A Spiritual Enmity (1 John 4:13)

“By this we know that we abide in him and he in us, because he has given us of his Spirit.” (1 John 4:13)

Love is never a matter of lip service; love is a matter of the heart. From the boundaries of Eden to the shores of California, our hearts have a sinful enmity against God and against one another. Love is not our default setting. However, blame-shifting, backbiting, and bitterness all seem to pour out automatically. This is not natural; it’s unnatural. As much as a man may claim to love God, as much as a man may confess the name of Jesus Christ, a hatred for those in His image is unnatural, is unbecoming, is unspiritual. That man does not have the Holy Spirit.

The enmity promised to divide the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman comes as a gift of the Holy Spirit - the giver of a new heart, a new spirit, a new mind. The indwelling of the Spirit is what makes a man spiritual. The Spirit creates an enmity, a hatred, toward sin and Satan while creating a love toward God and those in His image. Satan has an army of mercenaries, polluted by their passions, seeking their own good; whereas God has an army of soldiers, sanctified by the Spirt, seeking the good of God and man. Any confession of Christ, any love of the brethren, any growth in grace, any and every yearning for God and man comes from the Spirit given to us.