“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you….” Matthew 5:43-44

I get it. We all have differences with each other: politics, belief, life, death, taxes. It seems there is nothing that someone doesn’t disagree with. (I’m pretty sure practicing “love God – love others” would whittle down that list.) We hate our enemies but Jesus calls us to love them and pray for them.

And why don’t we do this? I suspect it is part because we don’t really believe in the power of prayer to change people. I wonder also how much our prideful self, and our intensive desire to be right about things, is at the heart of our disbelief and lack of love. Maybe we just don’t care what Jesus says because we love our “causes” more than we love to do what He says!

I do know one thing that is always counterproductive to love, and that is making fun of people, especially our enemies. Jesus NEVER EVER made fun of people, not even His enemies who persecuted Him and had Him on their death list. Disagree. Call them out. But true followers of Christ, at least, have no right making fun of their enemies. Far from it. We are called to love and pray, not ridicule.

Want to change the world? Let’s live out what Jesus says and stop sending emails making fun of people we disagree with. Let’s be adults. Let’s humble ourselves. And let’s pray for those we don’t like, those we disagree with, those who have hurt us. Let’s believe that prayer is powerful to change others, and to change our own prideful heart.