Love one another. This is one of the final commands that Jesus gives his disciples in the Gospel of John. He does not tell them to defend one another or to pray for one another. His command, to the disciples and to us, is to love, which seems simple enough on the surface.
Most of us are well practiced at love. We love our spouse or significant other. We love our children. We love our friends. We even love our favorite sports teams.
But what about people whom we don’t know, don’t like, or don’t trust? We are not exempt from Jesus’ command regarding these difficult “others.”
Here are some ways we can show God’s love to everyone:
Loving people we don’t know
Jesus issued his command to love each other to the twelve disciples, the group of men who’d journeyed with him. The disciples had sat at Jesus’ feet and heard parables. They’d sailed the Sea of Galilee with him. Together they witnessed him perform miracles. They were not strangers to one another. And though they had their internal conflicts (Judas…), Jesus’ command makes sense because of their knowledge of one another.
Our world is much larger than the world of the disciples. We are connected in ways that they could not imagine, which means that we encounter, in person and online, a great many people whom we do not know. Our United Methodist heritage gives us a clue for how we can love people when we have so little knowledge of them.
Across the world, United Methodists are linked by our theology, our witness, and our mission. We know what it is like to be in relationship with people we have never met. Recognizing connection is in our DNA.
If we can learn to recognize all of the ways that we are connected to our neighbors near and far, such as how we share the same earth and are loved by the same God, then we have taken a first step toward loving people we don’t know.
Loving people we don’t like
Scripture is littered with stories of unlikable people. Jesus had numerous run-ins with antagonistic religious and political leaders. Paul was a dogged persecutor of the early church. As king, David committed one disastrous act after another. There were tax collectors, money changers, corrupt landowners, lax priests, and even surly prophets whose stories are woven in among those of the saints, the martyrs, and the Messiah.
The one thing that all of these unlikable characters have in common is that God loved them all.
In Matthew 22, Jesus responds to a legal expert’s question about the greatest commandment, saying, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind,” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Notice that the only qualification that Jesus gives in loving our neighbors is that we must love them as we love ourselves. There is no exception for their likability, their personality, or the fact that they just cut us off in traffic.
We must pray for the strength of mind and heart to love our neighbor – even our annoying, unlikable neighbor – because this is what Jesus expects us to do.
Loving people who seem like a threat
Our world is full of people who do not look like us, think like us, or hold to our values. Some even wish us harm. And yet, Jesus places no qualifiers on the limits of our love. We are called to love even the people who seem to pose a threat. It can be challenging to approach such a difficult task.
In his book Jesus and the Disinherited, theologian Howard Thurman writes that in dealing with those who pose a threat we must first “make an attack upon the enemy status.” What he means is that we must transform our perception of those who come against us as a necessary first step in learning to love our enemies.
What must transpire between us and our enemies is a change in our own heart. We cannot allow fear and hatred to take up residence. According to Thurman, we must cultivate an active love that transcends conflict and builds relationships.
Jesus agrees, telling his disciples in Matthew 5:44 to “love your enemies and pray for those who harass you.” Praying for our enemies and working to perceive their belovedness, despite what they do, is the key.
There are numerous stories of people who learned to do this throughout history. People like Martin Luther King, Jr., and Nelson Mandela stand out as heroes who refused to bend to the hatred of those who wished them harm. But we do not have to be “great” to overcome hatred of the enemy.
This is no easy feat, but we have the Holy Spirit to help us. Earnest prayer for our enemies, and for our own strength in the face of their threats, will take us there.
So how do we love ALL people?
Recognize how we are connected.
Realize that we are all beloved by God.
Pray for the Holy Spirit to strengthen us.
These three simple tasks will lead us to love everyone, a love greater than any we could imagine.
Nate Abrams is a first year Master of Divinity student at the Candler School of Theology at Emory University. He served as the Lay Leader of the North Georgia Annual Conference from 2021 - 2024. Nate lives in Marietta, Georgia, with his wife, an ordained UMC Elder, their two sons, and their dog Rose. You can follow his writing on Substack at nateabrams.substack.com
This page was published on October 7, 2026. The contact is Laura Buchanan.
