Enmities - Works of the Flesh - Preaching Outline

Works of the flesh: INIMIZATIONS – Study

Bible Study on Romans 12:10-21 – Love one another warmly with brotherly love, preferring one another in honor.
Do not be slow to care; be fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, persevere in prayer; communicate with the saints in their need, follow hospitality; bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep.
Be of one mind among yourselves; do not aspire to high things, but settle for lowly ones; do not be wise in yourselves.
Do no evil for evil to anyone; seek things that are right in the sight of all men.
If it is possible, as much as is in you, be at peace with all men.
Do not avenge yourselves, beloved, but give place to wrath, for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, says the Lord.
Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head.
Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

Enmity?

Enmity is a work of the flesh (Galatians 5:20), that is, our flesh makes us hate our neighbor, “therefore the mind of the flesh is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). The text of Romans 12 provides a series of guidelines with values for the Christian life: love (vv.9,10), spiritual fervor (vv.11,12), solidarity (vv.13-16) and adversity (vv.17-21).

The world has been at war for so many centuries that people can’t seem to live without fighting. It has become part of their routine, their nature to always be fighting against something or someone. This is why the world is so divided and people are enemies of each other.

How to overcome enmity?

1- Our real enemy – SATAN:

I Peter 5:8 “Be sober and vigilant. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour”.

Ever since the Garden of Eden, when God put the curse on the serpent, saying: “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and her offspring” (Genesis 3:15), the devil has become humanity’s greatest enemy. The very name Satan (שטן) means adversary, enemy and accuser.

Satan’s strategy is to deceive, because he is a liar (John 8:44), so he provokes people against each other in order to stir up strife. But the true Christian can discern his provocations “for our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this dark world, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

So the only enemy a Christian has is a spiritual one and not a fleshly one, so we don’t need to be at enmity with anyone.

The Christian has only one enemy and that is Satan!

Origin and Types of Enemies

James 4:1 and 4 “Where do wars and contentions come from among you? From where, if not from the pleasures of your flesh? Do you unbelievers not understand that friendship with the world is the enemy of God? Whoever wants to be a friend of the world is an enemy of God.

As has already been said, a Christian has absolutely no excuse or reason to have enmity with anyone. The apostle James asks where enmities come from and concludes that it is from worldliness, from carnal desires, which struggle within people (James 4:2,3). So we can understand that the source of enmities is a worldly life, based on personal pride (James 4:5).

However, we can also define some reasons for enmities, which unfortunately happen even with Christians, because the Word says “if possible, as far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men” (Romans 12:18). There are situations in which conflicts are almost inevitable.

Types of enmity

a) Speaking the TRUTH: Galatians 4:16 “Have I become your enemy by telling you the truth?”. Christians are committed to speaking only the truth, so if someone likes a lie, they won’t like a Christian. Jesus himself warned that we would be reviled by liars (Matthew 5:11). But we can’t speak the truth to hurt people, but rather speak “the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15).

b) Because of FAITH: Philippians 3:18 “For many walk among us, of whom I told you again and again, and now tell you, even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ. Many people don’t accept their neighbor’s faith and convictions, so they consider Christians to be their enemies. There are also Christians who bear bad witness and feed this kind of feeling.

c) For differences of OPINION: II Timothy 3:3 “unloving, implacable, slanderers, without self-control, cruel, enemies of good”. This text talks about people in the last days, even in the face of technology, the evolution of communication, of culture, people still become enemies because they think differently from each other. Because of this we should “avoid foolish arguments, genealogies, contentions and debates about the law; for they are useless and futile” (Titus 3:9).

In this regard, God’s Word directs us to “do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother” (II Thessalonians 3:15). This is actually a question of maturity, because our reason cannot be greater than our duty to love (I Peter 4:8).

d) Because they are enemies of ALL: I Thessalonians 2:15 “who not only killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets, but also persecuted us, and are not pleasing to God, and are adversaries of all men”.

Unfortunately, there are people who don’t know how to live in peace, because “to the wicked, says my God, there is no peace” (Isaiah 57:21). They are people that the enemy, Satan, uses to create enmity wherever they go, with behavior that is “foolish, understands nothing, but has a mania for questions and disputes of words, from which jealousy, provocation, slander, evil suspicions are born” (I Timothy 6:4). We should also pray for these people and ask the Lord to deliver them, because they have not yet come to know God’s love.

As Christians, we need to understand these types of enmities and learn to avoid them.

Fight to have no enemies!

How to resolve enmities?

Ephesians 2:14 and 16 “For he is our peace, who has made both one; and having broken down the middle wall of partition, the enmity, … and reconciled them both in one body to God through the cross, thereby destroying the enmity”.

Whoever has Jesus should live in peace, because Jesus is our peace and has undone all enmity. This bad feeling of being an enemy of others was taken away from us when we were born again and given a new heart (Ezekiel 11.19), to love all people (Mark 12.31).

So what to do?

a) TO PRAY: Matthew 5.43,44 “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”. A Christian’s first attitude to everything is “pray without ceasing” (1 Thessalonians 5:17). In this prayer we must ask forgiveness for our sins as Jesus taught (Matthew 6.12) and forgive the person who has offended us (Matthew 6.14,15). We have no choice, we must forgive.

b) RECONCILIATE: Matthew 18:15-17 “If your brother sins [against you], go and plead between him and yourself. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every word may be established. And if he does not listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen to the church also, regard him as a Gentile and a publican”. Jesus gave the correct order for how to reconcile with someone.

First we must look for the person alone. Then we can take a witness, someone to help, who is a peacemaker (Matthew 5.5). Finally, the matter can be brought to the church. It happens that the person who stirs up strife does the opposite: first he tells everyone, then he gets a witness and finally the person finds out (Proverbs 16:28 and 26:20).

Jesus taught us to seek out the people who offend us and “enter into an agreement with your adversary without delay, while you are on the way with him” (Matthew 5.25), because he knows that a small argument can turn into a brawl (Proverbs 17.14), and the sooner we resolve it, the better.

If you have an enemy, first pray for them and for your life too, so that your heart is totally free from this work of the flesh, which is enmity. God will provide the moment when he will meet with the person to give and receive forgiveness.

Try to resolve any enmity!

Be a friend, not an enemy!

II Timothy 2:14, 23 and 24 “Recommend these things. Bear solemn witness to all in the sight of God, that they may avoid disputes about words, which profit nothing except the subversion of the hearers. … And put away foolish and absurd questions, for you know that they only lead to strife. … Now the servant of the Lord must not live in contention, but must be gentle to all, apt to instruct, patient”.

Paul’s advice to Timothy is very useful if you don’t want to have enemies. First, avoid words that could cause problems. Secondly, avoid issues that could cause confusion. Thirdly, try to be a meek person as Jesus taught (Matthew 11:19).

Christians don’t need to have enemies, because God “reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation” (II Corinthians 5:18), and we are also messengers of a “word of reconciliation” (II Corinthians 5:19).

You can live without enemies!