Enmity

"opposition; very bitter, deep-rooted, irreconcilable hatred and variance. Such a constant enmity there is between the followers of Christ and Satan; nay, there is some such enmity between mankind and some serpents (Gen 3:15). Friendship with this world, in its wicked members and lusts, is enmity with God — is opposed to the love of him, and amounts to an actual exerting of ourselves to dishonor and abuse him (Jas 4:4; 1Jn 2:15-16). The carnal mind, or minding of fleshly and sinful things, is enmnity against God — is opposed to his nature and will in the highest degree, and, though it may be removed, cannot be reconciled to him, nor he to it (Rom 8:7-8). The ceremonial law is called enmity: it marked God’s enmity against sin by demanding atonement for it; it occasioned men’s enmity against God by its burdensome services, and was an accidental source of standing variance between Jews and Gentiles: or perhaps the enmity here meant is the state of variance between God and men, whereby he justly loathed and hated them as sinful, and condemned them to punishment; and they wickedly hated him for his holy excellence, retributive justice, and sovereign goodness: both are slain and abolished by the death of Christ (Eph 2:15-16)."

What Is Enmity Against GOD

Rom_8:6-7; Jam_4:4.

en´mi-ti (איבה, ’ēbhāh; ἔχθρα, échthra): “Enmity” (hate) occurs as the translation of ’ēbhāh in Gen 3:15, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,” and in Num 35:21, Num 35:22, where the absence of enmity on the part of the man-slayer modifies the judgment to be passed on him.

In the New Testament “enmity” is the translation of echthrǎ: Luk 23:12; Rom 8:7, “The mind of the flesh is enmity against God.” Jas 4:4, “The friendship of the world is enmity with God” (because “the world” is preferred to God); in Eph 2:15, Eph 2:16, Christ is said to have “abolished in his flesh the enmity,” by His cross to have “slain the enmity,” that is, the opposition between Jew and Gentile , creating in Himself “one new man, (so) making peace.” See also ABOLISH; HATE.

(ἔ÷èñá)

Human life is disquieted and embittered by enmities, active and passive. 1 Men are enemies of God in their mind (ôῇ äéáíïßᾳ) by their wicked works (Col_1:21). This is not to be taken in a passive sense, which would imply that they are hateful to God (invisos Deo, says Meyer, ad loc.). Their enmity is active. The carnal mind (öñüíçìá), caring only for the gratification of the senses, is hostility to (åἰò) God (Rom_8:7). The friendship (öéëßá, which implies ‘loving’ as well as ‘being loved’) of the world, which loves its own (Joh_15:19), is enmity with God (Jam_4:4, Vulgate inimica est dei). Some who prefers Christianity are sadly called enemies of the Cross (Php_3:18); and a man may so habitually pursue low ends as to become an enemy of all righteousness (Act_13:10). It is the work of Christ to subdue this active inward enmity to God and goodness, and thus to undo the work of the Enemy who has sown the seeds of evil in the human heart (Mat_13:28). While sinners are reconciled to God, it is nowhere said in the NT that God, as if He were hostile, needs to be reconciled to sinners. It is the mind of man, not the mind of God, which must undergo a change, that a reunion may be effected’ (J. B. Lightfoot, Col. 3, 1879, p. 159).

(2) The enmity of Jew and Gentile was notorious. After smouldering for centuries, it finally burst into the flames of the Bellum Judaicum. The contempt of Greek for barbarian was equally pronounced. Christ came to end these and all similar racial antipathies. By His Cross He ‘abolished’ and ‘slew’ the enmity (Eph_2:15-16), creating a new manhood which is neither Jewish, Greek, nor Roman, but comprehensive, cosmopolitan, catholic, fulfilling the highest classical ideal of human fellowship-‘humani nihil a me alienum puto’ (Terence, Heaut. I. i. 25)-all because it is Christian.

(3) The Christian, however, cannot help having enemies. Just because he is not of the world, the world hates him (Joh_15:18 ff.). But the spirit of Christ that is in him constrains him to feed his enemy when hungry, give him drink when thirsty (Rom_12:20), and so endeavour to change him into a friend.

(4) Every preacher, because he is bound to be a moralist and reformer, runs a special risk of being mistaken for an enemy. Truth, though spoken in love, may arouse hatred: ὤóôå ἐ÷èñὸò ὑìῶí ãÝãïíá ἀëçèåýùí ὑìῖí; (Gal_4:16). Yet a moment’s thought would make it clear that the aim is not to hurt but to heal, and the surgeon who skilfully uses the knife is ever counted a benefactor.

(5) The courageous faith of the early Church assumed that Christ would put all His enemies under His feet (1Co_15:25; cf. Heb_1:13; Heb_10:13), i.e. that every form of evil, moral and physical alike, would finally be subdued. ‘The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death’ (1Co_15:26).

(6) A single passage seems, prima facie, to imply that men may sometimes be enemies of God sensu passivo. To the Romans St. Paul says of the Jews, ‘They are enemies for your sake’ (Rom_11:28). They are treated as enemies in order that salvation may come to the Gentiles. But the enmity is far from being absolute; they are all the time ‘beloved’ (ἀãáðçôïὶ äéὰ ôïὺò ðáôÝñáò, Rom_11:28).

James Strahan.