Editor’s Note: First published on Public Theology with Zach W. Lambert on October 24, 2025.
Years ago, I was sitting in the main session of a church leadership conference when I heard a pastor say something that really caught my attention.
“Love for God is best illustrated, demonstrated, and authenticated by love for others, who are nothing like you and who may not even like you.”
Andy Stanley
To be totally honest, I bristled when I heard it. “No, no, no. Love for God is best illustrated, demonstrated, and authenticated by how I obey God’s commands,” I thought to myself. Now to be fair, I was a seminary student at the time. I’d taken like eight classes which meant I was an expert on all things Christianity. It also meant that Jesus had given me the sacred task of correcting everyone else all the time.
But as I was thinking about how and when I would need to go correct the speaker, I heard him say something else. He started talking about the night of the Last Supper when Jesus told his followers:
“As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.”
John 15:9-11
As soon as Andy read that verse, I felt vindicated. “I knew I was right! Loving God is about following his commands.”
But then Andy posed a question to the crowd: “What are Jesus’ commands? Let’s keep reading in verse 12.”
I couldn’t exactly remember verse 12 from my eight seminary classes, but I was pretty sure it was going to enumerate a very long list of all God’s dos and don’ts. You can imagine how shocked I was when Andy read it:
“My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.”
John 15:12
In that moment, something began to shift in me. The facade of legalism to which I had ascribed in seminary (and at the church where I worked) began to crack.
Jesus, with just hours before his imminent execution, chooses to center his final conversation, the crescendo of all his teaching, one on command: love others as I have loved you.
This is the call of every Christian, everywhere, and for all time: Love everyone we encounter the way Jesus has loved us.
Who?
Everyone.¹
Here is our task: learn to love everyone.
No matter their politics. No matter their beliefs. No matter anything about them.
But how?
We’ve been loved by God and welcomed into his family, so how do we love others and welcome them into our family?
We’ve been loved by God and invited to abide with him, so how do we love others and invite them to abide with God?
We’ve been loved by God and he fights for justice on our behalf, so how do we love others and fight for justice on their behalf?
We’ve been loved by God and shown immeasurable generosity, so how do we love others and look for ways to be immeasurably generous?
No matter who we are or where we’ve been, we are loved by God and fully included in his church. How do we love others, no matter who they are or where they’ve been, and fully include them in our church?
It can be hard to figure out exactly how to do this. It may be simple, but it’s challenging. It looks different for each of us and will vary in every situation, but we have the example of biblical stories and characters to help us understand how to make it practical.
Simply put: everything boils down to receiving God’s love and then giving it away to absolutely everyone. This is what it means to follow Jesus. This is what it means to be a Christian. And as Christians, no matter how hard it seems, we are able to extend this love to those around us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
In his commentary on John 15, scholar Gerard Sloyan puts it like this:
“In emulating him one loves not only those deserving of love but all in the company, lovable or not. Such was the Master’s way with the disciples. It is God’s way with the human family.”
Gerard Sloyan
There’s something that goes along with receiving and giving this love that we don’t spend much time talking about. And yet, Jesus talks about it quite a bit in this final time of teaching. He is very clear with his disciples— both then and now— about what will happen if we actually put this radically inclusive, sacrificial love for all people thing into practice.
If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you: “A servant is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also.
John 15:18-20
I bet I’ve heard this passage preached in a dozen sermons, and every time it’s been interpreted in a way that pits Christians against everyone else. This is neither healthy nor what Jesus is actually talking about here.
If we go back to the actual words of Jesus here, we see that he’s not talking about non-Christians attacking us because we are Christians. He says, “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.”
Why did the world hate Jesus? Not because he was a Christian. That wasn’t a thing. Yet. People hated him because of his radical, sacrificial, and all-inclusive love. Think about where this section is situated inside of this larger teaching time.
Jesus says, “If you love me, keep my command. My command is this: love others as I have loved you. And if you do that, if you radically and sacrificially love everyone the way I did, some people are going to hate you for it.”
