecution is part of the Christian faith as we read in 2 Timothy 3:12:

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted,

Of course, if a believer is suffering persecution from family members, we should remind such an individual that what the person is experiencing confirms the teaching of our Lord Jesus regarding persecution from members of one’s family as implied in Matthew 10:34–36:

³⁴“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. ³⁵For I have come to turn “‘a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law— ³⁶ a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household.’

Using this passage, we encourage the believer that is persecuted by family members that what the individual is suffering is in keeping with the teaching of our Lord. Therefore, we encourage such a person not to be defeated or feel abandoned but to trust that the Lord will vindicate the individual in His own time and way.

We have indicated that showing compassion to a believer suffering persecution requires visitation to render help. What if you cannot visit believers who are in prison or persecuted because of distance? Well, there is a practical thing you can do to show compassion to suffering believers in other parts of the world. You could send aid directly to them if you know of them or to support any Christian group that is dedicated to helping suffering believers, especially those persecuted, such as the Voice of the Martyrs in the USA. Some believers are legalistic in this kind of requirement in that they will require you to show them a specific passage that instructs what we have indicated. There is no specific passage that says we should support believers who are persecuted in other parts of the world by sending aid to them. However, we go by the general practice of the early church as well as the general requirement of the Scripture concerning doing righteousness. We have examples of support by one local church for another that was about to face suffering due to famine, according to Acts 11:28–29:

²⁸One of them, named Agabus, stood up and through the Spirit predicted that a severe famine would spread over the entire Roman world. (This happened during the reign of Claudius.) ²⁹The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea.

We also know that there were Gentile churches that supported the poor believers in Jerusalem, as stated in Romans 15:26:

For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem.

When you put these two passages together, you get the idea that it is expected of believers to help their fellow believers who are suffering any kind of deprivation because of their faith. You see, there are believers in many countries that are denied jobs because of their faith in Christ. Such believers suffer from a lack of basic necessities of life not because they are lazy and refuse to work but because they are persecuted and so they are left to starve. Thus, if we know of such individuals, we should send aid to them. Anyway, you can show compassion to such believers by supporting Christian organizations that are devoted to helping such individuals.

In any case, it is important that as you show compassion or suffer with a believer who is suffering physically that you should be careful to avoid the approach of Job’s three friends who came to provide him comfort for his suffering as indicated in the passage we cited previously, that is, Job 2:11:

Instead of comforting Job, they insisted that his sufferings were because of some hidden sins he had committed. Job refuted them by saying that his suffering has nothing to do with his sins. He was, of course, right because the Lord confirmed the rightness of his statement by being displeased with his three friends that accused him of suffering for his sins. His vindication by the Lord is stated in Job 42:7:

After the LORD had said these things to Job, he said to Eliphaz the Temanite, “I am angry with you and your two friends, because you have not spoken of me what is right, as my servant Job has.

Job was right in what He said about God but was wrong in the conclusion he arrived at as that implies God was unjust. God was not unjust and so when He confronted Job, that caused him to realize he was wrong, and so he repented of it after confessing that God’s plan could not be thwarted and a few other assertions, confessed of his repentance as we read in Job 42:6:

The suffering believer may not be Job, but you should be careful that you are not acting like Job’s friends. Thus, what you should do as you provide comfort is to remind the believer that God speaks to us in different ways, one of which is suffering. Therefore, it is necessary for the individual to take a spiritual inventory to know what the suffering is about if it is not clearly a result of persecution for one’s faith. I am saying that you draw the suffering believer’s attention to what is stated in Job 33:14:

For God does speak—now one way, now another— though man may not perceive it.

You may recommend the believer to read the rest of the passage but without being accusatory since you may not know the reason for the suffering if it is not persecution. Anyhow, we are saying that you should be cautious about linking a believer’s suffering to sin, but you should not fail to bring the point that we may suffer because God is speaking to us through it to get our attention to something in our life as believers that teaching of the word has not resulted in correcting whatever it happens to be.

Recall, we indicated that how we suffer with a fellow believer or demonstrate compassion to such a person depends on the type of suffering such an individual is faced with. So far, we have focused on physical suffering and so we turn our attention to the kind of suffering that may be classified as emotional. An example of emotional suffering as we have previously indicated is bereavement where a believer is faced with the loss of a beloved one who is presumably a believer. Even under this situation, it will be necessary to suffer with a fellow believer or to show compassion to such a person by visiting the person if possible. I mean that when a fellow believer loses a loved one, compassion requires personal visitation where possible. If it is not possible because of distance or other mitigating circumstances, it would be necessary to reach out to the bereaved through any other means of communication available. Whether a person is able to visit or to reach the bereaved through any other means of communication, the compassion to be shown is to take the form of encouragement from the word of God. In effect, it will be necessary to follow the instruction of the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul that is given to us in 1 Thessalonians 4:18:

