5 Things That Keep Us From Loving Others

A few ways we sabotage our own ability to love our neighbors.

Sometimes, when we hear the command to “love your neighbor,” we interpret that to simply mean we shouldn’t actively hate our neighbors. But loving your neighbor is a positive, rather than a negative statement. Galatians’ restatement of the Golden Rule tells us to do to others as we would want done to ourselves. It doesn’t read “You shall not do to your neighbor as you wouldn’t want done to yourself.” Passive love is just tolerance, simply accepting who others are and what they do, but not having to really sacrifice or serve them. Love, however, requires action.