Hostile: No Desire And No Ability

The sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.   Romans 8:7

The apostle Paul speaks about a person whose nature is hostile to God, so we’re going to call him Hostile. Hostile has neither the desire nor the ability to follow God’s law. We have already met Hostile several times in the Bible’s story.

The first time was in the story of Adam and Eve’s two sons. Cain brought an offering to God, but God did not accept it, so Cain became angry. He was hostile toward God, and his hostility was deflected to his brother, Abel, who loved God. Cain’s anger became so intense, he eventually killed his brother.

Pharaoh was hostile. God said, “Let my people go, so that they may worship me,” but Pharaoh refused to recognize God’s authority over his life. He was unwilling to submit to the Word of God, and he became Hostile.

But Hostile’s greatest day, as he saw it, was the day we call Good Friday, when Jesus was brought before a crowd of people, and they cried out, “Crucify him!” There was real feeling there, and it was hostile!

In the early days of Christianity, Paul launched a mission to destroy the church, “uttering threats with every breath” (Acts 9:1). That’s Hostile! He was on the road to Damascus when the risen Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him and said, “Why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4). Paul’s violent anger against Christians was a reflection of a deeper rage against Christ.

You may have noticed that many kind and respectable people are hostile when it comes to the things of God. A conversation can be quite civil until God comes up. Then, as if a switch were flipped, a deep hostility is opened up.

If you’re hostile, know that God has loved you through all your struggling, resisting, and fighting against him. He offers you peace with him. He invites you to repent. Repentance is giving up your resistance to God. God invites you to surrender to him. Lay down your arms now. Jesus came into the world and went to the cross so that enemies like you and me could become his friends.

For further reading, see Genesis 4