Can you love someone even though you dislike things about him or her? Absolutely, you can. God does not require us to like everything about everybody. He just requires us to love everybody.
True love goes beyond our feelings. Love comprises actions. We can choose to love others or not to love them. We are to, “Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8, NIV).
When we say we love someone, it means among other things that we cover and not expose the person’s shortcomings. For instance, we don’t go in the office broadcasting our perceived faults or sins of that person. Oh, and here is an important point. When we judge the faults we see in others, our assessment is often subjective. We are looking through our personal lens with our personal filters on, and these may be flawed.
No one is literally perfect. We all have our imperfections. Seek and you shall find them. But true love covers and not exposes them. That’s one way we can know whether or not we are walking in true love toward another person.
These days, it seems as if everyone has itching ears for some spicy gossip. People are always looking for something interesting to talk about—even when it’s at someone else’s expense. It can seem natural for us to join in or to start such conversations. But Christians should shun participation in this kind of behavior because it is not compatible with true love.
True Love Can Be Hard
Some people can make it hard to love them. They know how to get under your skin and push the right buttons to get you going. They can seem to stay in enemy-mode. Perhaps as you read those words, you can think about a person or two in your life who fits that description. I certainly did.
Or maybe it’s not that. Perhaps, you just dislike just about everything about them—the way they look, the way they talk, the way the walk, the way they eat, the name their momma gave them, etc. Hey, we all have our likes and dislikes. But again, God does not require us to like everything about everybody. He just requires us to love everybody.
So, what is love in the eyes of God? Paul writes, “Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous” (1 Corinthians 13:4, NASB). Also, love “bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things” (verse 7).
It’s not impossible to do what God is asking us to do here. Walking in true love is at times a challenge, but not impossible. God has empowered us to love the seemingly unlovable. We have been born of His Spirit and are partakers of His character. The Bible tells us that God is love. This is the heart of His character and should be of ours.
Copyright© 2022 by Frank King. All rights reserved.