With Friends Like This, Who Needs Enemies?!!!
If you haven't realized this already, let me spell it out for all of us:
Filial relationships are terribly complicated.
Some loves in our lives are agents of hate and suffocation.
Some hates are agents of true love and freedom.
Now, who in the world can figure this one out?!!!
Jesus, of course, has a word or two to say on such convoluted topic - not that His words help us clarify the issues, at least not at first sight. In fact, it seems like He makes it all the more confusing!
Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I didn't come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to 'set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law'; and 'a man's enemies will be those of his own household.' Matthew 10:34-36 NKJ
Jesus is not talking here about our usual, daily, fleshly, self-serving bickering and fighting with each other inside our households. Some level of fighting and disturbance of our 'precious' peace and comfort may actually be quite healthy for our spiritual growth and development. This is how children become adults. Without the wrestling and working through the process until the heart resolution is reached, people remain children, no matter how many years they have lived on this earth.
What He is talking about here are deeply embedded bonds of filial affection which run through the core of our being. These affections, if left unchecked, will eventually strangle the life out of us and ultimately destroy us:
He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Matthew 10:37-38 NKJ
Before we could experience true freedom in Christ, we must face the suffocating grip of our most precious filial relationships - between parents and children; husband and wife; closest friends.
Who is my true friend? I often wonder.
This is too difficult for us to figure if we rely solely on what we see and hear, or even feel towards another person. In order to discern 'friends' from 'enemies' we need strict evaluation of the fruit the other person is bearing in our life - is it leading to life and more life, or is it going in the opposit direction. We also need the spiritual discernment the Holy Spirit gives to all who ask Him. For, things are rarely as they seem. But, the Lord God Almighty is never fooled by apearances, by the sham, by the facade. He sees right through them.
Where His gaze is fixed is on our heart and the fruit-bearing capacities of our lives empowered by His Holy Spirit. This is where the battle between good and evil is won or lost. Everything else flows from this wellspring of life or pit of darkness and death.
For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account. Hebrews 4:12 NKJ
No comments:
Post a Comment