# What is Pity?



## InSlaveryToChrist (Feb 27, 2012)

I've never really understood what it means to call someone _pitiful_, and what happens in the mind and heart of a person who _has pity_ _on someone_. Could you please explain?


----------



## Miss Marple (Feb 27, 2012)

Pity means to fell sorry for someone, to feel empathy, to be aware of their suffering and have compassion upon it.

Sometimes, at least in modern times, there is a little bid of bad to the notion "pity," people might say, "don't pity me!" in other words, don't be condescending or act as though you are so much better off than I am.

However its older use does not have any condescending to it; rather pity is a virtue, it shows you are empathetic and care about another person's feelings and problems.


----------



## John Bunyan (Feb 27, 2012)

Pity is what Mr T feels about those who tries to take what he got


----------



## Stargazer65 (Feb 27, 2012)

John Bunyan said:


> Pity is what Mr T feels about those who tries to take what he got





Specifically, "the fool" who does so.


----------



## Miss Marple (Feb 27, 2012)

Mr "T" in the tv series "The A Team" ( a rather old American tv series ) offers a good example of the condescending use of "pity" or "pitiful."

His catch phrase is, "I pity the fool," it is a put-down, it is like despising someone stupid enough to do this or that, contrary to Mr. T's standards.

It is said in a joke context, but illustrates the latter use of the word, which sometimes has a condescending air to it.


----------



## InSlaveryToChrist (Feb 27, 2012)

Thank you everyone. Just a few more questions:

Is God (_not_ the God-_man_, Jesus Christ, as regards His _human_ nature) capable of pitying?

If so, does God pity _ungodly_ people?


----------



## Loopie (Feb 27, 2012)

We could ask the question differently as well:

Does a King pity those who rebel against him? By our nature we are rebels against God. Are rebels pitied? Do those who seek to overthrow God's kingdom, kill his servants and kill his son deserve to be pitied? 

Just some food for thought...


----------



## InSlaveryToChrist (Feb 28, 2012)

Loopie said:


> We could ask the question differently as well:
> 
> Does a King pity those who rebel against him? By our nature we are rebels against God. Are rebels pitied? Do those who seek to overthrow God's kingdom, kill his servants and kill his son deserve to be pitied?
> 
> Just some food for thought...



Eric,
I'm sure pity is not what anyone (expect Christ) deserves according to God's standards. If God is capable of pitying, He pities us, His people, because of who He is, not because of any _virtue_ in us (which is the precondition of _merit_).
I actually got the answer to my questions on my own. As long as _pity_ is defined as _compassion_ for others' miserable state, God cannot pity. God cannot be compassionate towards creatures, He cannot relate to our sufferings, and that is why He provided us with the God-man, Jesus Christ, who is our "compassionate high priest," who _feels_ for us.


----------



## Alan D. Strange (Feb 28, 2012)

Not so, Samuel.

Ps. 103:13 "As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him." This is said before Christ comes as the one mediator between God and man. The Lord looks upon His people with pity even in Old Testament times. He has compassion on them in their need and misery (Ex. 4, Hosea 11). What's so hard to see about this? Isn't it clear what pity is and that God has it toward his people as a part of His love for them?

Don't make the mistake of privileging reason over revelation and developing a theology that uses reason magisterially to shape and conform revelation to fit it. God's revelation is supreme and in it He tells us that He pities us. His revelation, not my theological or philosophical speculation, is what shapes our theology. I am glad to an object of His pity. And, finally, He did not send Christ so that He might become compassionate toward us. He sent Christ because He was compassionate toward us. 

Peace,
Alan


----------



## InSlaveryToChrist (Feb 28, 2012)

Alan D. Strange said:


> Not so, Samuel.
> 
> Ps. 103:13 "As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities them that fear Him." This is said before Christ comes as the one mediator between God and man. The Lord looks upon His people with pity even in Old Testament times. He has compassion on them in their need and misery (Ex. 4, Hosea 11). What's so hard to see about this? Isn't it clear what pity is and that God has it toward his people as a part of His love for them?
> 
> ...



Rev. Strange,

I wouldn't have made this thread if I understood pity. And apparently I don't understand compassion, either. I just have to wonder why pity (or compassion) is not historically known as one of God's attributes. Is it because they are the same as love, or are they only one aspect of it (if yes, elaborate please)? Or is it because they are the same as _mercy_, _a judicial act_, _not an emotion that goes on in the heart of a person_?

Please, be patient toward me. I'm only trying to see God's revelation fit together. I'd gladly throw away all my false prejudice in interpreting the Bible, but sadly I can't. I try not to read my own ideas into the Bible, only interpret Scripture with Scripture.


----------



## FenderPriest (Feb 28, 2012)

Not only is pity a predominant feeling of Mr.T's emotional landscape, but it's also what stayed the hand of Bilbo, and ruled the fate of many.


----------



## Alan D. Strange (Feb 28, 2012)

Samuel

I appreciate your humility.

I would say that compassion or pity is very much an attribute of God: I would see it associated with His love, mercy, and loving-kindness, all of which are part of his moral attributes, which itself are communicable.

There are many Bible verses having to do with this, staying just in Psalm 103 that I quoted above (v.8 saying directly that "the Lord is compassionate."). Think of Eph. 4:32 in which we are told to be kind, tenderhearted, and forgiving. The Greek word for tenderhearted is "good bowels," which is to say an inward disposition very much in sync with the one with whom we are dealing: sympatico with each other in joy and sorrow.

Now it is the case that we think of our Lord Jesus particularly with respect to this--our sympathetic high priest, "able to be touched with the feelings of our infirmities." Again, though, this does not mean that God cannot relate to the creature apart from the Incarnation (though he enters our human woe in a particular way in the Incarnation). God, seeing us in our sin and misery does not despise us. Rather He looks on us with pity, has mercy upon us, and works to bring us from sin and misery to grace and glory. 

Peace,
Alan


----------



## InSlaveryToChrist (Feb 28, 2012)

As I thought, the two predominant hebrew words in the Old Testament for "pity" are _chuwc_, which basically means to _spare_, and _racham_ (the word used in Rev. Strange's quoted Ps. 103:13), used synonymously with _mercy_. So, there is a good possibility that pity is never used to express God's _emotions_, but his _judicial acts of mercy_.


----------

