Love, Hate and Indifference

We should help those in need.

For this is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We must not be like Cain who was from the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother’s righteous. Do not be astonished, brothers and sisters, that the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life because we love one another. Whoever does not love abides in death. All who hate a brother or sister are murderers, and you know that murderers do not have eternal life abiding in them. We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another. How does God’s love abide in anyone who has the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses help? Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action. - 1 John 3:11-18

When we love one another, we help one another.

If we don't love someone, that doesn't mean we hate them, right?  We may just not care at all about them.  Is that a bad thing?

The Rabbi and the Levite walking along the road  probably didn't hate the man who was robbed and beaten, left for dead.  They were merely indifferent to him.  To them, he was already dead.

In some ways indifference can be worse than hatred.  At least when you hate someone, you care enough to have some kind of feelings for them. 

When I encounter someone on the street who is begging, I can simply walk by them as if they aren't there, or I could engage them.  Is it better to engage and refuse to help or to ignore and walk by?

If I engage, I acknowledge that they are real, they are alive.  But when I ignore them, I tell them they do not matter enough for me to even see them.

Jesus may not have wanted to help everyone who came to him, but he didn't ignore them.  He acknowledged everyone, and in doing so, he heard them and helped them.

So, I think the first step in loving one another is to acknowledge one another.  No one should be invisible.  No one should be ignored.

And when we take the time to acknowledge others, we might just come to know them and love them.

More to come...