“Love your neighbor” is often reduced to sentimental approval or moral surrender. In the Gospels, it is neither. It does not mean liking someone, agreeing with them, dissolving boundaries, or abandoning truth. It means refusing to dehumanize. It means recognizing the image of God in someone even when you reject their choices, arguments, or worldview.

Jesus modeled this clearly. He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes, and the Pharisees interpreted that proximity as endorsement. They assumed that sitting at the table meant signing off on the lifestyle. It did not. Presence was not affirmation. Dignity was not validation. He extended mercy without redefining sin. He loved people without collapsing moral distinctions.

That distinction matters. Love in the Christian sense is not coerced sentiment and it is not ideological compliance. It is a chosen posture of restraint and regard. It refuses contempt. It refuses caricature. It refuses to reduce a human being to a category.

The New Testament also shows that love coexists with boundaries. Jesus walked away from hostile towns. He confronted hypocrisy. He spoke hard truths. The apostles warned against destructive behavior and divisiveness. None of that contradicted love, because love is not the absence of disagreement. It is the absence of hatred.

When “love your neighbor” is weaponized to demand surrender of conscience or silence of conviction, it ceases to be love and becomes leverage. Love does not insist on its own way. It does not manipulate. It does not coerce. It acts without contempt.

Christians, especially during Lent, would do well to read the Gospels directly rather than rely on simplified childhood summaries. The red text is more demanding and more nuanced than the slogans. It calls for humility without erasing moral agency. It calls for charity without collapsing truth.

To love your neighbor is not to endorse everything about them. It is to refuse to deny their dignity while you live, speak, and decide in accordance with your own conscience before God.