Enemies of the Cross

"For many walk, of whom I have often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, whose glory is their shame, who set their minds on earthly things."

Paul was not weeping because there are enemies of the cross. He knows that the message of the cross is eternal and invincible. Its permanence rests on its source: the sovereign good pleasure of the will of Almighty God. The message of the cross is the very power of God--omnipotent God. Even death and hell cannot defeat the transforming message of the love of God so undeniably demonstrated on the cross. Paul's heart is breaking for the life that is the outcome of opposing Christ's love--the message of the cross. Their future: destruction. Their present day life: controlled by unquenchable appetites. Their impact: the building of monuments to their shameful behavior. Their treasures: earthly, temporary, worthless achievements.
What have they cast aside? "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform our lowly body into conformity with His glorious body by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself." What loss for the enemies of the cross!!!

If our hearts are not broken in sorrow for the enemy, if we are not on our knees pleading with God to open their eyes to the truth of the cross, we know nothing of the love of God. "For God so loved the world . . ."