CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

God said that we need to love each other...wow what a task. It's really hard. How do you try and show love to someone if you don't like them or if you "hate" them. I try to show people that I am here for them if they need anything and I try to stand up for people if they need it. However, many times I just can't resist making a hurtful comment when there not around...even sometimes when they are. I guess it's human nature or whatever, but I really want to change this in myself. It doesn't feel good to hurt people and we keep doing it.

How do you show love and not hate?

First off to show love and not hate you have to resolve the issue within yourself. Ask God to take away the burden that has been put on your mind and just let it go. This is the most difficult thing for a christian to do because its just so easy to hold a grudge. Also keep in mind that to love someone doesn't neccerily mean you have to make them your best friend. Just remember that God gave his life for us so the least we could do is at least smile to someone who doesn't like you. Like I said this is probably the single most difficult command that God gave us; but just trust in him and youll do fine.

I think it takes time. We can take steps. Learn to forgive a person or to cease holding a grudge first. Then try to see the good in the other person and appreciate that. It will help us to stop always thinking of their shortcomings. Ask God to change us and give us strength. He can empower us to do the impossible.

Recognizing that you need to change is the first step in changing. The secret is to keep trying.

Believe me, God has plenty of reasons to hate us and talk about us behind our backs, but He does not. He does not because He genuinely loves us and wants what is best for us.

There’s no easy trick for changing yourself. What you must do is strive to change the way you think. It’s no easy task, but it is possible. Try to monitor your thoughts. When an inappropriate thought comes up, correct yourself. If you verbalize something you shouldn't, verbalize that you were wrong to do so. Match each mistake you make with an equal rebuke of yourself. Slowly but surely, by the grace of God, you will change the way you think of yourself and others.

So many times, we fall into a trap that we need to at least appear perfect to others. This can be good motivation to act in a Godly manner, but it can also cause us to try to hide our mistakes. This we must not do. We must be up front with ourselves and those around us when we are in error and strive to correct those mistakes.

Father,
I thank You for being who You are. For caring about us in spite of the way we think and act and hurt both You and those around us. I thank You for Meow Chan and her desire to serve You. Please continue to guide her and show her Your ways. Give her the courage to let go of her selfish nature and make her ways Your ways. Please help us, all of the people around her who care about her, help her develop her full potential as Your servant and disciple.
Amen.

My pastor once defined love in a sermon as, "Intentionally prioritizing your life to bring about God's best for another person." I thought that was an interesting way of summarizing it. We don't have to necessarily like the person, but to love them, we need to work to bring about God's best for them.

Well, in order to love someone we "hate," we should remember that Jesus said that those who harbor hate in their hearts are in danger of hell-fire. Christians are required to never hate anyone. Even those who are our enemies we are told to "Love [our] enemies, bless them that curse [us], do good to them that hate [us], and pray for them which despitefully use [us], and persecute [us]..." So there really isn't much room inbetween for hate. Where love comes from is something that we all must remember, so take this to heart... Love comes from the God of Love. If ever we are in need of love, all we need to do is ask Him to remind us of what love is and ask that love be given to us in abundance.

The Bible's definition of love and hatred are certainly different than our own. 1 Corinthians 13 is such a huge task that we should strive to achieve all the time. Gaining control over the tongue is also a very difficult battle. I slip up so much when it comes to bad-mouthing people, even when I "know" I'm right or whatever, I often don't say things in love the way I should. I think this kind of self-control is by the power of the Spirit. We ought to ask Him to help us with this.

Also, I've heard that "hate" in the Bible can be understood as "love less..." Like when Jesus says, "whoever doesn't hate their father and mother is not worthy of Me." There are other examples of this. Has anyone else heard that explanation of Biblical hatred?

Also, a good thing to keep in mind is that it's okay to hate things people do, but not people. Love the sinner, hate the sin. Even God hates things.

And one more thing...Hate isn't really the opposite of love. The opposite of love is apathy: not caring at all.