This entry is part 5 of 12 in the series: True Love

Kindness understands and respects the differences of other people. How do you feel about people who are different than you, perhaps in race, personality, culture, appearance, or profession? Do you try to understand their differences before making judgments? Kindness respects and understands the differences of other people.

There are many differences among us humans and we won’t initially understand them. To understand, you will have to become selfless, humble and active towards people who you feel are foreign. The more we learn about different people, the more we grow. When we don’t try to understand, but rather reject, fear, and disrespect them, we offend those who are different from us and this shows our lack of love. Here are a few examples of common displays of unkindness, where the individual didn’t take the time to try and understand:

• A church group doesn’t take the time to understand why their new visitor has spiky, pink hair and black fingernails. Because of her appearance, they reject her with contemptuous stares and comments, causing a stumbling block in her journey toward accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
• The prejudice white person makes a conclusion about blacks from watching the news – that they’re loud, uneducated, criminal barbarians. So the white person treats blacks with fear, contempt and disrespect.
• The person who assumes that homeless people are in their condition because of drug abuse. Therefore they shuns them when they ask for help.
• The extroverted person who treats the introverted personality-type as if something is wrong with them – because of their quiet nature. The extrovert may reject or patronize the introvert because they prejudge and don’t understand this personality difference.
• While homosexuality is a sin, there are many Christians who instantly reject and despise those who engage in it. If gays weren’t so hated by church people – maybe they’d come to Christ. Often, Christians are the first Jesus they’ll ever see. We are to hate the sin, not the person.

Simply asking the question of why and how can go a long way into learning and understanding the differences in people. Don’t always assume you understand – this is pride (which isn’t love either). And even if you don’t “get” a person – respect them anyway. We ought to do to others as we want done to us (Matthew 7:12). Would you like to be rejected, treated with disdain or disrespected, or even feared, because of your differences? No one does. Try to understand people’s differences, and if not, show respect – this is how we show love.