This is not about the label we carry; it’s about the way we live and love like Jesus.
When was the last time you heard about a Christian in the West being hated because they loved too much? Because they included the wrong people? Because they stood up for their marginalized neighbors?
I know some of you are thinking, “That never happens,” but as someone who has experienced it over and over again, I’m telling you it absolutely does. It just usually doesn’t come from people outside the religious community.
Jesus actually says this is to be expected as he continues his teaching:
All this I have told you so that you will not fall away. They will put you out of the synagogue; in fact, the time is coming when anyone who kills you will think they are offering a service to God. They will do such things because they have not known the Father or me. I have told you this, so that when their time comes you will remember that I warned you about them.
John 16:1-4
The phrase, “out of the synagogue” used by Jesus in this passage is only one word in the original Greek language. In modern vocabulary, it’s a word that is best translated as “excommunicated.” Jesus is using it here specifically to refer back to something that happened earlier in his ministry—a time when he heals a blind man on the Sabbath. Here is how the religious leaders reacted when they found out:
Some of the Pharisees said, “This man is not from God, for he does not keep the Sabbath.” But others asked, “How can a sinner perform such signs?” So they were divided.
John 9:16
The religious leaders are divided. Some believe Jesus is who he says he is and some do not. So they decide to investigate further by asking the formerly blind man’s parents about the incident.
“We know he is our son,” the parents answered, “and we know he was born blind. But how he can see now, or who opened his eyes, we don’t know. Ask him. He is of age; he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders, who already had decided that anyone who acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah would be put out of the synagogue.
John 9:20-22
This was something Jesus did a few different times: break a religious law in order to help someone in need. One time he actually did it in the middle of teaching in a synagogue, which, as you can imagine, did not go over very well.
If you’ve read the accounts of Jesus’ life, you know he was constantly in trouble with some of the religious leaders— not all of them, maybe not even most of them— but Jesus experienced severe persecution at the hands of religious people. and he warns his followers that the same thing will happen to them if they live like he lived and love like he loved.
I have a pastor friend who says it like this: “When you act like Jesus, unbelievers will rarely give you trouble, but those in the church will turn against you.”
I love how Tim Keller puts it in his book Prodigal God:
Jesus’s teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing religious people of His day. Our churches do not have this same effect, which can only mean one thing: we are not declaring the same message that Jesus did.
Tim Keller
It pales in comparison to what happens in other countries, but I can list twenty Christian friends off the top of my head who’ve experienced legitimate persecution for loving like Jesus and helping others do the same. I personally have experienced violent threats, financial loss, defamation, excommunication, and more.
But here’s the thing: None of this “persecution” came from the government, from adherents to other religions, or even from non-religious people. Not one single time. Every time I’ve experienced mistreatment for the way I follow Jesus has been at the hands of fellow Christians and churches.
Now listen: I’m not some martyr, and I’m certainly not Jesus. I’m really not telling you all of this because I want your sympathy or admiration. I’m telling you because I want you to know that pursuing the way of Jesus in every part of your life is going to come with pushback, and sometimes that pushback is going to come from people doing it in the name of God.
Within this passage, Jesus is saying that people led by love will often be hated and even persecuted by people who are not led by love. And tragically, many of the people who are not led by love are in very powerful positions, both inside and outside of religious communities.
Remember how Jesus told the disciples they were his friends? When we becomes friends with Jesus, the same people who hated him are going to hate us. And guess who that is? Let me tell you who it’s not:
It’s not the tax collectors and prostitutes. They LOVED him.
It’s not the question-askers and the doubters. They FLOCKED to him.
It’s not the oppressed, the broken, the abused, the outcast, the immigrant, the poor, the sick, and the downtrodden. They FOLLOWED him everywhere he went.
Who hated Jesus? Tyrannical religious leaders and oppressive political rulers. And what did those folks have in common? They were not led by love. They were led by the desire to dominate. They were led by a ruthless pursuit of power and riches. These are the people who plotted against Jesus, had him illegally arrested, unjustly tried, and executed.
