How can I learn to love the people I just don’t like? - Love - TouchPoints

1 John 4:19We love each other because he loved us first.

We can love people we don’t like by remembering that God loves us and that he sent his son to die for us. We can find motivation to love through God’s example, rather than based on the other person’s behavior. Love is a decision to value people with respect, compassion, and courtesy and to act in their best interests. We do this simply because God made them and loves them, not because they have earned our love.

1 Corinthians 13:1-13If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but didn’t love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. If I had the gift of prophecy, and if I understood all of God’s secret plans and possessed all knowledge, and if I had such faith that I could move mountains, but didn’t love others, I would be nothing. If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing. Love is patient and kind. Love is not jealous or boastful or proud or rude. It does not demand its own way. It is not irritable, and it keeps no record of being wronged. It does not rejoice about injustice but rejoices whenever the truth wins out. Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge will become useless. But love will last forever! Now our knowledge is partial and incomplete, and even the gift of prophecy reveals only part of the whole picture! But when the time of perfection comes, these partial things will become useless. When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely. Three things will last forever—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.

1 Peter 4:8Continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins.

Love is an act of spiritual maturity based on the eternal significance of each person and as an expression of what God is doing in our lives. When we learn to love the unlovable, we develop the ability to see others as Jesus does.

John 13:34“So now I am giving you a new commandment: Love each other. Just as I have loved you, you should love each other.”

John 13:35“Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.”

1 John 2:9If anyone claims, “I am living in the light,” but hates a fellow believer, that person is still living in darkness.

1 John 4:12No one has ever seen God. But if we love each other, God lives in us, and his love is brought to full expression in us.

Following Christ and being filled with the Holy Spirit should enable us to love others as he did, even those we don’t naturally like.

Romans 12:20“If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.”

Even if we don’t like certain people, we can still choose to do tangible acts of love for them.

Romans 12:3Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us.

Before we are too quick to dislike or dismiss someone, we should recognize that we, too, have qualities that others do not like.

Matthew 18:26-28“The man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.”

Romans 5:8God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11Don’t you realize that those who do wrong will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t fool yourselves. Those who indulge in sexual sin, or who worship idols, or commit adultery, or are male prostitutes, or practice homosexuality, or are thieves, or greedy people, or drunkards, or are abusive, or cheat people—none of these will inherit the Kingdom of God. Some of you were once like that. But you were cleansed; you were made holy; you were made right with God by calling on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Colossians 3:13Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

We can love people we don’t even like by remembering that God has forgiven us an enormous debt. How can we demand that others pay for theirs? How can we hold “that one time” over someone else’s head when God has forgiven us for all our sins?

Matthew 5:43-44“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. But I say, love your enemies! Pray for those who persecute you!”

Loving enemies is mandatory for Christians. This is possible only as we follow Jesus’ example and are filled with the Holy Spirit’s power.