As If They Love You
There are seasons in life when the spaces that should have felt like home begin to feel like battlegrounds. Places where you expected camaraderie, you meet coldness. Rooms where you intended to grow and build, you meet resistance. You show up to work or ministry or leadership with your heart in your hands—soft, sincere, willing—and somehow that vulnerability becomes the very reason arrows are aimed at you.
It is confusing.
It is painful.
It is exhausting.
To love genuinely in an environment where you are consistently attacked—professionally, emotionally, spiritually—is to feel like you are bleeding in a place where others came only to take. You speak with kindness, and your sincerity is called strategy. You pursue excellence, and they name it ambition. You stretch out your arms to lift others, and still they question the motive of your embrace.
Yet, you keep loving.
Not because they deserve it.
Not because they have earned it.
But because love is who you are.
As if they love you.
Not because they do… but because you refuse to let who they are change who you are.
You greet them in the morning as if they weren’t discussing you before you arrived.
You help them succeed as if they would celebrate your victories.
You forgive as if they are already sorry.
You stay kind as if kindness is reciprocated.
You work with integrity as if integrity is the culture around you.
This is not naïveté.
This is warfare—spiritual warfare.
This is maturity in motion.
This is faithfulness to who God called you to be, not who others have pushed you to become.
Because the truth is: the attack is not always about you. Sometimes your presence is a mirror to their insecurity. Sometimes your excellence exposes their complacency. Sometimes your light irritates the demons that have become comfortable in them. Sometimes your love is an offense to hearts that only know how to survive by manipulating or destroying.
So, love anyway.
Love—not with blindness, but with boundaries.
Love—not with foolishness, but with wisdom.
Love—not to be accepted, but because you are already accepted by God.
Love—not because you seek their approval, but because you stand approved in Christ.
As if they love you means:
You will not let their behavior define your identity.
You will not turn bitter in response to bitterness.
You will not mirror the ugliness around you.
You will not lose yourself trying to answer every accusation.
You will not shrink because your presence makes others uncomfortable.
You are responsible for your heart, not theirs.
You are responsible for your integrity, not their impressions.
You are responsible for your character, not their conclusions.
And when you feel alone, remember: God sees every unseen wound. He hears every unspoken cry. He measures every tear, every sacrifice, every silent resilience. Your reward is not in their hands—it comes from His.
So stand.
Serve.
Shine.
Stay rooted in love.
Stay anchored in truth.
Stay grounded in purpose.
As if they love you
—because love is not just what you give, it is who you choose to be.
And one day, when God sets your table in the presence of your enemies, it will be clear:
you didn’t lose because you loved;
you overcame because you loved.
