{"id":85997,"date":"2025-03-24T09:04:43","date_gmt":"2025-03-24T14:04:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=85997"},"modified":"2025-03-24T09:04:43","modified_gmt":"2025-03-24T14:04:43","slug":"seven-reasons-to-love-others","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/seven-reasons-to-love-others\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven Reasons to Love Others"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\t

by Perry Hall<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. God commands it. “Because God said so” must be good enough to obey. But we want more, don’t we? Maybe we should need more reasons!<\/li>\n
  2. It imitates God. That is the highest motivation. God loved us while we were His enemies (Romans 5:8-10).<\/li>\n
  3. It helps others (Romans 12:20-21). Just because we do not like someone does not mean we should wish them harm, even if we sometimes hate them emotionally.<\/li>\n
  4. The best way to learn to like someone is to love them.<\/li>\n
  5. Loving others protects us. Did you ever wonder if the command not to take vengeance because vengeance is God’s and that instead, we must do good to our enemies might be for our own good too? By doing so, we are not allowing ourselves to be conquered by evil (Romans 12:21). By doing so, we also become changed. So, if you don’t like someone, start loving them. Do good for them until you like them.<\/li>\n
  6. It teaches others to love and like us, and who doesn’t want to be loved and liked?<\/li>\n
  7. It leads others to Christ; that is how God leads us to salvation.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    by Perry Hall God commands it. “Because God said so” must be good enough to obey. But we want more, don’t we? Maybe we should need more reasons! It imitates God. That is the highest motivation. God loved us while we were His enemies (Romans 5:8-10). It helps others (Romans 12:20-21). Just because we do…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[27],"tags":[65],"class_list":["post-85997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-love"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":26782,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-is-war-different-from-acts-of-retaliation\/","url_meta":{"origin":85997,"position":0},"title":"How is war different from acts of retaliation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 21, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I read \"Is there any biblical support for war?\"\u00a0 but I don't understand how it fits with\u00a0Matthew 5:38-42 and Luke 6:27-31. Answer: \"You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you not to resist an evil\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":30933,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/retaliation\/","url_meta":{"origin":85997,"position":1},"title":"Retaliation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 24, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Text: Romans 12:17-21 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0When someone strikes you, what is the first impulse? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Why, to strike back \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0It has been with us since childhood. \u201cI\u2019ll get even!\u201d \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Therein is the core. We want to strike back because we feel justice has not be carried out \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0C.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But I\u2019ve noticed that it\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4364,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/action-and-reaction\/","url_meta":{"origin":85997,"position":2},"title":"Actions and Reactions","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 17, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Luke 6:20-36 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0How should you act? How should you react? \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We live in a \u201cme first\u201d age. People demand their rights. They seek to get even when wronged. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0But let me tell you about a radical view of life II.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Actions - Luke 6:27-28 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Love\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":97732,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/love-your-enemies\/","url_meta":{"origin":85997,"position":3},"title":"Love Your Enemies","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 4, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"by Gary McDade The gentle Savior pled with the human family to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:27). And in this, His teaching was, and still is, revolutionary today. Revolutionary: \"involving or causing a complete or dramatic change.\" Emerging from Old Testament teaching was the concept of being saved\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92849,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/avenge-our-blood\/","url_meta":{"origin":85997,"position":4},"title":"Avenge Our Blood","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by David Hurst via\u00a0Sentry Magazine, Vol. 19 No. 2, June 1993 Vengeance is a greatly misunderstood subject in the Bible. Our understanding of the word is described with words such as retaliate and punish. Most of us view it as an undesirable trait. 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I was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85997\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}