"Especially those that are hard to love. The poor. The sick. The widowed. The outcasts. The oppressed."

I agree with you on the "especially those who are hard to love" part -- that seems to sum up what being Christ-like is all about. But the list of who those folks are which follows ... seems completely wrong to me.

Why are the poor, the sick, the widowed, the oppressed "hard to love"? These seem to me to be the easiest folks to love. The one's who are hard to love are the mean-spirited, the judgmental, and the homicidal; the bigots, the hypocrites, and the fear mongers. And yet, I try to allow my response to these folks be just as loving as my response to the sick and the weak. Being Christ-like isn't supposed to be easy, after all ...