God's Enemies

I would ask you take a moment to reflect on the people that know you.  Not just the ones that are your closest friends, but your other friends, acquaintances, and people who may just be generally aware of you.  For most of us, if you looked at this large group of people, you could probably say that on the whole, most of these people liked you.  Although some people are more likable than others, it would be rare to find someone that everyone liked or everyone disliked.  Still, I am sure that the majority of you would say that the majority of people that knew you liked you.  What if the reverse were true?  Suppose that most of the people that knew you or knew of you hated you?  How would that make you feel?

There are a number of verses in the Bible that describe the natural man's feelings towards God.  Romans 8:7 says, " ...the carnal mind is enmity against God, " and James 4:4 tells us, "Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?  Whoever therefore wants to be friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."  The vast majority of people in this world do not have a saving faith in Jesus Christ, and basically are God's enemies.  We find Paul stating this specifically in Romans 5:10, "For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall  be saved by His life."

Two very brilliant preachers of centuries gone by addressed this.  The first is Jonathan Edwards, who wrote "Men Naturally are God's Enemies" in 1736.  As he states, "There is in every natural man a seed of malice against God." And later he elaborates, "Man will necessarily have something that he respects as his god.  If man does not give his highest respect to the God that made him, there will be something else that has the possession of it... The gods which a natural man worships, instead of the God that made him, are himself and the world."

Now we know that God loves the world, for he sent His only begotten Son to save those who would believe in Him (John 3:16).  And our greatest commandment is to love Him in return: " You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and all your mind (Luke 10:27).  And yet, people refuse to be reconciled with God, receiving His love and loving Him in return.  As Edwards explains, they simply will not come-- "But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life... you do not have the love of God in you... I have come in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me" (John 5:40-43).

I think most of us understand the nature of the original sin of Adam and how we are fallen natural men, unless we receive Christ as our Savior.  And we know that because all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) God is justified in condemning everyone He has created.  He allows those who choose His Son to avoid this condemnation.  I am somewhat mystified, however, at why God would create a world and all its people, only to have the majority of those people hate Him. 

Our second great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, put it this way in a sermon entitled, "The Carnal Mind is Enmity Against God," delivered in 1855.  In it he says, "He supplys our wants; he keeps the breath within our nostrils, he bids the blood still pursue its course through the veins; he holdeth us in life, and preventeth us from death; he standeth before us, our creator, our king, our sustainer, our benefactor, and I ask, is it not a sin of enormous magnitude-- is it not high treason against the emperor of heaven-- is it not an awful sin, the depth of which we cannot fathom with the line of all our judgment-- that we his creatures, dependent upon him, should be at enmity with God?"

We know that these people who were given the very breath of life by God hate Him.  Man naturally has a tendency to worship himself and the world.  So what they then do is exchange the truth for a lie as Paul explains in Romans Chapter 1, worshipping the creature rather than the Creator, and Paul details the consequences of this and the immorality which ensues.  How it must grieve God to see so many people reject Him, the very people He created.

He alone has the power to change that hate to love, to open the hearts of His enemies, to show them eternal life and love.  Those who do not place their faith in His Son during this life will continue to be His enemies, after death and for all eternity.  They will suffer from His wrath infinitely.  Christ commands us to "...love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who spitefully use you and persecute you..." (Matthew 5:44).  I am sure that you have people that are your friends but God's enemies.  They like you but hate God.  Let us also pray for not only our enemies, but God's, that they may enter His kindom as His friends.