Loving those We’d Rather Hate
Matthew 5:44 (NIV) But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,
We have to admit that there are those we love to love. There are those people that we just love to be around and then there are those that we just tolerate and put up with because we share an office with them or because they’re on our soccer team or because we share some other experience with them.
The first category is the people we love to be with. We look for opportunities to be on the same team or share the same work assignment on the job. With good reason we like to be around them. These are the people that are just plain easy to love. They probably reciprocate our gestures of kindness and share the same mutual affection for us.
The second category is a more challenging group. Maybe they have a difficult personality or we don’t share the same interests. Perhaps they talk too much or are just annoying. These are the people who are just more difficult to love.
The interesting thing about them is that in Scripture we are actually told to love them. The problem is that this doesn’t really make it any easier. The Bible never says that it will be easier it just says that we are supposed to love them.
Really, this is the way God’s love falls on us. Let’s face it, we’re probably someone else’s difficult person to love. Yet God never avoids us or shuns opportunities to be near us. His love is always there and always working His plan in our lives. His love is pure.
John 15:12 (NIV) My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.