Gold Nugget
Verse 13: “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.”
Commentary
There is an appropriate time to assume someone an enemy that posses as an enemy to the innocent. It's important to point out that we don't select our enemies, they select us. Should they choose to hate and oppose us, they are (by definition) our enemy whether we want them to be or not. Let's put it this way, once I was stolen from, lied about, threatened and all around abused by a friend of one of my relatives. I had tried to help this person and all was good until I was being taken advantage of extensively. After much suffering and refusing to be abused any longer, I refused anymore charity to them. That's when the abuse worsened. I was hurt badly and took time to recover financially from theft and property damage. All of this was bad, but the real pain came later when I learned that my relative remained close friends with this person. I couldn't understand how my family member could still see someone as a dear friend who had severely abused me.
If someone mistreats my children - they have declared me their enemy. (All of this is assuming that my children are innocent of the cause to which they where deemed an enemy.) When we entered into a relationship with God, His enemies should have become our enemies. A few of His enemies are "evil, pride, arrogance, a perverse mouth and the evil way" As today's "gold nugget" says, we should "hate" these things. How can we be a friend and family member to God and be a close friend to this world? Using my emotions to draw from, I can imagine how Jesus feels when we are friendly to the world that rejected, beat, abused and murdered Him? Consider these profound words from 1 John 2:15-17 "15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life-is not of the Father but is of the world."
Prayer
Lord, I will not be friends to those that have declared you as their enemy. You will not find me in the arms of those that abuse and reject you. If they reject you, they have rejected me. I will consider your hurt when I am tempted to embrace this world and its pleasures. Amen
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