Empathy does not equal love. It’s a simple and truthful statement, but given the current cultural climate of our day, it often evokes a negative response.

“What do you mean, empathy isn’t love?” someone may say. “Don’t you care about people’s feelings?”

Recently, a couple of books have been published by conservative Christians that are raising the alarm over the modern culture’s use of empathy. Last fall, podcaster Allie Beth Stuckey published her book titled, Toxic Empathy: How Progressives Exploit Christian Compassion.

A description of the book notes its primary argument: “When politics are driven by empathy rather than truth, innocent people pay the price. We are told that empathy is the highest virtue — the key to being a good person. Is that true? Or has ‘empathy,’ like so many other words of our day — ‘tolerance,’ ‘justice,’ ‘acceptance’ — been hijacked by bad actors who exploit compassion for their own political ends?”

Pastor and professor Joe Rigney also addresses the topic in his book, provocatively titled, The Sin of Empathy: Compassion and Its Counterfeits. “When you reject the sin of empathy,” says a description of the book, “you reject the manipulation of the media, the manipulation of family and friends, and most importantly, the manipulation of your own heart.”

Of course, all of this raises the obvious question: What is empathy?

Over the last two or three decades, the term has gained popularity. First introduced into the English language back in the early 1900s, its root is German and literally means “in-feeling.”

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines the word as “the motion of understanding, being aware of, being sensitive to, and vicariously experiencing the sentiments, thoughts, and experience of one other.”

It is similar to the term sympathy, wherein one recognizes and feels concern and pity for someone else, yet remains distinctly in one’s own situational feeling. Empathy extends beyond that, essentially actively entering the other person’s emotional experience of suffering and expressing it.

So, is empathy in itself a bad thing? The answer, of course, is in the details.

It is noteworthy that while the word itself does not appear in Scripture, the principle of it does. For example, in Romans 12:35, Paul tells the church to “rejoice with those that rejoice, weep with those that weep.” And the apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:8 directs Christians to “have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a young heart, and a humble mind.” Even more powerful is Jesus Christ, who, in the incarnation, literally enters our suffering by becoming a man, and at the cross, he takes on the sins of all who believe in Him.

However, the difference between biblical empathy and non-biblical or toxic empathy hinges on the issue of sin. Christ empathizes with us more than anyone can or ever has, yet He did not use that empathy as a compromise for truth, righteousness, or justice.

Empathy is not a synonym for love. It can be an aspect of love, but it does not define it. Toxic empathy demands that biblical truth and righteousness be set aside in order to love someone for their wrongdoing.

Toxic empathy is used to subvert and supersede truth. It elevates feelings above truth, directing people to serve the feelings of others, and calls this love. Those who refuse to compromise biblical truth for the sake of empathy are often labeled as haters and bigots.

Far too often, the call for empathy has been used to lead people into great error, as it prioritizes feelings over truth.