Without sensitivity toward others, a human being ceases to be human. In any advanced civilization, the most cherished social qualities are human traits that encourage sensitivity toward other humans. The fundamental code words for such sensitivity include compassion, caring, kindness, neighborliness, mercy, and understanding. Any person would live in an earthly hell if he or she was forced to live in a society where such qualities were absent.
How would you survive if you knew no one felt for you, cared what happened to you, did anything kind to or helpful for you, never extended you one unselfish act, or never even tried to understand you? What if people laughed when you hurt, rejoiced when you failed, found pleasure in your abuse, treated you unjustly, and deliberately misunderstood you?
Such people exist. Such places exist. We could create such a place right here without a lot of difficulty. All we have to do is destroy sensitivity toward people, and we produce such people and places.
There are times when we see the ugliness left when such sensitivity dies. It too often is seen when a crowd urges a distraught person to commit suicide. It is too often seen when a woman is gang-raped as people cheer. It too often happens when imprisoned people brutalize the defenseless. Nothing is more frightening and dangerous than people who have lost the ability to feel for or care about others. A human who thinks and feels like a vicious animal is a terrifying creature.
It costs to have compassion, kindness, caring, mercy, and understanding. Often those qualities create pain. We do not like prices, and we hate pain. If the cost of such qualities are too high, too painful, we can exercise the option not to feel and not to care. Sometimes we cope with high stress occupations and burnout by distancing ourselves from those who hurt and are in need. That is an "easy" coping mechanism for doctors, counselors, and preachers. It is certainly an convenient coping mechanism for those involved in prison work who often are forced to work with hardened, insensitive people.
Consider a jailor in Acts 16:19-34.
The words, "the Most High God" are literally translated, "a Most High God" (see the reference in a study Bible). | |
Remember, this is an idolatrous city. | |
Remember, the girl has a spirit of divination, not the spirit of Jesus Christ--she is not acting as Jesus' helper. | |
She is likely making a pagan statement of distraction, not of encouragement. |
They grabbed Paul and Silas and took them before the magistrates in the market place. | |
They charged them with teaching customs it was illegal for Romans to obey--a very serious charge in a Roman colony! |
Jesus came to destroy human insensitivity by destroying sin in our lives. He wants to destroy your insensitivity! He wants to make you a complete person by making you a compassionate person suitable for eternal relationship with God. Will you let him do that?
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