Loving people you don’t like

In the Bible God commands us to love one another. Interestingly, He doesn’t command us to like one another. And that’s a good thing because you can love someone and not like certain things about them. Paul writes, ‘We are His workmanship.’ (Ephesians 2:10 KJV) The word ‘workmanship’ comes from the Greek word poiéma from which we get the word ‘poetry’. And poetry is a varied and creative thing; it comes in many forms. That’s why the Bible says God works through different people in different ways (see 1 Corinthians 12:6). He uses all kinds of people, including the ones we may not like or want to work with.

‘A spiritual gift is given to each of us’ (1 Corinthians 12:7 NLT), and it’s up to us to discover and develop it. ‘Christ gave those gifts to prepare God’s holy people for the work of serving.’ (Ephesians 4:12 NCV) The word ‘prepare’ is also interesting. It comes from a medical term in the original Greek. Doctors used it to describe the process of setting a broken bone.

Stop and look around you today. Have you ever seen so many broken hearts, broken homes, broken dreams, and broken lives? And if we who claim to be followers of Christ do our job right, they will find help and healing. God uses us to minister to one another, love one another, honour one another, and carry one another’s burdens. When you think about it, the church is God’s treatment centre for everything that causes us pain. And if you keep that in mind, it will help you to love and get along with people you don’t necessarily like.