Why do people struggle to love others?

You can’t share what you don’t know personally. Have you noticed that people increasingly invest themselves in positions (political, cultural, theological) that leave no room for alternative viewpoints. It seems as if everyone is shouting and no one is listening. People who hold contrary views find themselves shunned by family, friends and coworkers. In that environment, loving one another can be difficult, but not impossible.

To begin with, we must never forget that everyone we meet was created by God. Each one is so loved by God, that Jesus, God’s son, paid the punishment for all of the sins of that individual so that he or she could be forgiven and enjoy a fruitful life now and a perfectly wonderful eternal existence after earthly death. But most of those people who are judgemental and hard to get along with are those who have not allowed God to work in their hearts and minds.
Many haven’t experienced God’s love or even real human love. They have been hurt by someone who should have shown them love. They think they are not lovable themselves or even worthy of love.

Some, among us, believe you have to like another person to be able to love them. That’s not true. You can show love without necessarily liking another person. In short, the reason that many people struggle to love others, is that they don’t know God’s love, and they don’t know God’s love because they don’t know God. 1 John 4:8  reminds us that “Whoever does not love, does not know God, because God is love.”

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