Does Love Thy Neighbor Mean We Have To Accept Destructive Behavior From Others?

Some people can be very manipulative and destructive.  My mother was like that.  It got to the point that I didn't have any communication with her the last 10 years of her life. 

I had to do that for my own well being.  When you cut some one out of your life like that you sometimes here criticisms like "it is wrong to do that because Jesus said we have to love everybody."  He does say that but I don't think that means that you have to accept abuse to do so. 

I ran across these verses today that sort of illustrates my point.  Compare the way God treats two groups of people based on their own actions.  I believe that God still loved both groups of people but that didn't mean that the first group got a pass for their previous bad actions.

Ezekiel 44:10-19(NKJV)

“And the Levites who went far from Me, when Israel went astray, who strayed away from Me after their idols, they shall bear their iniquity. 

Yet they shall be ministers in My sanctuary, as gatekeepers of the house and ministers of the house; they shall slay the burnt offering and the sacrifice for the people, and they shall stand before them to minister to them. 

Because they ministered to them before their idols and caused the house of Israel to fall into iniquity, therefore I have raised My hand in an oath against them,” says the Lord GOD, “that they shall bear their iniquity. 

And they shall not come near Me to minister to Me as priest, nor come near any of My holy things, nor into the Most Holy Place; but they shall bear their shame and their abominations which they have committed. 

Nevertheless I will make them keep charge of the temple, for all its work, and for all that has to be done in it.

“But the priests, the Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept charge of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me, they shall come near Me to minister to Me; and they shall stand before Me to offer to Me the fat and the blood,” says the Lord GOD. 

“They shall enter My sanctuary, and they shall come near My table to minister to Me, and they shall keep My charge. 

And it shall be, whenever they enter the gates of the inner court, that they shall put on linen garments; no wool shall come upon them while they minister within the gates of the inner court or within the house. 

They shall have linen turbans on their heads and linen trousers on their bodies; they shall not clothe themselves with anything that causes sweat. 

When they go out to the outer court, to the outer court to the people, they shall take off their garments in which they have ministered, leave them in the holy chambers, and put on other garments; and in their holy garments they shall not sanctify the people.

What I see here is in the first case, the things that the first group of Levites did so grieved God that while he forgave them and still loved them, God had no interest in having a close relationship with them.  Not because God was petty but because they had so betrayed God and God's people.  God still allowed them to serve but not in the role God had originally intended.  He kind of cut them out so to speak.

Now compare that to the second group who were loyal to God even through the bad times.  They were rewarded with a closer relationship with God.  God invited them to come closer and spend more time with Him. 
 

For anyone who may be in this type of situation and feel guilty about it, maybe these verses will help.