While empathy may help us love, it is not love itself. Empathy feels pain, but love always “rejoices with the truth” (1 Cor. 13:6). We must seek and speak the truth in love (Eph. 4:15). Because God is love and is the Source of truth, we can only embody this truth-and-love dichotomy to which we’re commanded by defining both love and truth as He defines them (1 John 4:8). We look to His Word—not our feelings—as our guide in all things, including the hot-button cultural and political issues of our day.
