Sixty five years of ministry, have attracted a broad assortment of enemies across my path. I have made all the mistakes possible in dealing with people, and have paid the price for my ignorance. By this blog I hope to save you some of the lost time, energy, lost opportunities, and lost progress I experienced. Heated arguments, excessive anger, physical fights, lawsuits, and making enemies over minor disagreements are never beneficial to the winner or the loser.
1. Love your enemy enough to share your faith with him. That will either convert him, neutralize him, or bring his dislike for you to the surface, where it can be dealt with. Jesus said "...Love your enemies...." Luke 6:27. It is not love which acquiesces to evil or compromises truth.
2. Do not mistake rudeness, insult or a presumptuous bad attitude with Christian boldness or commitment. Approach the non-Christian with respect, generosity and humility ... even if he is an enemy.... until that is no longer possible. "If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men." Rom.12:18
3. If you make enemies because of your Christian stand for our Lord, be patient, and wait on the Lord. He will either resolve the problem, give you an out, or neutralize the enemy. Just be sure its not your bad attitude that offends him.
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4. Few people will be your enemy because of your love for the Lord. It's when you live it, speak of it and take a stand for Him that will make enemies of people, but you can't help that. You are called to live your faith and be a witness for Christ regardless of the reaction of those around you. "... be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord...." 1 Cor.15:58.
5. Make no enemies intentionally; you will make enough of them unintentionally if you live your faith and are unashamed to share it. Stay out of other people's arguments. "He that ... meddleth with strife belonging not to him, is like one that taketh a dog by the ears." Prov.26:17.
6. Never pick a fight with anyone intentionally... but do not flee in fear either.
"... in nothing terrified by your adversaries." Phil.1:28. You can't escape an angry dog by running. Pick up a stick and look him in the eye."...Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." James 4:7. If you live and speak as the Holy Spirit directs, the world will pick enough fights with you to consume your time and energy. David didn't pick the fight with that Philistine, Goliath. The Philistines picked that fight and God sent David to neutralize the situation.
7. Don't choose your enemies. If you walk with God and speak the truth, they will choose you and that is all the enemies you can afford. Stand on principle and trust God to convert them or eliminate them. Adjust all your dealings with them so that they are either drawn to Christ or you slowly end all contact with them. They will either change or wither on the vine. "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you." John 15:18.
8. Never underestimate an enemy and try not to overestimate him, but the first is the more prudent of the two. If you have to defend yourself, if it is verbal, let your friends do it for you if possible. If it is physical, break his arm kindly... and then tell him the error of his ways and how to be saved. If you are out numbered, follow Jesus' advice ,,, "...he that hath no sword, let him sell his garment, and buy one." Lk.22:36.
9. Keep in mind that the great Apostle Paul was once the arch enemy of all Christians. He abused them, imprisoned them and even killed them, but after he was saved, he wrote half the books in the new Testament and established more churches than anyone I have ever heard of. Your enemy may be such a person.
"Who knoweth if he will return and repent, and leave a blessing behind him...." Joel 2:14.
10. On dealing with dangerous, unrepentant enemies of Christ, such as Elymas, Paul didn't witness unto him, he turned him over to God to blind him and render him helpless. "And (Paul) said, O full of all subtilty and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind ...." Acts 13:10-11. In effect, Paul delivered this enemy of Christ unto the judgment of God. When the enemy is totally intransigent and radically anti-Christ, this kind of action is Give to them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give to them according to the work of their hands; render to them their deserts.sometimes necessary. On another occasion, In dealing with a rebellious, unrepentant, professing Christian, Paul advised the Corinthian Church to do a similar thing, but different in that in this case, the professing, but lost Christian was delivered into the hands of the Devil for fleshly destruction, that the man might be truly saved as a result. "To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." 1 Cor. 5:5.
Sometimes the best thing that can happen to an enemy of justice is for that person to suffer the consequences of his actions. As David prayed..."Give to them according to their deeds and according to the wickedness of their endeavors; give to them according to the work of their hands; render to them their deserts." Psm.28:4.
There is, in the Western World, a strange, perverted sense of the equal sanctity of all so called, "religions", so that the lost world and Liberal, leftist professing Christians consider all faiths, but one, as harmless friends and fellow religionists. This expresses itself, in America, as a peculiar sense of equal fairness to radical Muslims bent on killing Christians and Jews and all non-Muslims. "Fairness" is not what radical Muslim terrorists need. They need Jesus Christ as Savior. As long as they reject Christ, the lost world will continue to consider them "friends".
But Bible believing, born again Christians as the real enemy. If that seems strange, it is also commonly seen emanating from the White House, from Democrats, RINO Republicans, the secular Main Street Media and around the world. RB
Here is a clear summation of Islam's violent invasion of the Western, so called "Christian", world put out by 12 Tribes/Israel Video Network. If you think Israel is biased, the God of Abraham is also biased ... in favor of His people who are being brutalized and murdered.
https://player.vimeo.com/video/167607521?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0
