Who Are Jesus' Enemies?

"My zeal has consumed me because my enemies have forgotten thy words."
Ps. 119:139

Fallen man does not know anything rightly. He does not know how to think rightly, how to behave rightly, or even how to love or hate rightly. Paul confessed this when he said, "In me (that is, in my flesh) dwells no good thing" (Rom. 7). Only God’s word, coming to fallen man, makes it possible for man to know anything rightly or do anything rightly.

Another thing that fallen man does not know how to do rightly is to choose his friends. I have seen numerous times over the years that some people have the worst habit of choosing friends that do not edify them. I have seen children of God drawn to each other because they both had the same fault, and the fault just grew worse as a result. Jesus knows how to choose his friends. And he knows whom to consider an enemy. Psalm 119:139 reveals to us how Jesus thinks in this regard.

Jesus knows how dangerous a person can be who forgets God’s word. He is not fooled by appearances. He judges others by their attitude toward the word of God. If they hold God’s word dear, he befriends them, and if the word of God is to them just another idea, and they forget it, then he sees them as enemies. Jesus waits to see the word of God become flesh in a person, as it did in him, before he takes them into his bosom as his friend. He likes feeling safe.

If God’s word comes to you, and you love it so much that you remember it, then Jesus chooses you as his friend. If you forget it and then go your own way, Jesus loves his Father so much that he considers you his enemy. He said so, when he moved David to sing, "my enemies have forgotten thy words."

Let’s pray the way David prayed, that God would create in us the kind of heart that always remembers God’s word.