Enemy or Friend?

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. "You are My friends if you do what I command you. "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.  (John 15:13-15 NASB)

Perhaps the greatest fear of our current age is the constant concern that a friend may turn out to be a terrorist who wants you dead.  We began getting a taste of this bone-chilling chaos in Vietnam, when women and children would set off bombs to destroy "the enemy."  Such warfare came to American soil with the attacks of 9/11.  Suddenly, the enemy was not identifiable anymore.  It could just as easily be someone next door.  It could be someone you thought was your friend.

Would you consider yourself an enemy or a friend of God?  God says that we are His friends if we do what He commanded us to do.  What if we haven't followed all of His commands?  Does that make us His enemies?  Sadly, the answer is yes.  We can act like we are His friends, go over to his "house" for "dinner" all the time, have regular conversations about everything, and even read what He has to say about everything.  We may look like His friends, but if we don't obey His commands we function much in the same was as a terrorist - attempting to destroy all that God is doing.

God's response to our "enemy attacks," however, gives great reason for pause.  He doesn't put together a whole team of angels to seek out and destroy those of us who are against Him.  He doesn't run in fear or even fight us to the death.  To be sure, if we want to fight all the way to our death, He will let us have our way.  But He would much rather us take a different way - a way He has already prepared.

Rather than seeing us die for our rebellion, He chose to let His Son die instead.  "You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us...while we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son..."  (Romans 5:6-10 NIV)

Do you believe He laid down His life for you?  Have you allowed Him to take your place?  Have you been baptized, washing your sins away?  Then He calls you, "friend."  See yourself this way.  Let's live like true friends - walking with Him throughout this life...and into the next.