Rom 12:15 | MHM | STEP | v. 15 : (4.) A sympathizing love: Rejoice with those that do rejoice, and weep with those that weep. Where there is a mutual love between the members of the mystical body, there will be such a fellow-feeling (see 1 Cor 12:26). True love will interest us in the sorrows and joys of one another, and teach us to make them our own. Observe the common mixture in this world—some rejoicing, and others weeping (as the people, Ezra 3:12, 13)—for the trial, as of other graces, so of brotherly love and Christian sympathy. Not that we must participate in the sinful mirths or unreasonable sorrows of any, but only in just and reasonable joys and griefs: not envying those that prosper, but rejoicing with them ; truly glad that others have the success and comfort which we have not; not despising those that are in trouble, but concerned for them and ready to help them, as being ourselves also in the body. This is to do as God does, who not only has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants (Ps 35:27), but is likewise afflicted in all their afflictions (Isa 63:9).

‏ Romans 12:15

v. 15: (4.) A sympathizing love: Rejoice with those that do rejoice, and weep with those that weep. Where there is a mutual love between the members of the mystical body, there will be such a fellow-feeling (see 1 Cor 12:26). True love will interest us in the sorrows and joys of one another, and teach us to make them our own. Observe the common mixture in this world—some rejoicing, and others weeping (as the people, Ezra 3:12, 13)—for the trial, as of other graces, so of brotherly love and Christian sympathy. Not that we must participate in the sinful mirths or unreasonable sorrows of any, but only in just and reasonable joys and griefs: not envying those that prosper, but rejoicing with them; truly glad that others have the success and comfort which we have not; not despising those that are in trouble, but concerned for them and ready to help them, as being ourselves also in the body. This is to do as God does, who not only has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants (Ps 35:27), but is likewise afflicted in all their afflictions (Isa 63:9).