The Bible doesn’t say this, but I believe it’s a core tenant of Christianity.

While the Bible does say that we should have the faith of a child… It does not say that we should love like them.

However, while it doesn’t say it explicitly, I think it is encouraged in scripture.

How does a child love?

Genuinely, openly, completely, unconditionally and without selfish motives.

I personally do believe that is how Christ wants his followers to love everyone.

And I certainly know that’s how he tells us to love.

Scripture does not literally teach, “Love the way children love,” and children can certainly be selfish, jealous, possessive, and conditional too.

But the qualities I am identifying in healthy childlike love—openness, sincerity, lack of calculation, willingness to receive someone before categorizing them—fit remarkably well with what the New Testament actually commands Christians to become.

Jesus explicitly calls His followers toward childlikeness in humility and reception of the kingdom: “unless you change and become like little children…” in Matthew 18:3–4, and “whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” in Mark 10:15.

Those passages are not specifically instructions about how to love, but they establish that there are qualities of childhood Christ regards as spiritually significant.

Then put that alongside the commands about love:

John 13:34: love one another as Christ loved the church

Matthew 5:44: love even your enemies.

Romans 12:9: love must be sincere.

1 Corinthians 13:5: love is not self-seeking.

1 John 4:19: Christian love ultimately originates in God’s love for us.

Taken together, I think someone can reasonably arrive at something like this principle:

Christians should love people openly and sincerely, without first requiring them to earn affection, agree with us, benefit us, or become like us.

That isn’t the same thing as saying “love means approving everything someone believes or does.”

Jesus’ love certainly wasn’t moral indifference.

Christian love can include disagreement, correction, boundaries, grief, evangelism, and even sacrifice.

But none of those things require contempt.

And that (to me) is where the idea about children becomes especially powerful. A small child often meets the person before the category.

An adult may think:

Muslim.
Atheist.
Jewish.
Christian.
Conservative.
Liberal.
Rich.
Poor.
Strange.
Like me.
Not like me.

A five-year-old is much more likely to think:

Ooh!! She has a cool toy!
Hehe, he made me laugh.
She wants to swing with me.
That’s my friend!

The categories come later.

That doesn’t mean adults should abandon discernment.

It means perhaps Christian maturity should seek to recover something we often lose while growing up: the ability to recognize and love a human being before or even without deciding what box they belong in.