The Enemy

 

We, men, can be very selective, even when handling Scripture. If we are honest, we often search the Word for support rather than surrender. We naturally gravitate towards the verses that comfort, strengthen, defend, or promise us something. Somehow, even in our pursuit of God, self still manages to sit close to the centre.

Perhaps this is one reason God gave us the Holy Spirit: to guide us beyond ourselves. Left to our own nature, we tend towards self-preservation, self-interest, and self-justification. But the Spirit leads us into truth, against the desires of the flesh and the instincts of fallen man. And it's not always the Holy Spirit leading, as some may claim; it can always be tested against the word of God, the Bible.

Christianity does indeed bring gain, but it begins with loss. There is the loss of pride, the loss of self-rule, the loss of worldly thinking, and ultimately the surrender of this temporary life for eternity. The flesh resists this because it constantly seeks immediate reward, justice, and comfort. But the Kingdom of God is built on faith in what is unseen and eternal.

Perhaps nowhere is that tension more visible than in the command to love your enemy while simultaneously waging war against your own flesh.

Proverbs 25:21–22 says:

“If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat, and if he is thirsty, give him water to drink, for you will heap burning coals on his head, and the LORD will reward you.”

 

This is one of the hardest commands in Scripture because it goes completely against the flesh. Our natural instinct is not to feed an enemy, but to resist, expose, repay, or wound back.

Yet Scripture commands mercy.

Not because evil is insignificant, and not because justice disappears, but because vengeance belongs to God and not man.

We are tainted by sin. God is not.

Our judgment is corrupted by pride, emotion, bitterness, self-preservation, and the flesh. Even when we are genuinely wronged, we do not judge perfectly. But God judges without corruption, selfishness, or error.

This is why Romans 12 says:

“Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God.”

The believer steps back and says:
“I will not sit in God’s seat.”

Mercy toward enemies is therefore not weakness. It is trust in the perfect justice of God.

But this principle does not apply to the flesh.

The flesh is not a wounded neighbour needing compassion. The flesh is the rebellion within us that opposes the Spirit of God. Scripture never tells us to feed it or negotiate with it. Instead, the language becomes severe:

• deny yourself,
• crucify the flesh,
• make no provision for it.

We feed our enemies physically because judgment belongs to God.

But we starve the flesh spiritually because it wars against God.

How strange that we are often harsher toward people and softer toward sin, while Scripture teaches the opposite.

Love people.
Kill sin.

Because people bear the image of God.
Sin opposes the holiness of God.

And only God judges perfectly, because only God is untouched by sin.

All hail King Jesus, the only man to ever conquer sin in the flesh.

Signing off,

Tyrone