Enemies

"While Jesus was still talking to the crowd, his mother and brothers stood outside, wanting to speak to him.  Someone told him, 'Your mother and brothers are standing outside, wanting to speak to you.'  He replied to him, 'Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?'  Pointing to his disciples, he said, 'Here are my mother and brothers.  For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother.'"  Matthew 12: 46-50 NIV

There are few that I can let my guard down with.  Only a few that I'm certain are always in the Spirit.  Always trustworthy.  Never in league with the enemy.  At least around me. (And I hope the few can say the same about me.)

Like in the movie "The Matrix," I have to remember who is plugged in and whose unplugged.  Satan is the architect of the matrix of this world.  The unsaved are plugged into his system.  The demons are his agents.  Everyone plugged into the matrix can be used by the agents at will, at every opportunity the agents need.  Satan and demons just need an opportunity. Though I don't wrestle against flesh and blood, flesh and blood are the opportunities of my enemy.  Like Morpheus said to Neo about those plugged into the Matrix:

"The Matrix is a system, Neo.  That system is our enemy.  But when you're inside, you look around, what do you see?  Businessmen, teachers, lawyers, carpenters.  The very minds of the people we are trying to save.  But until we do, these people are still a part of that system and that makes them our enemy.  You have to understand, most of these people are not ready to be unplugged.  And many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."

Enemies.  Obstacles.  Distractions.  Oppositions.  People who are not following the Spirit, whether unbelievers or carnal believers, are a part of a system that is the enemy. True.  Paul said, "We wrestle not against flesh and blood."  Yet it's also true that Jesus said, "Love your enemies."  Jesus wasn't talking about Satan and the demons, or the principalities and powers Paul said are our truest enemies.  So people are also our enemies in the literal sense of the word:  they oppose us.  How?  Paul said, "The flesh wars against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. They oppose each other."  This must also apply to what Paul said when he wrote, "Those who live in accordance of the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh.  But those who live in accordance with the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit."  Paul also said, "The carnal mind is hostile towards God."  That must mean that those who live in the flesh are hostile towards and opposed to those who live in accordance with the Spirit.  That those who are in the flesh are enemies of those who are in the Spirit. 

Again, Paul said this to the Corinthians, that the relationship between believers and unbelievers is like the relationship between light and darkness, the temple of God and the temple of idols, Christ and Belial.  That these have absolutely nothing in common, no agreement, no common ground.  None.  True, Paul was speaking about unbelievers, and the separation between believer and unbeliever; that believers should "come out from among them and be separate."  But he also said to separate from believers who are living in unrepentant sin.  Jesus himself said to treat believers who are unrepentant "like tax collectors and sinners."  Like those with whom we have nothing in common, but whom we still love, because Christ commanded his followers to love their enemies, those who oppose them--unbelievers and carnal believers, those who live in accordance with the flesh.

I'm seeing this more and more as I strive to follow the Spirit.  Like Jesus said, my only "mother, brothers, and sisters" are those who follow the Spirit.  This is painful and lonely.  But it's reality.  And it's hard for me to remember.  I find myself letting my guard down and being attacked by Satan when I'm with an unbeliever or carnal believer.  Lord, please help me to remember.

Old boyfriends, old girlfriends, and Jesus

"Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did.  Could this be the Messiah?"  John 4:29

One day Jesus met a woman at a well.  Though this was their first conversation, their first time meeting, he said something to her that was very piercing and personal; her response was even more personal:

"He told her, 'Go, call your husband, and come back.'  'I have no husband,' she replied.  Jesus said to her, 'You are right when you say you have no husband.  The fact is, you have had five husbands, and the man you now have is not your husband.  What you have just said is quite true.'  'Sir,' the woman said, 'I can see that you are a prophet.'"  John 4:16b-19

Think about what Jesus was saying to her.  He was bringing up not only five failed marriages, but he was doing this in a culture where this would be intensely more shameful than it would be today.  Yet he must have said these words with not only power, but with compassion.  The woman didn't seem offended or ashamed.  She sensed that His knowledge was from God--that Jesus was a prophet, a messenger of God.

But she didn't feel condemned or ashamed. 

And she came to two even more powerful conclusions about Jesus:

1. She said that Jesus told her "everything she ever did."  Everything.  She viewed her past relationship failures and shame as "everything she ever did."  To this woman, these failures completely defined her.  She completed defined herself by her unfulfilled desire for intimacy.  She was in relationship number six with a man who wasn't her husband.  She was trying yet again!  She had had at least 6 men, which leads to her second and most powerful conclusion.

2. She concluded that Jesus was the Messiah, the Chosen One.  Not just a prophet.  Not just God's messenger sent to her, but to everyone...the Savior of the world.  This is significant for her because Jesus was Someone more profound than she realized:

According to the Apostle Paul, Jesus was the last Adam;

according to Paul, Jesus was the second Man, the New Man.

The 6 or so men the women had before were descendants of Adam--fallen, and in need of salvation, just as she was.  She needed to be saved from the failed relationships of her past.  And when Jesus asked her to go get her husband, he was asking her to get the man she was now with...to bring that man, and thus every man that she had ever known or been hurt by, to Him--the New Man.

Jesus would take her present and past relationships, the relationships she defined as "everything she had ever done," and bring salvation. 

In Jesus, she would become a new woman. 
In Jesus, she would gain a new view of men.

But for this to happen, Jesus had to ask the question, and she had to answer it...to be set free from it.

In his very first meeting, he went to her very heart...and she let him. 
He touched her broken heart...and she let him into her pain.

Some of the worst and most painful experiences of my life have been in failed relationships. 

Perhaps that's true for you. 

Ex-wives or ex-husbands,
old boyfriends, old girlfriends...and Jesus. 

What will He ask us?  What will we say? Will we be our answer?