Usually, when we think of an enemy of God, we think of Satan or the coming Antichrist, and that would be correct. But can people who are your friends or possibly some of your family members unwittingly be enemies of God? Can someone who says they are a Christian be an enemy of God?
How would we know?
As always, we find the answer in scripture…
"…do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." (James 4:4 NASB)
15 Do not love the world nor 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 and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:15-16 NASB)
In these two verses alone, the word “world” appears three times. People who are friends of the world system are enemies of God.
Being a “friend of the world” means adopting the world’s sinful value system instead of God’s. Since the devil is temporarily the god of this world, his worldly value system promotes the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life (see 1 John 2:16). Every sin imaginable can be summed up in those three forms of sinful behavior. Friendship with the world means being devoted to the world’s standards of behavior and not God’s eternal value system.
One cannot be devoted to both God and the world at the same time. Each of us must choose one or the other.
Romans 1:18-25 gives us a Biblically accurate description of what being a “friend of the world” means:
- They suppress the truth
- They do not honor or thank God… even when they know He exists.
- Their hearts are full of darkness
- They claim to be wise, but instead are fools
- They honor idols and false gods
- They dishonor their bodies
- They exchange the truth of God for a lie
- They honor creation rather than the Creator
Unfortunately, the enemies of God must face Him someday:
“Surely your enemies, Lord, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered” (Psalm 92:9).
“For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (1 Corinthians 15:25–26)
Anyone who knowingly, willfully, and repeatedly breaks God’s commandments without repentance is an enemy of God:
“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior” (Colossians 1:21)
But, dear reader, there is hope through faith in Jesus Christ!
“For since our friendship with God was restored by the death of his Son while we were still his enemies, we will certainly be saved through the life of his Son” (Romans 5:10).
Can someone who says they are a Christian be an enemy of God? He gives each of us the choice of whether or not we want a relationship with Him. Merely saying one is a Christian is vastly different from actually being one… a true Christian rejects the world’s sinful value system and instead adopts God’s eternal value system as a way of life. Anything else makes them an enemy of God (and a fake Christian). Of course, true Christians can still sin, but wish turn from it, knowing that it by grace through faith that they are saved and not by perfectly keeping the law!
“8 For by grace you have been saved through faith; and this is not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” (Ephesians 2:8-9 NASB)
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