HE WHO HAS NO ENEMIES

“They say it is a sad thing to not have friends.

But it is sadder still to not have enemies.

Because he who has no enemies,

It is a sign that he has,

Neither talent that overshadows,

Nor blessings that others may covet,

Nor character that impresses,

Nor valor that is feared,

Nor honor that can be murmured about,

Nor any good thing that could be envied.”

 http://www.fiu.edu/~fcf/jmarti.html Click on this link if you don't know who José Martí was.

And still better is what the Lord Jesus Christ said: " Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets." Luke 6:26

One of the great defects of evangelicalism is its desire to be popular, respected and accepted. The Lord Jesus Christ said clearly to His disciples:

"If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also." (John 15:18-20)

"In the world you en mundo tendréis aflicción"  (Juan 16:33).

Then, in James 4:4 we read the following:

"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."

It is a mistake and a danger to seek approval or popularity from the world. What is important is to love God and be faithful to Him, and walk in fellowship with Him. We need God's approval, not the applauses of men, not even of evangelical men. The echo of their applauses will soon disappear, but the approval of God, "well done, faithful servant," is forever.

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Carl Knott