A huge part of "bringing them to the light" is loving them. Jesus didn't just speak a gospel of love, he lived it. The two cannot be divided.

 

Christian's are to strive to be Christ-like...and as LBBC already pointed out, Christ gave us the ultimate act of love when he gave his life for us, all of us, including those who would reject him, not just those who would accept.

 

The fact that Christians are called to love everybody is an undeniable fact.

 

Now, to a point that I think has been overlooked or ommitted regarding love...

 

Love doesn't always take the form of giving someone something. Sometimes love is tough. There are people who genuinely need help and its not because they've been "lazy"...we should help them. Conversely, there are those who try to abuse and take advantage of the system. They are "lazy" and they expect or want someone else to foot as much of the bill as possible. Is it really helping a person like that to keep giving them the handout? I think a strong argument could be made that "love" for those two examples of people would take very different forms.

 

Love does what is best for a particular person...for one that may be to lend a helping hand, whatever that may be. Money, food, etc. For another, that may mean pulling the plug so they'll realize they have to accept some responsibility and start using their resources and abilities to provide for themselves and carry their own weight.

 

That's just a generalization. All people cannot be typified by those two categories and hopefully each case would be judged by people who are interested in doing what's best for the person in question. It's just an example...

 

But, hopefully, it will open our eyes to think about what it means to love somebody.

 

Very well put!

I've been gone for awhile, but I wasn't trying to spin anything with my question. Just from reading your posts you said you would listen to your priest over posters on here. That's where my question came from, no more no less.

Then you sure assumed way too much, plain and simple, because I never said I had a priest that told me not to care about people nor did I say anything remotely close to that. So, I have to wonder how you came to that conclusion.