This week we continue our study of the works of the flesh with “enmities.” The Greek word that is translated here is thumos, which is sometimes translated “fierceness indignation, wrath, hostility, or hatred.” In my search of the Scriptures I have only found two things that are legal for us to hate—sin and unrighteousness. To hate anything or anyone else actually opens the door for evil to prevail, not righteousness.

Does this mean that we should not hate the devil? Does God hate the devil? Would He tell us to love our enemies and then hate His? The Lord hates the devil’s works, and He hates man’s evil works, the sin and unrighteousness, but He does not hate the devil, and He does not hate even the most evil men. In fact, the Scriptures are clear that He loves all men and desires for them to be saved. Will they be cast into the lake of fire? Yes. However, they will not be cast into it out of hatred, but because He has to do that which will forever purge evil and unrighteousness from His creation.

My point is that we must also rise above taking offenses against us personally. As we are told in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” When people wrong us or do evil things, we must rise above taking it as a personal offense and know that there is something much bigger behind it. Anger or hatred will blind us to the truth, or what is truly happening. If we are going to see anything accurately, we must see through the eyes of the Spirit, and that means we will see through the fruit of the Spirit.

Now we may think that our victory is to cast down those principalities and any evil thing that is causing people to do evil to one another. Ultimately, that is true, but the immediate victory may have more to do with us personally. The Lord is not doing this evil thing to us, but He is allowing it. The reason why He allows any bad thing to happen to His people is for the sake of conforming us to the image of His Son. Our victory in the situation will come when we love that person, or people, in spite of any wrong done to us. This is not permitting evil, but as we are instructed in Romans 12:21: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”

We are also told that Satan will not cast out Satan. This means that hatred or retaliation will not resolve the first wrong committed. In fact, when we respond in the wrong spirit it actually multiplies the evil in the situation and gives the devil even more power over it. As the Lord Himself explained in Matthew 12:28 "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.”

There is no room in a Christian for enmity or hatred of another person regardless of what they have done. Does this mean that we should have compassion on the devil? No. Neither does it mean that we should have compassion on those who are doing evil, but it may. There is a difference between love and compassion, though true compassion is always rooted in love. I do not want to over-complicate this issue, but there are options in how we respond to them. However, it is never an option to let hatred or enmity get a place in our lives.

There are times when we must turn the other cheek to evil, and there are times when it is biblically right to seek to recover damages from those who have wrongly attacked us. However, when this is the right path we must still do it in the right spirit, not out of retaliation, but for the sake of such things as being a good steward of what has been entrusted to us, or even to help wake up the person who is doing evil.

Does this mean that Christians should be free to sue those who have wronged them? Yes. There are times when it is right to do this. It is essentially what Paul the apostle did when he appealed to Caesar. He was suing the nation of Israel for wrongly accusing and attacking him. However, he was not doing this to retaliate against Israel. As he wrote to the Romans before arriving there for his trial, he said that he loved the Jews so much he would even give up his own salvation if it would result in them being saved. He was actually suing them because he loved them and he wanted the truth to come out about what they were doing, or he simply did not feel that in this situation he should give into the injustice.

Again, there is a ditch on either side of the path of life. We are not to hate anyone, because we do not want hatred to get any grip on us, but that does not mean we cannot defend ourselves when wronged. As stated, we just have to do it in the right spirit, when we are allowed to do it. Paul, and the other apostles, often defended themselves against others who wrongly accused them. However, it does seem that they were only doing this for the sake of those who were being deceived by the accusers, not out of self-preservation. There is a difference.

We need to also recognize the times that the Lord does not want us to defend ourselves, but rather to turn the other cheek, etc. Sometimes this is because He wants to defend us, which is always much better. Sometimes He just wants the situation to work a deeper character change in us, maybe dealing with our pride. In these cases He may not defend us, which will seem like allowing evil and injustice to prevail, but He has a higher purpose, which can include such things as making us more humble so that He can entrust us with more grace or authority. Regardless of whether the Lord chooses to defend us or not, in every case He wants us to abide in His Spirit, which means “love, peace, patience...”  

Any person, including Christians, who give themselves to bitterness or resentment, will end up doing much evil and hurting many people. We must learn to recognize that every chance we have to become resentful is also a chance to grow in the nature of Christ, who did not become resentful of even the ones who nailed Him to the cross, but actually suffered all that He did for their sake. If we are going to become like Him, which is the basic calling of every Christian, we must learn to take up our crosses every day, resolving to also lay down our own lives, our own rights, and maybe our own reputations, for the sake of even those who are attacking us.

I was recently asked “to discern” some statements by a man who was upset by a conference in Kansas City that some friends of mine had hosted, and had therefore “left the prophetic movement” (whatever that means). The statements that I was shown were so full of enmity that I was shocked any Christian could not discern the source of them. The truth is not many Christians have discernment in such things. However, there is one biblical measure of discernment that is very clear in James 3:13-18:
 

With just a little investigation into the man who wrote with such enmity against the conference in Kansas City, its hosts, and then the whole prophetic movement, was that he had sought to be recognized and given a platform at the conference in order to steer it in the direction he thought it should go. He was so pushy and full of the wrong spirit that they refused to give him any platform, and he got offended. I was not there, but this was the report I received from everyone who was there, and it sure sounds like selfish ambition, jealousy, and as is clearly stated above, is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but below.

If this man has in fact removed himself from any association with the prophetic, I think we should be thankful, at least until he repents and humbles himself. We cannot allow people like that to hijack our conferences, our churches, or our movements. When this happens, like it did with the abortion movement, it will end up in defeat.

I concur that abortion is one of the greatest evils of our time, and probably reflects the greatest depravity to which the human soul can fall. Even the beasts will sacrifice their own lives to protect their young; for us to slay our young when they are in the most helpless state is possibly the greatest reflection of how low mankind has actually fallen. However, when I see Christians raging with obvious hatred against young women who are going to have an abortion, or those who perform them, I know that we are going to lose that battle. If we are going to cast out that spirit we must, as the Lord said, do it by the Spirit of God. Hatred or rage are not listed in the fruits of the Spirit, and will never be a part of what He does. I personally feel that the church in America could have already won the war against abortion if so many of the leaders of the anti-abortion movement had not been so full of enmity, but had rather resolved to not return evil for evil, but to overcome evil with good with the right Spirit.

The same is true in the battle against homosexuality. The homosexuals who are demanding total tolerance from everyone else seem to be by far the most intolerant of any group. When confronted, I have never witnessed more rage and more cruelty than what has come out of homosexual activists, except maybe what comes out of Christians who start giving into enmity and responding in the same spirit. The evil is multiplied in both, and the consequences will not favor the kingdom of God in that case.

We will never be able to cast out that spirit by our rage and intolerance. This does not mean that we compromise with what the Bible clearly states is a sin, and even calls a perversion and an abomination. I do not intend to ever compromise that, but I have and will continue to apologize to homosexuals for the way some Christians have treated them. I will always try to treat even the most extreme homosexual activists with dignity and respect, as I will every other human being that was made in the image of God. I do not intend to compromise my convictions about the sin, and the desperate need of the sinner for the salvation of the cross, but I have likewise resolved to love even those who are gripped in the worst perversion.

As we are told in James 1:19-20, “But let everyone be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.” Do not let enmity have any place in your life. When it tries to get a grip on you today, which it surely will because the Lord will honor us with the opportunity to take up our cross, and “overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21).