“If you really keep the royal law found in Scripture, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself,’ you are doing right. But if you show favoritism, you sin and are convicted by the law as lawbreakers” (James 2:8-9).

We may think, “How can I love my neighbor when I don’t like what he does?” It is important to remember that love doesn’t mean approval. C. S. Lewis remarked that he struggled with the idea of hating the sin and loving the sinner until he realized he had done that with himself all his life. Remember that God loved us when He couldn’t approve of the way we were living.

We can love others because we have been loved by God. God spoke to Israel about this same issue. “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the alien, giving him food and clothing. And you are to love those who are aliens, for you yourselves were aliens in Egypt” (Deuteronomy 10:17-19).

God doesn’t show partiality and that is the attitude He wants to reproduce in us. There is no better reason for loving others than the fact that God has loved us. As God reminded Israel, we are to love aliens because we were once aliens ourselves. Our neighbor may not be someone who is like me. I’m to love my neighbor as myself anyway.

I’m like most people. I’m very comfortable with those who are like me. I can go to church anywhere in the world and feel that I’m with my family. But, I was once on the outside looking in and God loved me. I’m simply to pass along to others the love I’ve received from God.