Have you ever walked a busy street or a crowded supermarket and attempted to have compassion for every person? I have. It didn’t work. I wore myself out and felt discouraged in the attempt. It was a great relief to read the following from a workshop given by Dallas Willard:

Now it is very important to understand that the command [love your neighbor] is not to love everyone. God does. You can’t even begin to. Love can only be specific, and love cannot exceed our resources.

That’s freeing, but is it true? 

Peter weighs in with confirmation, ​“Honor everyone. Love the family of believers…” (1 Pet 2:17). Honor means assigning value. Thinking of and treating everyone as valuable is within our Christ-empowered reach — and one might argue is itself a form of love. But our capacity to love deeply is limited. We start close and move outward as grace is given. 

Now God is gracious and does grant compassion to those far away. Sarah Bowling exemplifies this in a transparent podcast interview with Nathan Foster about her worldwide ministry to the children of sex workers. But love begins with our neighbor, the one nigh to us. It starts by receiving the love God has toward us, then from that position of belovedness developing habits of doing what’s best for our spouse, our kids, our parents, our coworkers. 

May your belovedness and your neighbor-love expand,