There’s a natural tension that persists in the lives of believers. Although we’d love it if once saved our fleshly tendencies were suddenly gone and the world left us alone; the truth is that our enemies will remain until the day we die. We must learn to cope with this reality, namely stress borne by suffering at the hands of our enemies.

Our most intimate enemy is our own fallen flesh, as Paul intimated.

For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.

Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?

Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
-Romans 7:22-25

For newer believers this reality where we never truly shake our innermost enemy (our own human flesh) until we die often comes as a shocker. While it’d be nice to pretend complete deliverance once saved (I’ve seen some who do this), that’d only frustrate our sanctification. We must know our enemies in order to defend against them, right (you can’t defend yourself against something you refuse to acknowledge even exists)?

As the old saying goes, “Birds of a feather flock together.” Our enemies have an affinity for one another. For example, our fallen flesh loves to partner and commiserate with our other enemies, namely Satan and the kingdom of darkness (aka the depraved world system). This poses a real problem for us believers because it creates internal friction (as Paul described in Romans 7), which manifests as stress. This suffering can be debilitating if left unchecked for too long, often resulting in long-term depression. So, then, what shall we do to pursue our deliverance from this struggle? Well, it begins with humility.

First, we must accept that we have enemies who will persist in persecuting us, simply because we are God’s children (John 15:20). Second, we must choose the way of Jesus Christ, emulating the joy that was set before Him as He endured the suffering and shame of carrying His cross as an alien, as well as the rejection of His contemporaries. We see this very imagery in the Book of Hebrews, where Jesus is said to have “suffered outside the gate”, implying separation both literally and figuratively.

For the bodies of those animals whose blood is brought into the holy places by the high priest as a sacrifice for sin are burned outside the camp.

So Jesus also suffered outside the gate in order to sanctify the people through his own blood. Therefore let us go to him outside the camp and bear the reproach he endured.

For here we have no lasting city, but we seek the city that is to come. Through him then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name. Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.
-Hebrews 13:11-16

There are very real, often painful, ramifications of joining Jesus “outside the camp” (v13). For starters, we must separate from our Lord’s enemies, keeping ourselves from intimacy, fellowship, and commiseration with those who remain inside the gate. This separation comes at a price to our human experience through mockery, ridicule, and scorn. Whether actively or passively, our enemies will persecute us.

We must stand firm in our faith, by grace, as soldiers of Christ Jesus.

You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus, and what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful men, who will be able to teach others also. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
-2 Timothy 2:1-4

Though tempted, we mustn’t join forces with Satan’s army; rather, we must bear the reproach of being different, suffering all the more as our sanctification assures our separation from our enemies. Are you ready for this? Jesus once said, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27). This is precisely what He was referring to – suffering for His name’s sake.

Look around. What do you see, even in the Church? I see fighting and bickering and persecution. Just go on social media where supposed Christians spend their days bashing one another. Meanwhile, our enemies are encouraging them, cheering them on, heartily, knowing the damage they impose upon the Body of Christ. To join in such goings-on, in any sense, is to befriend the world, joining forces with our enemies’ army.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.

You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
-James 4:1-4

We must denounce all ties to the world, beginning with our relationships. Am I suggesting that you cut ties with all unbelievers? Of course not, for how would we ever evangelize them??? What I’m saying is that we must separate from the hearts and minds of our enemies. Furthermore, we mustn’t make the grave error of thinking that this is accomplished through mere mental assent with God’s command to do so. We must be “be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving [ourselves]” (James 1:22). The apostle John cautions us.

Do not love the world or the things in the world.

If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever.
-1 John 2:15-17

What is the “will of God” here (v17)? The answer is found in our opening passage, “Through [Christ] then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name” (Hebrews 13:15). We are not to join those who sacrifice themselves on the altar of worldliness as they praise the ways of the kingdom of darkness. If we wish to please God through our lives, as living testimonies for the world to see, we must:

[Lay] aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
-Hebrews 12:1-2

We must follow the examples of faith and worship given to us in the Bible (e.g., Hebrews 11), all of which existed “outside the gate”. A primary example is the apostle Paul, who wrote:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
-Romans 12:1-2

To remain inside the camp would be to conform to this world. We are called to follow Jesus’ example, suffering outside of the camp, bringing glory to God, where the transcendent “peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard [our] hearts and [our] minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7).

Love in Christ,

Ed Collins