Love Your Enemy: A Godly Dragon Sermon

The Jews in Jesus' time taught people to love your neighbor, but hate your enemy. In fact, that's what the world seems to teach as well. But what if I were to tell you that Jesus told everyone not just to love only your neighbor, but your enemy as well?

The very thought of loving your neighbor sounds illogical. Perhaps impossible. But He proclaimed this commandment in the sermon on the mount. Let's look at Matthew 5:43-48.

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.

44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

47 And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so?

48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

 The fact that the Father rains on the just and the unjust is proof that he has unconditional and nondiscriminatory love for all people. He also points out that only loving those that love you is what every human being does. Christians stand out from the crowd by not only loving those that love us, but by even loving our enemies and those who want to persecute us. Just as Jesus himself did. He even forgave those who crucified him when he said "Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing". 

What can we take away from this, and how can we apply this to our lives? As someone part of the furry fandom, I'll use the drama in the fandom as an example. This could probably apply to drama in other fandoms too. In the furry fandom, I've seen the most drama come from friendships and relationships gone wrong. Along with people paying an artist only to not get an art piece or a fursuit from them. This has led to all sorts of tension and hurt feelings that has plagued the fandom ever since. In fact, it's not exclusive to the fandom. it's the result of our sin nature. But here, we can apply what Jesus taught us. So, if you've got a friend you have a beef with, or if you've got an ex boyfriend or girlfriend that hurt you, or if someone really made you angry because you paid them to do art or a fursuit for you and you didn't get it, just stop and read what Jesus said. No matter how you might feel, Jesus said to love them anyway. Because you know what, we're all sinners. We all have issues and we all have problems. We've all hurt somebody in some way because the fact of the matter is that we aren't perfect. 

So, here's the main takeaway. Love your enemy, pray for them to be better, and better yet be saved by Christ if they aren't, and remember that you're a sinner too. Only then can we fulfill Jesus' commandments preached to the crowd on the mount back in the first century. God bless, everyone!