On Becoming an Enemy
I was led to this verse today and quote it with absolutely no one in mind.
I've just experienced this in the past and it was nice to see that when we are hated because we stand for something true...we are in good company.
In Galatians 4:16, the Apostle Paul writes, "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?"
We can do things on purpose to make ourselves the enemy of another.
Or we can become another's enemy because that person makes us his enemy in his own mind.
Paul experienced that first one as a Jew persecuting Christians.
He experienced that second one as a Christian simply obeying the Holy Spirit of God.
That second one isn’t so bad.
If we are hated for obeying God…we have God on our side for that issue or action.
We have plenty of GOOD spiritual company.
Consider this from the “Hall of Fame of Faith” (Hebrews 11):
“And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented—of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth. And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.” (Hebrews 11:32-40)
People have always hated those who obey the One True God.
They lie and slander us. They steal from us. They try to ruin our reputations (not understanding that “our” reputations no longer belong to us…we…AND OUR REPUTATIONS belong to the Lord).
They use finances, scorn, violence (physical and emotional), withdrawal, exclusion… all sorts of fleshly weapons against those who obey God.
We must decide:
Exactly WHOSE friend will we be? Will we be a friend of God or a friend of the world?
“Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world MAKES HIMSELF an enemy of God.” (James 4:4)
While I confess that there have been times in my past when I wimped out and took the easy way and chose to not obey God…..I have ALSO resolved that I will not be doing this anymore.
I have repented.
I want to be a CONSISTENT friend of God.
Abraham obeyed God and was fully prepared to give his best thing, his son Isaac, to God by sacrificing him.
The Word says this about him:
“And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ‘ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS.’ And he was called the friend of God.” (James 2:23)
Abraham OBEYED God.
He was called the friend of God.
I want to be a friend of God.
I intend to obey Him even if that means becoming an enemy to the world and those who live in obedience to the world system.
What about you?
Pastor Mike McInerney
Mike McInerney Ministries, Inc.
Decatur, Texas
© June 17, 2018 (originally published November 1, 2016)
(for use with permission)