-Many are enemies. So first, beware of following their example, but also expect opposition. If you have embraced Christ and His Cross, expect to encounter enemies. And understand why you are being opposed. It is because those who oppose have not surrendered to Christ in their hearts. They are in rebellion and engaged in a high-stakes (albeit misguided) battle to reign supreme in their lives, one which will ultimately cost them their souls. So don’t take it personally. When someone persecutes you, or mistreats you, or you are even just the innocent bystander taking the brunt of an act of selfishness, remember that those actions are not really directed at you (cf John 15.20-21, John 16.3, 2Timothy 3.12). Their actions and hostility are aimed at Christ and His Cross, and for you and I to live amongst fallen and broken and selfish people who are at war with their Creator means if nothing else that we are invariably going to catch some stray fire. Collateral damage, if you will. Forgetting for a moment that I am also selfish and broken and often bring hardship and consequences on myself, other people’s selfishness WILL touch my life, even as an innocent bystander - there is no way to avoid that in a fallen world. Selfishness and woundedness and rebellion rears its ugly head all the time. People cut you off. They cut in line. They take your stuff. They wound you with words, with their hands, with neglect. They leave you. Oftentimes it’s not because of something you actually did or even directed at you personally. Remember - they are wounded. They are broken. They are fighting a losing battle with their Creator. But it does follow that the closer I get to Jesus, the more that fire WILL be deliberately aimed in my direction. They might even kill you. Jesus promises this, and so does Paul. And I do think that remembering this helps us to turn the other cheek - the more someone aims at me because of Jesus, the more I can know that they are really just fighting Him. And so we can do it for Jesus (cf Matthew 5.39, Colossians 1.24). Think about it.
-So then, what this means is that ‘they’ are not OUR enemies. Notice that Paul is actually weeping for them. How are you disposed towards unbelievers, towards those who antagonize you, towards those who are are particularly opposed to Christianity? I think our tendency is to sort of retreat into places that are safe and comfortable, to circle the wagons and insulate ourselves from whatever opposition and negativity the world might throw our way. Unfortunately this keeps us from being a blessing to the world, which is grand purpose for which God’s people were gathered in the first place. We can and should actually have compassion on those who oppose and bless them and pray for them (Matthew 5.44). In the heat of the moment we may not think they deserve this, but we must remember that every person was designed and created with glorious purpose and potential. And to oppose Christ is a losing proposition. All who do so are doomed. No, this is not something good. It is a tragedy of the worst kind for something that was designed and created with so much purpose and potential to simply be thrown into the fire and destroyed.
-Have you ever wept for the lost? Have I? Does their fate ever disturb my sleep or compel me to cross the street to engage with my neighbor on matters that concern his or her eternal destiny? Paul did - he crossed streets and oceans. He did all that he could to save people (1Corinthians 9.22-23, 2Corinthians 5.11). Consider the words of this atheist famously quoted by the missionary, CT Studd:
"If I firmly believed, as millions say they do, that the knowledge and practice of religion in this life influences destiny in another, faith would mean to me everything. I would cast away earthly enjoyments as dross, earthly cares as follies, and earthly thoughts and feelings as vanity. Faith would be my first waking thought, and my last image before sleep sank me into unconsciousness. I would labor in its cause alone. I would take thought for the morrow of eternity alone. I would esteem one soul gained for Heaven worth a life of suffering. Earthly consequence should never stay my hand, nor seal my lips. Earth, its joys and its griefs, would occupy no moment of my thoughts. I would strive to look upon eternity alone, and on the immortal souls around me, soon to be everlastingly happy or everlastingly miserable. I would go forth to the world and preach to it in season and out of season, and my text would be, 'what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?'"
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