Brothers and sisters,
As you all know, we’re in the midst of our, “I’m Just Trying to Help” sermon series that looks at various phrases Christians will say that are not as helpful as we might think they are. I mentioned one phrase this past Sunday that I wanted to dive into a little deeper here in the Illuminator. I told y’all that my high school Calculus teacher’s extra credit policy was based on a phrase she claimed was in the Bible, “God helps those who help themselves.” I want to take a moment to unpack some of what that phrase says.
Ultimately, the idea this phrase is pushing is that a person has to take some initiative before God will swoop in and help them. On the surface, that feels logical. If a person is in a bad situation and is not doing anything we think would help their situation, it’s easy to say, “Well, there’s no need to waste time or effort on them.” Whether we like it or not, that’s a judgmental attitude. It’s saying that the person does not deserve help because of who they are. They only deserve help if they’ve earned it.
But on top of that, by throwing God into the mix, “God helps those who help themselves,” we’ve snuck a kind of works righteousness into the way we think God views others. “Show God your good works, then you’ll get help” or “Show God your works, then you’ll receive God’s grace.” That is not scriptural. Let us remember Paul’s words to the Ephesians, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God—not the result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9). God helps whoever God wants to—not because one particular person did more than the other, but because all people need God’s help. Always.
I wanted to write about this because I increasingly see faith leaders, particularly some Baptists, coming out and saying that empathy—the ability to walk in another person’s shoes and the desire to help them—should be considered a sin. They argue that it is wrong and sinful to show empathy toward other people. Or they will argue that there is an order in which you should extend your empathy—almost a flow-chart that tells you whether or not you have to care about a person. And there’s a judgmental attitude that comes with that. There’s a judgmental nature that comes with saying, “This person doesn’t deserve my help” or with saying, “To help this person would be a waste.”
Let me quickly correct the record here—empathy is not a sin. It never has been. It never will be. It is never wrong to look at another person, feel empathy for them, and choose to help them—whether they’ve “helped themselves” or not. If you feel called to help someone, then help them. Why do I say all this? Because, thanks be to God, Jesus did not look on sinful humanity and say, “I’m not going to help them till they help themselves.” Thanks be to God, Jesus did not decide that empathy was sinful and that people should be left to their own devices, desperately trying to do enough to get God’s attention and compel God to help them. Empathy is not a sin. God does not withhold help till someone “deserves” it. Cause if God did, we’d all be in trouble. Show people grace simply because God has shown you grace.
Grace and peace,
Pastor Ben