People are not the enemy

One commandment in surviving through the maze of church life is this:

People are not the enemy.

I was reading today of a young pastor who was struggling with church power issues and he asked his father (who was also a minister), "In your sixty years of ministry, what is the number one lesson you have learned?" Pausing for a moment, his father answered, "People are not your enemy."

I have such a competitive spirit that I need to continually remind myself of that.

Those who disagree with me are not my enemy.

Those who have a different viewpoint are not my enemy.

We must continually do our best to see behind the movements and manipulations of people and into the spirit world of darkness.

Most of the time we are "fighting" the wrong enemy.

There's the story of a Golden Gloves champion fighter. In one bout, he was taking a real beating. His coach tried to cheer him up by saying, "Get in there, champ; he hasn't laid a glove on you yet."

Looking through the blood coming from his eye, the fighter said to his coach, "Would you please keep your eyes on the referee, then?"

He knew he was getting hit, but he didn't know where it was coming from.

Sometimes we as Christians have a misguided thought. THAT IF WE ARE WALKING IN THE WILL OF GOD WE WILL NEVER ENCOUNTER THE DEVIL.

If that were true, than the Apostle Paul must have been out of the will of God most of the time.

I like what someone once wrote, "if you never run into the devil, you must be going in his direction!"

But if you get close to something the enemy does not want to give up, you can expect him to draw his big guns against you.

We must realize our ultimate foe!

Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12, "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against power, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places."

Qualifier!

This does not in any way diminish or excuse poor character, nor does it say that all opposition is demonic.

Sometimes we do need to hear another opinion if ours is wrong.

However, a person who is constantly in the midst of friction, strife, confusion and undermining those in authority in the body of Christ is being used as a tool in the enemy's hands.

How many times have you heard me say that if Bill has a problem with Joe, and Bill has a problem with Sam, and Bill has a problem with John, than who is the problem?

Bill!

So what do we do?

We should pray that God would bind the enemy that is using the person, while continuing to love the individual.