“My command is this:
Love each other as I have loved you.”
—John 15:12
I’ve started perusing different religion subreddits and came across this post on r/Christianity:
“I’ve been a Christian for five years but have only recently talked to other Christians. I now understand why so many people hate Christianity because Christians are some of the rudest, hypocritical, hateful assholes I have ever met. So many just call themselves Christian but don’t follow a single Christian value. I will always be Christian, but this community is terrible and I hate being associated with a lot of these people.”
My first thought was that there are 2+ billion Christians, so there’s inevitably a bell curve of assholes on one end, saints on the other, and the majority of people somewhere in between. But the command laid out by Jesus above may seem impossible to live up to in the face of rude, hypocritical, and hateful assholes (especially when the “as I have loved you” meant willingness to go to the cross), but I think we can strive to do our best when dealing with these types.
While that might not be genuinely manifesting those warm and fuzzy feelings associated with love, we at least have it within our power to act lovingly toward each other, even if others don’t reciprocate the same attitude. Pouring more rudeness or hatred into the world doesn’t do anyone any good. Also, we have it in our power to cultivate and strengthen our emotions by focusing on the attitude that is favorable or unfavorable toward someone else, by seeking out what is lovable or unlovable in others, despite whether or not they are more narrow-minded, despite whether or not their worldview is entirely different from ours.
When it comes to following this command, I think our role is to uphold our own standards and echo the nature of Christ’s love the best we can.