Am I Become Your Enemy?
Who is a true friend? Would it not be someone who has your best interest at heart? I am certain that one who is a friend will do all he/she can for the good of the ones they consider friends. The same is true of God as He dealt with Israel and guided them toward the Promised Land. This can be clearly seen as God made promise to them in Exodus 23:20-22 and also gave them the conditions of the promise. Behold, I send an Angel before thee, to keep thee in the way, and to bring thee into the place which I have prepared. 21 Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions: for my name is in him. 22 But if thou shalt indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto thine enemies, and an adversary unto thine adversaries. God was clearly their friend and He is ours as well.
Can anyone be an enemy, while at the same time providing everything one needs to be successful in this life and also that which will prepare them for their eternity beyond this life? Through His infinite Wisdom and Mercy, God has indeed provided these things for His children. 2Peter 1:2-3 is one passage that springs to mind. According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: 4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
In Galatians 4:16, the Holy Spirit had the apostle Paul ask the brethren in this region if because he told them the truth, was he no longer their friend? He was directed to write: Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth? Should not one be considered a friend rather than an enemy simply “because” they tell you the truth for the good of your soul?
God has provided for this in a number of ways. Before the New Testament was completed, the Holy Spirit was sent to give the inspired Word to men to record it and distribute it orally and in written form. This is never so clear as it is in 2Peter 1:13-15 as the Spirit had the apostle write to the scattered brethren in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance; 14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me. 15 Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.
This is accomplished through the gospel, and the preaching of it. The Holy Spirit had Paul direct his young protégé thusly in 1Timothy 4:6. If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained. Again, in the second letter to this preacher, we find out how this is possible in 2Timothy 2:14-15, even in this present day after inspiration has ceased. Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. 15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.
When the Word is studied, preparation is made and the message is to be declared. The admonition of 2Tim 4:2-3 was given to tell what to preach and why. Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; Then verse 4 states what happens that makes others consider the preachers and teachers of the gospel enemies rather than friends. And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.
If indeed we study, learn, meditate on, and preach and teach the Word of God as well as live by it, should we not be considered as friends rather than enemies as we take this Word to others? It is a fact that one cannot truly be a friend and an enemy at the same time. This is well demonstrated by the Lord Himself in His Words we read in Matthew 6:24, which is still under the Old Testament Law of God to Israel. No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
One New Testament application of this is found in James 4:4 as this was written to the church that was scattered abroad. God has never been an enemy to mankind. He sent His Son to die so we could have life. Will we not be a friend to Him and to Jesus? Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God. Don’t call the one who delivers God’s message an enemy. They are trying to help you see what God has stated within His Word that you might save your soul from eternal condemnation. Will you not consider God’s Message of Salvation, the gospel today? As Romans 1:16 states: “. . . for it is the power of God unto salvation . . . ” He who sent it and He who delivers it are indeed your friends.
Dennis Strickland – Mooresville church of Christ