The believer who shows compassion to the bereaved should, of course, recognize that the one who has lost a loved one is indeed under emotional suffering and so use words of encouragement that will enable the bereaved to focus not on the loss but on the hope, believers have in Christ. The phrase these words refers to the content of what the apostle taught starting in verse 13 and ending in verse 17 of 1 Thessalonians 4. The summary of which is that those who have departed to be with the Lord will not miss the resurrection event as some of the Thessalonians might have been led to believe. But, in reality, those who have died in Christ will receive their resurrection bodies before those who are physically alive at the second coming of our Lord. So, a believer comforting the bereaved should focus on the hope that believers will see each other again but with frankness that we do not know how that will happen. In effect, we should be truthful and not go beyond Scripture. For example, if the bereaved lost a husband or wife, you should not give the impression that the recognition will involve knowing the person as a spouse but simply as a believer that had association with this individual while on earth. We make this point because the Lord Jesus is clear that there would be nothing that will indicate male or female in heaven as we may gather from His statement recorded in Matthew 22:30:

At the resurrection people will neither marry nor be given in marriage; they will be like the angels in heaven.

With this consideration of how one can show compassion to a believer who is suffering emotionally because of bereavement, we have concluded our consideration of how a believer is to suffer together with another believer, that is, in sharing in a fellow believer’s negative experience. In effect we have expounded on the first clause of 1 Corinthians 12:26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it so we turn to the positive in last clause of the verse. But before we do, we should recognize that although we have focused on individual believers that everything, we have said to the individual believer is what a local church should do.

Sharing in the positive experience of fellow believer is implied in the last clause of 1 Corinthians 12:26 if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Again, the apostle is no longer concerned with body parts but with members of the body of Christ or His church. Sharing in the positive experience of another believer is that of rejoicing with a fellow believer’s blessing. I submit to you that there is a sense that this is a more difficult thing to do than having compassion although many may dispute what I have said but that does not change my declaration.

The reason for declaring that it is probably more difficult to rejoice in the blessing of another than showing compassion is because of what the rejoicing is about. The object of rejoicing is given in the word “honored” that is translated from a Greek word (doxazō) that may mean “to honor” as what people do for others who have done something commendable as in Matthew 6:2:

“So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.

The word may mean “to glorify” as it is used to state what is done to the Lord Jesus because of His miracles reported in John 11:4:

When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.”

The word may mean “to take pride” or “to take seriously” as that is the sense the word is used by Apostle Paul in describing his ministry in Romans 11:13:

I am talking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch as I am the apostle to the Gentiles, I make much of my ministry.

The sentence of the NIV I make much of my ministry is more literally I glorify my ministry but the standard Greek English lexicon of BDAG suggests it may be translated I take pride in my ministry or I take my assignment seriously. The word may mean “to praise” as in the expected response of believers in Jerusalem on receiving the gifts from Gentile believers organized by Apostle Paul, as we read in 2 Corinthians 9:13:

Because of the service by which you have proved yourselves, men will praise God for the obedience that accompanies your confession of the gospel of Christ, and for your generosity in sharing with them and with everyone else.

In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:26, it is used in the sense of “to be glorified,” that is, “to be or become positively acknowledged, recognized, or esteemed for one’s character, nature, or attributes.” So, we can say the word may mean “to honor” or “to praise.” It is very difficult for many of us to be on the sideline watching another person being an object of praise. It is for this reason I contend that it is more difficult to share in the blessing of another believer in the form of rejoicing than to show compassion.

That it is difficult to share in the blessing of another believer in form of rejoicing does not mean that it cannot be done for otherwise we will not have the sentence of 1 Corinthians 12:26 every part rejoices with it. The expression “rejoice with” is translated from a Greek word (sygchairō) that may mean “to express pleasure over another’s good fortune” so that the word has the sense of “to congratulate” someone. This is probably the sense of the word in describing the response of the neighbors of Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, when she gave birth to her son as we read in Luke 1:58:

Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.

The word may mean “to experience joy in conjunction with someone,” that is, “to rejoice with” as that is the way the word is used in Jesus’ Parable of the Lost Sheep when the owner invited his neighbors to celebrate with him for finding his lost sheep as we read in Luke 15:6:

and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’

In our passage of 1 Corinthians 12:26, the word has the sense of “to experience joy in conjunction with someone,” that is, “to rejoice with another.” The way one goes about doing that which is difficult is to be filled of the Holy Spirit. You see, rejoicing is an outward expression of joy. But joy is a facet of the fruit of the Spirit. Consequently, if you are filled of the Holy Spirit, you will gladly share in the praise or honor bestowed to a fellow believer. Anyway, let me end by reminding you of the message that we have considered which is that Unity and diversity are essential in the body of Christ, that is, the church of Christ. This places you under three responsibilities. You should recognize the unity and diversity in the church of Christ. You should focus on facts stated about members of the church of Christ. You should be careful how you treat members of the body of Christ.

1 Scharfenberg, J. (1999–2003). Empathy. In The encyclopedia of Christianity (Vol. 2, p. 85). Wm. B. Eerdmans; Brill.