5 Ways the Bible Shows Us How to Love People You Don't Like or Disagree With

The short answer: The Bible calls Christians to love people even when they disagree with them or find them hard to be around. That love starts with receiving God's love, which we did nothing to earn (Romans 5:8). From there, Scripture shows five practical ways to love difficult people: love sincerely, treat them as people made in God's image, tell the truth with grace, bless them and let go of the outcome, and remember that how we love is how others see God.

Most of us would rather skip this question because the honest answer is uncomfortable. How do you love someone you actually dislike? The person whose politics raise your blood pressure. The one whose posts you scroll past with a grimace. The one whose choices you find baffling or offensive.

It is easy to love people who are easy to love. Faith gets tested in the hard cases.

1 John 4:8 says simply, "God is love" (KJV). Christians believe God is eternal. Nothing caused Him to exist. If God is love, then His love is not caused by anything either. It exists because He exists.

That changes how we think about love. We usually treat love as a response to people who earn it or inspire it. God's love does not work that way. You cannot make God love you more, and on your worst day, when you have given Him every reason to turn away, He still loves you. That undeserved love is what the Bible calls grace.

We can only give that kind of love to others after we have received it ourselves. With that in mind, here are five ways to love people we disagree with.

"Let love be without dissimulation" (Romans 12:9, KJV). In plain words, love has to be real, not a performance.

Love is a verb. It shows up in action and sacrifice. You do not have to feel warmly toward someone to love them, and you do not have to approve of everything they do. Sincere love costs something, and you give it even when it is not deserved. You can love someone and still grieve the harmful patterns you see in their life. Real love does both.

Our culture is good at reducing people to labels. Once someone is just a label, it feels easier to treat them without dignity.

But every person, whatever their politics, lifestyle, or opinions, is made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27). That gives them worth. When we sit across from someone, listen to their story, and see a person instead of a position, something changes. You do not have to agree with someone to be kind to them.

John 1:14 describes Jesus as "full of grace and truth" (KJV). Not one or the other. Both, fully.
Truth without grace condemns. It becomes a weapon, the way some religious leaders in Jesus' day used the law to crush people instead of restore them. Grace without truth misleads. It cheers people on toward a cliff because we care more about being liked than about loving them.

Paul told Timothy to "reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine," because a time would come when people would only want to hear what they want to hear (2 Timothy 4:2-3, KJV).

The clearest picture of this balance is the woman caught in adultery in John 8:1-11. A crowd was ready to stone her. Jesus said, "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her" (John 8:7, KJV), and one by one they left. He protected her from their violence. But He did not leave her in comfortable silence. He told her, "go, and sin no more" (John 8:11, KJV). He shielded her from condemnation without shielding her from the truth. That is grace and truth together: I love you too much to leave you where you are.

When someone hurts us, our instinct is to strike back or at least hold back. Scripture asks for something harder: "Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not" (Romans 12:14, KJV). Jesus said to pray for those who mistreat us (Matthew 5:44).

Pray for them. Not that God would get them, but that whatever brokenness is driving their behavior would meet healing. Then let go. Let go of the outcome you expected and of your need for them to respond the way you want. You are not responsible for the outcome, only for your obedience.

Forgiveness is not a feeling you wait for. It is a choice you make, and it is often what finally sets you free.

Jesus told His disciples, "By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another" (John 13:35, KJV). Our relationships are our testimony.

The way you treat the cashier, the coworker, the neighbor whose yard sign you can't stand, and the family member you haven't spoken to in years is all a witness. Someone is always watching, and they are drawing conclusions about God from how His people treat others.

Because God loved us first, while we were still undeserving. "God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8, KJV). He did not wait for us to clean ourselves up. John 3:17 says God did not send His Son to condemn the world, but to save it.

If Jesus went to the cross to restore a relationship we did nothing to deserve, we can let go of our pride, our need to get even, and our carefully guarded opinions, so the people around us can meet the same undeserved love that changed us.

Love is not a feeling. It is a decision made toward someone who has not earned it. It may be the most supernatural thing a person can do.