Loving those who are easy to love is easy! But I don’t see scriptures that say to love only those who are easy to love. It doesn’t say to love those who will love you back and who will treat you right and who will do nice things for you. That wouldn’t be too tough, would it?
Think in your mind right now about people in your life that you love, that are easy to love. Names and faces probably flood your mind, right? I’m picturing my husband and my kids and my sister and my friends and I could go on and on. I bet we’re all smiling right now. We like to think about those people.
Now, think about some people in your life that aren’t as easy to love. Do you have people in your life that make it harder to love them? For whatever reason. Maybe you know people who are actually mean to you or say bad things to you or about you. Maybe you know people that hurt those you love. I don’t know all of the situations, but when we think of these people, it probably doesn’t bring a smile to our faces.
So, what do we do in that situation? Let’s look at some scriptures about love, and then let’s look at some practical things we can do to love those that might be difficult to love.
John 15:9-12 - 9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
Romans 13:8-10 - 8 “Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for whoever loves others has fulfilled the law. 9 The commandments, “You shall not commit adultery,” “You shall not murder,” “You shall not steal,” “You shall not covet,” and whatever other command there may be, are summed up in this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” 10 Love does no harm to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.”
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.”
Galatians 5:14 - 14 “For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”
The scriptures say to “love each other,” “love your neighbor,” and “love your enemies,” and the scriptures even define how we should show our love: “Love each other as I have loved you,” and “Love your neighbor as yourself.” This is an unconditional kind of love, one that seeks nothing in return.
So, how do we practically begin to show love to others, specifically those that might be a bit harder to love? The following are things we can do for those who are difficult to love. Maybe we can’t do all of them right now. So, we can just start with praying for God to change our hearts toward them. When we feel like we can pray for them, then we can move on to that, and then we can move on to the other items.
Pray for God to change your heart toward them.
Pray for them.
Send them a note or a text to tell them you’re thinking of them.
Do something nice for them.
Here’s a challenge that I will be taking on: memorize all of I Corinthians 13, the love chapter. I did this in high school when I was in Bible quizzing, and it really is a powerful chapter to memorize. It gives us an explanation as to what love is, what love looks like, and how love acts/behaves. It helps us to measure our actions to see if we are acting in love or if we aren’t.
Thanks for reading!
Love,
Julie
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