Loving Someone You Disagree With

The Bible clearly commands us to love, and not to love our job or our car or our cat. We are commanded to love each other. Which isn't that hard if we stay in our Christian bubble, never leaving the confines of our Christian community and avoiding wherever possible the awkwardness of being confronted with our own sinfulness or anyone else's. Unfortunately for our love of the comfortable, apart from a bunch of quasi Christian cults you only know about from current affairs shows, real life isn't like that. Which means that we regularly come into contact with people who we disagree with, often people we REALLY disagree with. And usually they also disagree with us. I know it's shocking. The problem for us is that as Christians we are commanded to love, this is kinda fundamental.We are commanded again and again in the Bible to love, and not just to love but to love as Christ loved us and as he demonstrated in his life and ministry on earth. And why did Jesus come in the first place? Because God loved.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life (John 3:16)

God sent Jesus because He loves us, Jesus and the apostles command us over and over throughout the New Testament to love our neighbours and each other, the very life and earthly ministry of Christ is upheld as being about love and it is this example that we are called to follow. 

Surely though, when the Bible says to love our neighbours it's referring to those like us?
Fair point...Jesus thought of that argument though

You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you (Matthew 5:43-44)

That's right, Jesus himself clearly commands us as Christians to love and even pray for our enemies. Now a legalist could argue that since I am writing about loving people you disagree with and not about your enemies that passage is moot. To which I say that if Matthew 5:43-44 tells us how to treat our enemies, then we should be expected to treat those we merely disagree with even better.

But it's really really hard to love people who disagree with us. Often they are slandering us, making fun of us and debating every minor point of what we say for no other reason than for their own entertainment. 

Surely God knows this and we can move on to something else now?

Surely he recognises the love that is shown by not rearranging their faces with our knuckles and that's sufficient?

Yes! But we are called to love them in spite of this. We aren't called to love their views, we aren't called to like what they're saying, but we are called to love the person. Because whether we agree with them or not they are still made in the image of God and Jesus died for them too.

Yeah it's hard. You know what else is hard?
Getting crucified and not just facing one of the most horrific execution methods in history but taking upon yourself the sins of the world at the same time. If Jesus had decided that it was too hard to love us the way God does then we'd all be on a direct train to hell, do not pass go do not collect $200. Luckily for us Jesus wasn't as selfish as we are. He did go to the cross and die for the sins of a world that rejected him, he did take upon himself the sins of the whole world because he loved us that much.

This is great but I'm not Jesus so how does this apply to me you ask?
Jesus' life and ministry on this earth is an example of how we are to live. Jesus ate with tax collectors and hung out with prostitutes, both people doing things that God is clearly against. Following that example in a modern context might look like having lunch with that really irritating atheist who just wants to tear everyone else down or grabbing a coffee with that christian who's plastering their fundamentalist beliefs all over facebook and offending all in sundry in the process. Maybe following Christ's example in a modern context looks like reading up on the topics that those people who you disagree with are passionate about so that you can lovingly and tactfully discuss what you believe about those things with them. They may not go away agreeing with you but you are able to learn from them and them from you, shockingly it's even possible to be friends with people you disagree with. 

You disagree? Tell me again about how all your friends at school were christians from your denomination who believed exactly what you believed with no disagreement whatsoever.
Unless you were homsechooled, the above statement should clearly ring false. Almost all of us already have friends we disagree with to some degree.

Sydney Minister Dr John Dickson puts it succinctly I think "If you can't see how it is possible to love someone at the same time that you profoundly disagree with them and their life course, it isn't love you're trying to imagine. At least, it isn't the love of Christ."