You know that guy or gal at church you really just can’t stand. You know, the one you strive to avoid eye contact with so as to not have to have a conversation with them when you’re the only two people in the area… yeah…

Jesus loves them. He died for them.

Whatever he/she did that rubs you the wrong way. Let it go. Love your brother/sister well. This means in spite of their faults. In spite of slights or offenses. In spite of not understanding why they are they way they are.

Understand that they’re just a work in progress. The Lord’s not done with them yet. And maybe, just maybe, the Lord made them exactly the way they are because he has a purpose for what he’s sown in them.

The very thing you find so distasteful in your brother or sister’s style, opinions or personality is the very thing the Lord loves about them. The way he made them. So love them, as best you can, as he loves them.

“8Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins. 9Show hospitality to one another without grumbling. 10As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace: 11whoever speaks, as one who speaks oracles of God; whoever serves, as one who serves by the strength that God supplies—in order that in everything God may be glorified through Jesus Christ. To him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.”

– 1 Peter 4