Loving the Unlikeable
Have you ever not liked somebody? Let’s be real - there are people that are simply too difficult to like. There are things that people do that make them much too acidic to be palatable. The annoying personalities, the opinion blaring, the gossips, the infuriating little traits that people develop and carry through their lives that just grate the @+%& out of you. Oh, I am certainly not free from them and, by the way, Holier than Thou, you are not free from them either (so annoying).
There are even times when we don’t like people that are closest to us in this life. Our best friends, our spouses, our siblings, our parents - no one is exempt from the occasional time of dislike. Of course, in these cases we often understand that the dislike will be minor and the time will be short.
Thankfully, especially for us introverts, we are not intended to like everyone. We are not called to be friends with all humanity. Our obligation does not include befriending Hitler.
BUT, we are called to love God and according to Jesus’ disciple, John, we are commanded, in turn, to love our fellow Christians. He states in one of his letters that “ whoever loves God must also love his brother.” There is no qualification here. No love when love is easy. No love if the person meets your approval. It is simply “love”.
Why should I love someone who is unlikeable? Because Jesus loved you. When you were sunk in your sin and shame, Jesus loved you enough to die for you. He loved you enough to call you and then to carry you through the life you have led. Jesus loves you.
How do I love someone that I cannot like? Now that’s a little harder. The easiest platitude would say something about it being a matter of the heart and all that. But I believe it’s a bit harder than that. Loving someone who is unlikeable involves setting aside your own agenda, putting aside yourself and, yep, picking up a cross. Jesus himself said that there was no greater love than a person laying down their life for another. He should know.
Loving an unlikeable person is one of the most difficult of commandments placed on a believer. But there is likely no other action that we will take in this sinful and fallen world that will more closely resemble the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. Bearing this cross reveals in the Christian the greatest measure of God’s Spirit and displays to the world in which they live the love of our Savior. In that we will certainly bring Glory to God.