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I love You Though I Don't Like You!

by Steve Countryman  
3/13/2017 / Christian Living

Matthew 22:37-39 37Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”

These are commands not requests or suggestions. Please note that no where does Jesus tell us to “LIKE” our neighbors. And that is one of the hardest things that we as Christians must do! Harder still is trying to explain how this works to a child let alone another adult.

When someone sees you do they see Jesus in you? Do they see God’s love shining through you? Or do they see just another self-centered, self-absorbed person who spends all their time on their phone? Someone to busy to make time to shine God’s love to the un-lovable. People restrict their love and qualify it to only those who they like!

Those who we don’t like usually don’t deserve our attention. We will go out of our way to avoid talking to them, crossing their paths or even making eye contact. But that is what the world does to those they don’t like too! To shine God’s love and to obey His command to love your neighbor means that we cannot treat those we dislike as the world does. Just the opposite, we are to be good to them, to bless them, pray for them, help them and go out of our way to show them God’s love. And yes you can do all that and not have to like them.

There is this one man that I know who falls into the category of not being liked. He comes across as loud, self-centered, demanding, pushy, assuming, opinionated and rude. He’s the type that will take advantage of people without caring how much he puts them out. This causes him to be disliked by most people who he comes in contact with. Avoiding him seems the easiest way to deal with him. That is what I found myself doing to him. But how is that showing Him God’s love? It did dawn on me that he is just that way. He doesn’t even realize how he comes across. He can’t help the way he is.

I try to help him from time to time with different things. Being a friend to the friendless is what Christians should do. But that doesn’t mean that you have to like them. It doesn’t mean that you spend all your time with them. Or that you have to become their best friend. It does mean that showing the un-likable God’s love by blessing them will allow you to grow in the Lord. It also shines His love to those who witness how you treat others.

At the last supper Jesus washed the feet of ALL the disciples including the feet of Judas. Jesus knew ahead of time what Judas was going to do before he did it. Did that cause Jesus to treat Judas differently than the other disciples? No, Jesus continued to show Judas the same love as He showed the rest of His disciples. Even at the last supper when Jesus said that one of them would betray Him; it pained Jesus to acknowledge that one of His disciples would do such a thing. One that had spent the last three and a half years traveling, eating, sleeping and witnessing all of the miracles that Jesus did.

Jesus is our example of what it means to love someone who is not liked. Out of everyone you know or know about don’t you think Jesus had the best reason not to love let alone even like Judas? But that didn’t stop Jesus form washing Judas’ feet!

Luke 6:27-28 27 “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, 28 bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.”

Again, no where does Jesus say that we are to “LIKE” our enemies! Loving someone who has wronged you, hurt you, offended you, mistreated you or spoke ill about you is what you must do. It is part of the forgiving process that brings healing to your pain. It doesn’t mean that you have to forget what they did. It doesn’t mean that by forgiving them you are condoning what they did to you. And no you are not required to like them either!

If you think about it you have one of two choices to make. Either you can continue to allow their sin against you to be replayed in your mind over and over again. Continue to ignore them, mistreat them, grow and fester into hatred and allow their sin to stay stuck to you from now on. Or you can forgive them, release them, pray blessings of deliverance, salvation, healing and prosperity over them.

In the command that Jesus gave us He said “Love your neighbor as yourself” you will notice that there are no exceptions to this command. It is what we are to do for it is who we are in Christ. It's one of the things that separates us as Christians from the rest of the world. If you find it a hard thing to do just ask the Holy Spirit to help you and He will! You have to love them not like them!

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