So what do we do? Do we stop following Jesus? No. Do we gear up for a fight with anyone who mistreats us? No.
Here’s the part we really can’t afford to miss. Do you remember how Jesus treated these folks who were not led by love? Do you remember how he reacted in the midst of unimaginable persecution?
He loved them.
To see just how radical the love of Jesus really is, look no further than the cross. Just hours after this time of teaching in John 15, Jesus is enduring his own execution. He has been beaten, humiliated, and crucified by a group of Roman guards. As he hangs on the cross, watching them divide up his clothes, he says:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
Luke 23:34
This is one of the most powerful verses in all of Scripture. Even in the face of so much hate— even in the midst of unimaginable persecution, Jesus chooses love. And this wasn’t a one time thing for Jesus: he exhibited this behavior throughout his life and ministry. In fact, Jesus never let someone else’s hate keep him from leading with love.
I’m going to say that again, because I don’t want us to miss it:
Jesus never let someone else’s hate keep him from leading with love.
When I think of modern examples of leading with love when faced with hate, I think of Martin Luther King Jr. Many of y’all know how influenced I am by Dr. King. So much so that, in my spare time, I love to read his old sermons from the 50s and 60s.
In closing, I want to share Dr. King’s reflection on those words of Jesus from a sermon in 1963. Here’s what he says:
There are probably no words in all the New Testament that express more clearly and solemnly the magnanimity of Jesus’ spirit than that sublime utterance from the cross—“Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Here we see love at its best.
It is impossible to understand the great meaning of Jesus’ prayer without noticing the word with which the text opens. It is the word “then.” The verse which immediately precedes it reads thus: “And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified Him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. THEN, Jesus said, Father, forgive them.”
“Then”—when he was dying, a most ignominious death. “Then”—when he was being plunged into the abyss of nagging agony. “Then” when man had stooped to his worst. “Then”—when the wicked hands of the creature had dared to crucify the only begotten son of the creator. It was THEN, Jesus said, “Father forgive them.”
Behind that “then” could have been another reaction. Then he could have said, “Father, get even with them.” Then he could have said, “Father let loose the mighty thunderbolts of righteous wrath and destroy them in their tracks.” Then he could have said, “Father open the flood gates of justice and let the staggering avalanche of retribution pour upon them them.”
But this was not his response. Though subjected to inexpressible agony, though suffering excruciating pain, though despised and rejected, nevertheless, He cries, “Father forgive them.”
MLK, Jr.
That, my friends, is what it means to lead with love, even when we are experiencing hate. This is who Jesus is and who he calls us to be, too.
How do we do this? How do we lead with love even when we encounter hate? By depending on Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit. Scripture says that the Holy Spirit that indwells every follower of Jesus is the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead, and it’s the same Spirit that empowered Jesus to meet hate with love. That very Spirit lives within us.
So may we, by the power of the Holy Spirit, be dispensers of divine love in the midst of this broken world. And, like Jesus, may we never let someone else’s hate keep us from leading with love.
(1) I am not saying that you need to “love” (/stay in close relationship with) someone who is actively hurting or abusing you. Loving people has nothing to do with giving them access to hurt you. Jesus did not condone this type of hurt toward others, and neither do we. If you suspect you are being abused or perpetually hurt by someone, you have every right to hold necessary boundaries for your own health and protection.
Public Theology is based on the work of Zach W. Lambert, Pastor of Restore, an inclusive church in Austin, Texas. He and his wife, Amy Lambert, contribute to and moderate this account. Zach’s first book, Better Ways to Read the Bible, is now available wherever books are sold.
All of the content available at Public Theology is for those who identify as Christian, as well as those who might be interested in learning about a more inclusive, kind, thoughtful Christianity. To receive new posts and support the work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.
We are happy to cover subscription costs for anyone who needs it but can’t afford it at this time. If you would like to join the Public Theology community and gain access to our paid subscriber content (which we keep behind a paywall for the privacy and connection of our community) but cannot afford to do so, please message Amy Lambert directly.
We’re glad you’re here.
