Enemies of God

“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,” James 4:4.

In this world there are those who knowingly want to be enemies with God. Examples include those who don’t believe there is a God and those who are content with life in this world who claim they are self-reliant and have no need for a God. Those who are steeped in materialism with never a thought for God (unless a tragedy occurs in their smooth running lives which brings them to their knees) will not give God the Glory for what they have been blessed with. Will God hear the prayers of those He doesn’t even know? These are but a few of those who God considers enemies. These people are proud, boastful, envious, unwilling to humble themselves before God. “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble,” James 4:6.

Many, many people heap pleasure to themselves never concerning themselves with their eternal destiny. “Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts, as in a day of slaughter,” James 5:5. They just don’t understand that this life is fleeting but the life to come is eternal. “…For what [is] your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away,” James 4:14. Only God knows how long our lives will be, but no matter if we live to be one hundred years young, eternity is right there waiting for us. There is no question of where the enemies of God will spend eternity.

I’m always amazed at hearing the rantings of those who hate God, such as atheists and agnostics. Agnostics claim you can’t prove the existence of God. This is only because they have no intention of seeking the truth of God. They desire proof but they have already made up their minds that it is impossible to prove God exists. There is only one thing that will keep someone from finding the truth and that is the presumption that they already have it. This is a phenomenon that is quite pervasive in our society today.

Atheists and evolutionists hate, despise, and most of all deny there is a God. Why? Because they would rather live in sin than to acknowledge a Creator God of the universe. These are all enemies of God. We are either children and heirs of God, or we are His enemies. I’m not talking about being a sinner. After all, we are all sinners and fall short of the Glory of God. We know in our hearts what sin is and what it isn’t because God has placed that knowledge in every human being on the face of this earth. “Remember, it is sin to know what you ought to do and then not do it,” James 4:17. No, I’m talking about those who completely reject God; these are the enemies of God.

How can anyone go through this life without acknowledging God? He is our giver of gifts. He showers us with blessings and they fall on everyone in one way or another. “…for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust,” Matthew 5:45. We can see God in the gifts He supplies us with, and of course we can see Him in His Creation. Yet many are spiritually blinded and will not see Him. This spiritual blindness is a result of unbelief and not because of something God did to them. We are all held accountable to God, by God to know Him. Those who refuse to acknowledge God are those whom the Apostle Peter speaks of in the following verses. “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:” 2 Peter 3:3, 5.

God is so obvious that those who deny Him have to be deliberately ignorant, and this ignorance brings them into condemnation, which in turn brings them into partnership with the enemy (Satan) and makes them enemies of God.

How can anyone avoid being an enemy of God? It's simple. Believe in the one He sent. God loves everyone in the world but most are His enemies because they won’t accept the free gift He supplied them with. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” John 3:16. One of the most quoted verses in the entire Bible, and yet it is so often overlooked by commentators and pastors alike. God gave His Son to die on the cross. This was not a tragedy; it was an achievement. Jesus Christ emptied Himself of His Godhood and became a man perfect in everyway. Although He was still fully God, He died as a man in shame and in pain. Yet His sacrifice was for all of humanity, even for those people who choose to say there is no God.

By Jesus substituting Himself for us on that cross, we no longer must endure the second death. That is, those of us who have been forgiven by and through Jesus’ shed blood and His death, burial, and resurrection. But for all those who reject Him, they will remain enemies of God. The truth is many will remain in that state of rejection right up until the day they are laid in the grave. There is coming a time when even those who die rejecting God’s free gift of salvation will bend their knees and bow their heads and realize it’s too late for any reconciliation with God.

Remember this. Anyone, that’s anyone, who denies the Deity of Jesus Christ is an enemy of God. There are many cults out there that profess to know Christ but deny His deity. We cannot possibly have salvation by putting our faith and trust in just a man. Only God could’ve died for us and only after becoming sin for us could God die for us.

If we accept the truth now and we are wrong what have we lost? But those who reject the truth and are wrong have lost their souls for eternity.

God bless you all,
Ron Graham

FAIR USE NOTICE: This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.