Who are we supposed to love? (quote, God, Christians, believe)
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There's something we can find to love in everyone. Every human being is sacred and we have the capacity to come to love them. No one is too messed up that we can't potentially love them, and we need to remember that when we interact with strangers. I think most people know this in their heart. For myself, I don't need religion to see that this is self-evident, I've lived life and I've met people and I've loved, that's all anyone needs.
There's something we can find to love in everyone. Every human being is sacred and we have the capacity to come to love them. No one is too messed up that we can't potentially love them, and we need to remember that when we interact with strangers. I think most people know this in their heart. For myself, I don't need religion to see that this is self-evident, I've lived life and I've met people and I've loved, that's all anyone needs.
I respectfully disagree...and as of most recently the Aurora movie shooter comes to mind. Some people just don't realize there are people in this world who cannot be reasoned with and they just want to see the world around them burn and end up in chaos.
I respectfully disagree...and as of most recently the Aurora movie shooter comes to mind. Some people just don't realize there are people in this world who cannot be reasoned with and they just want to see the world around them burn and end up in chaos.
You can still have compassion for these people. Compassion is understanding, and just understanding that they just want the world to burn up is having compassion. For example, even understanding that Hitler had a bad childhood is having compassion. Compassion isn’t the same as excusing evil behavior. It’s just being able to mentally place facts in a way so that you understand why someone else did something, or why they behave they way they do.
I don't really think we are supposed to necessarily love anyone. We make a choice of whom to love based upon various factors we find important. We certainly should respect the humanity, dignity, and rights of everyone; but love is earned through a set of standards determined by each of us individually.
Yeah, I object to the "supposed to" language in the question, "Who are we supposed to love?" I don't believe we are "supposed to" anything as I don't believe anyone exists who is in a position to give us a "supposed to".
I believe we evolved as social creatures. Love unites us with others with whom we share, sacrifice, and nurture when weak, etc. I think we need to be careful about who we unite ourselves with. Some people aren't good for us, and although we may have the capacity to love them it may not be wise to bring them into our inner circle.
I think we can have understanding for our enemies (those who are fighting against us). I think it can be beneficial to think about things for the point of view of our enemies, as sometimes we can find a way that both ours and their concerns can be satisfied, and thus end the conflict. But, if "loving our enemies" means lowering our defenses when they are still prepared to attack, that would be an unwise move. I think you can sometimes turn an enemy into a friend by doing something nice for them, but don't lower your defenses until you see some reciprocity from the other side.
I think in discussing love we need to be very clear what we mean by "love" and what behaviors that love would lead to.
Hatred towards our enemies can make us blind to opportunities for reconciliation. So, the more level-headed we can be, the more advantage we will have in thinking of options to resolve the conflict and the more open we will be to finding solutions that may also improve the situation of our enemies. But, "not hating" does not equal "loving". If we are thinking about the welfare of all involved, I think that may count as loving one's enemies, yet still allow us to keep up our defenses until the threat from the other side ends.
Christians are called to love everyone all religions and creeds , all skin colors , nationalities . their enemies, people who have deformities, and sick people ,and people of all sexual preferences, people who sin against God , everyone , this all come from the Good Samaritan story who a man helped where the story did not identify the person in any way
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