This is more of a question than an answer, but I want to ask you:
What does it mean to “love everyone”? Further, how do you do it?
Theories abound as to what love is, but this discussion isn’t so much philosophical as it is practical. Practically speaking, how do you love all?
This is preparation for my message next week at Immersion. Plus, our readers are some of the brightest and best. So I come to you asking, how do you love everyone?
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What i have noticed is that it is easier to love the evilest most hated person (Osama, Hitler, etc…) then it is to love the people that you come into contact with everyday.
For me this commandment of love others as you love yourself is calling me to love those that I just plain do not like that I have to deal with everyday.
I struggle with this the most, loving someone that I cannot stand being around, not loving a guy like Osama (kind of weird).
For me, loving others is respecting them as humans beings. It doesn't mean I have to like them, but I can listen to them, talk to them, help them if needed.
I found that it was easy for me to love those around me by just looking inward. I took an examination of my life and and decided that I was very happy with who I was, where I was, what I was doing, etc. It was easy from that point to forgive anyone who I felt had wronged me and to move on to a place in my life where I just choose to love those around me.
As a side note: Have any of you talked been archived yet on Immersion?
I see loving everyone as an opportunity to die to myself. For me, my opinions and judgments get in the way of loving people for who they are. It's moments where I hold my tongue, repent of my judgment and let go of my opinions where I can love everyone.
Practically, for those we don't know, listening and serving them in the simplest ways. Serving them will help them open up. The more you know about a person, the easier it is to love them, because you know the needs of their heart. For those we do know, it is a constant work of grace and humility, because many more of our flaws, and the flaws of our counterparts are exposed. It's taking the time to recognize the mistakes we make, with a willingness to move towards improving ourselves. We generally tend to have the same expectation of grace for those we are close to. It's a willingness to work through anything to grow a stronger relationship.
Dude … That's truth. It's easier to love the “over there” people instead of the “right here” ones! Truth.
Which talks are you referring to?
Death to self = KEY in loving everyone. A must.
I have been working on seeing others, all people as loved children of God. Seeing how they were knit together in their mothers womb with love helps… but it's difficult to see that all the time.
I think it's important to remember that loving doesn't necessarily look the same for each person in your life. I'm not just talking about their 'love language'… I'm talking about loving the addict in your family by not enabling them- emotionally, financially, or otherwise. Sometimes it means lovingly calling out something that is really harmful to a person that they don't even realize. It MUST be done with true love though. This for me is harder than loving the enemy.
I think it's important to remember that loving doesn't necessarily look the same for each person in your life. I'm not just talking about their 'love language'… I'm talking about loving the addict in your family by not enabling them- emotionally, financially, or otherwise. Sometimes it means lovingly calling out something that is really harmful to a person that they don't even realize. It MUST be done with true love though. This for me is harder than loving the enemy.