Lack of Hatred is Not Love

We think it is worse to hate than not to love. But to love is a Christian's duty- being a lover is one of perfected man's identities.

We should love all people, we should learn what is right and good and truly beautiful and love that. We must be lovers, not merely not-haters- it is not enough not to hate things; to be lukewarm towards God and what God created.

So we must seek what is excellent, in the world, in people. It is hard to love people without looking for some good in them- that is why the two  doctrines, the Image of God and the Fall of Man, are so important. We must understand others are 'as good' as we are. We must understand we are 'as bad' as everyone else is. These are the facts that are the remedy for the disinterest and cynicism we often feel towards things- particularly the things we feel it towards which we know are not in and of themselves bad.

This whole 'not hating is not enough/is not love' could be applied to the subject of judgement. We are told not to judge others. The Bible implies in many passages that we are, in fact, called to find the good in things, and I think about it as, we are to amplify the good we see. In the case of 'disagreeable conversation', one applies this by looking to find where the other person is right, where the two people can agree, as well as in a possible case of the other conversant's ignorance, where they got it right. Emphasise the good, make clear where Truth is, go back to the very point of disagreement, and things are a lot better than trying to nitpick apart the other person's arguments, finding everything which is wrong with what they said and even with themselves (it easily devolves into ad hominem attacks).