The Real Enemy

I have discovered that, when it comes right down to it, there are really only two kinds of people in the world; those who love Star Trek and those who despise it. (If you’re in the latter group you can stop reading now.)

When I was in Junior High Star Trek re-runs were on every day at 4:00. Five days a week I would get home just in time for my mega-dose of sci-fi adventure. I remember an episode where the Klingons and the crew of the Enterprise couldn’t stop fighting. No matter what they tried, they would just get more irrational and more angry. And if someone would die or get hurt, they would be miraculously restored to health, only to start fighting again. Come to find out, there was this alien creature (no surprise there) who had come aboard the ship and was living off their negative emotions, manipulating all of this from behind the scenes.

Ah, the morality of Star Trek…Isn’t that the way we often are as Believers? The last thing Satan wants is for God’s people to walk together in love and unity. So here Satan is pulling strings behind the scenes, hitting our hot buttons. And the sad part is we fall for it. We walk in ignorance of his schemes and think and act as if the enemy is one another! Paul says, “For our struggle is NOT against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” (Eph. 10:12)

Then again, some of us are surprised that we are in a battle at all. Most Christians can get totally energized about building God’s Kingdom; about doing mighty things for God. But then when things start to go wrong; when the criticism comes and the trials increase and the battle gets heated and the going gets tough, they say, “Hey, wait a minute! It’s not supposed to be like this!”

Oh REALLY…read your New Testament! Read your Old Testament, for that matter. We are in a battle. This is war! Think about it. That’s why we’re given ARMOUR and WEAPONS. That’s why Jesus said, “Blessed are you when me revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely, on account of Me.” That why Paul had his hands full with beatings and stonings, not to mention all the struggles and troubles of the churches. The important question is "who is the enemy?"

Real New Testament Christianity (if it’s done right) is messy stuff. But if we get one thing right, it has to be this; we must know who the real enemy is. I wonder if that’s not why Jesus tells us to love our enemies. Because if we love our enemies, we may just discover that they’re not the real enemy after all. And they may discover the same about us. Satan is the one who comes to steal, kill and destroy.

By the way, now that I’ve officially inducted myself into the nerd hall of fame, I will throw caution to the wind and tell you. Captain Kirk eventually figured out what was really going on. (I kept trying to tell him during most of the program) And once they made peace with the Klingons, the alien creature had nothing left to feed on, and had to go. James put it a slightly different way. He said, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (Jas. 4:7)