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The Cost of Ignoring Someone’s Worth
When we ignore or reject the intrinsic worth of a person, we can easily dismiss them as a problem. Whether it’s an annoying coworker, a family member, or someone who doesn’t look like us or vote like us . . . it’s easier to forget their value than to love them; it’s easier to write them off than to love them because loving them often calls us to forfeit comfort, loving them will cost us something, and loving them requires us to deal with things in ourselves we’d rather pretend don’t exist.
But love seeks the good of another regardless of the cost to ourselves. In fact, Jesus’s definition and example of love includes sacrifice.
The Kind of Love That Marks Jesus’s People
This doesn’t mean we excuse harmful behavior. Sometimes we need to love someone from a distance. Sometimes “no” is the most loving response.
But the love that identifies us as “Jesus people” is costly, even when—especially when—that cost means confronting our own insecurity, self-righteousness, prejudice, or fear.
Maybe when He called us to this kind of love, He knew these things would rise to the surface and wanted us to be free from our own mess, and free to love like He does.
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