Enemies (2190) (echthros from échthos = hatred, enmity; noun = echthra = enmity, hostility) is an adjective which pertains to manifesting hostility or being at enmity with another, where enmity is a deep seated animosity or hatred which may be open or concealed or a "deep-rooted hatred."
In the active sense echthros means to be hateful, hostile toward, at enmity with or adversary of someone. In the passive sense echthros pertains to being subjected to hostility, to be hated or to be regarded as an enemy.
Echthros is one who has the extreme negative attitude that is the opposite of love and friendship. An enemy is one that is antagonistic to another; especially seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound the opponent. Scripture often uses echthros as a noun describing "the adversary", Satan! Like father like son!
Leon Morris commenting on this verse notes that...
Enemies is a strong term; sin had put us completely in the wrong with God (in Ro 11:28-note this term is opposed to “beloved”). An enemy is not a person who comes a little bit short of being a friend; it means someone in the opposite camp. Some see the meaning here as man’s hostility to God, but the reference to wrath (Ro 5:9) surely shows that God’s hostility to evil is in view. The wrath and the enmity go together. That sinners are God’s enemies is stated a number of times in the New Testament (Ro 11:28-note; Php 3:18-note;Col 1:21-note; Jas 4:4; cf. Ep 2:15, 16-note). (Morris, L. The Epistle to the Romans. W. B. Eerdmans; Inter-Varsity Press)
EBC asks the question...
Is "enemies" used in an active sense to mean those who have enmity toward God (cf. Ro 8:7-note) or in thepassive sense, meaning those who are reckoned as enemies by God? Several reasons dictate that the latter is the intended force of the word.
First, that the word is capable of conveying this meaning is evident from Ro 11:28-note, where the people of Israel are spoken of as enemies in the reckoning of God and yet loved by him, involving the same combination as in the passage we are considering. The enmity in 11:28 is not temperamental but judicial.
Second, the mention of "God's wrath" in Ro 5:9 points to the conclusion that the echthroi are the objects of the wrath.
Third, the tenor of the argument leads one to the same conclusion. Paul reasons from the greater to the lesser. If God loved us when we were enemies, now that he has made provision for us at infinite cost, much more will he go on to see us through to the final goal of our salvation. But if the sense is that God loved us and saved us when we were enemies in our attitude toward him, the much more loses its point. "He is not arguing that if we have begun to love God we may reckon on His doing so and so for us, but because He has done so much, we may expect Him to do more" (Archibald McCaig in ISBE, 1930, vol. IV, p. 2537a).
Fourth, Paul not only states that we have been reconciled (Ro 5:10) but that we have received the reconciliation (Ro 5:11). He avoids saying that we have done anything to effect the reconciliation. God provided it through the death of his Son. The matter is made even clearer, if anything, in the companion statement that God has reconciled us "to Himself" (2Co 5:18). The appropriate response of the saved community is exultation (cf. Ro 5:2, 3) (Gaebelein, F, Editor: Expositor's Bible Commentary 6-Volume New Testament. Zondervan Publishing)
James Denney explains that...
The the state of sin was that in which we were enemies (echthroi) and the whole connection of ideas in the passage requires us to give enemies (echthroi) the passive meaning which it undoubtedly has in Ro 11:28-note, where it is opposed to beloved (agapetoi). We were in a real sense objects of the Divine hostility. As sinners, we lay under the condemnation of God, and His wrath hung over us. This was the situation which had to be faced: Was there love in God equal to it? Yes, when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. (Nicoll, W Robertson, Editor: Expositors Greek Testament: 5 Volumes. Out of print. Search Google)
TDNT writes that...
While mísos denotes the disposition of hostility and pólemos war, echthros means “hostility” itself... For the rabbis opponents include idolaters, apostate proselytes, renegades, and wicked Israelites. Unjustifiable hatred is forbidden but there is a legitimate hatred of foes in the OT sense as those who disrupt the covenant relationship.
The term (echthros) is used in the NT for personal enemies (Gal 4:16), but as in the OT and LXX, it is used for the foes of Israel (Lk. 1:71), of Jerusalem (Lk 19:43), of the NT witnesses (Rev 11:5), and of believers within their own families (Mt. 10:36). echthrós refers, too, to hostility to God and Christ (Lk. 19:27; Phil. 3:18;Acts 13:10, and cf. the quoting of Ps 110:1 in Mk 12:36; Acts 2:34 35; 1Cor 15:25; Heb. 1:13; Paul in 1Cor 15:25 refers to all the forces that are hostile to God, including death). The reference of Mt. 5:43-44 is to love for the enemies of God and his people (in contradistinction to the older hatred), and the same view may be reflected in 2Th. 3:15.
By nature we are all God’s enemies (Ro 5:10; 11:28; Col. 1:21; Jas 4:4). The point is that we hate God (active), although in Ro 11:28 Jews are both hated (passive) because of the gospel and loved on account of the fathers. The echthrós is the devil in the parable of Mt. 13:24 25 26 and Lk. 10:19; the devil is the absolute enemy both of us and of God and his kingdom. (Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. Eerdmans)
Echthros is used 32 times in the NASB (Study the NT passages - What are the outcomes for God's enemies - one good, the other bad? Who is the ultimate enemy of God? How are believers to respond to enemies?)
Matthew 5:43 (note) "You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.'5:44 "But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you (How is this possible? Naturally? Supernaturally? What is the clear implication of Jesus' command [see Gal 5:22-note]?)
Matthew 10:36 and a man's (who believes in Messiah) enemies will be the members of his household.
Matthew 13:25 (Parable) "But while men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed tares also among the wheat, and went away...28 "And he said to them, 'An enemy has done this!' And the slaves said to him, 'Do you want us, then, to go and gather them up?'...39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil, and the harvest is the end of the age; and the reapers are angels.
Matthew 22:44 'The Lord said to my LORD, "Sit at My right hand, Until I put Thine enemies beneath Thy feet "'?
Mark 12:36 "David himself said in the Holy Spirit, 'The Lord said to my LORD, "Sit at My right hand, Until I put Thine enemies beneath Thy feet.'"
Luke 1:71 Salvation from our (Israel's) enemies (cp, "Anti-Semitism"), and from the hand of all who hate us...74 To grant us that we (Jews who repent and believe in Messiah), being delivered (rescued by the Messiah) from the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear
Luke 6:27 "But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you...35 "But love yourenemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men.
Luke 10:19 "Behold, I (Jesus) have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you.
Luke 19:27 "(Jesus speaking) But these enemies of Mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence."...
Luke 19:43 "For the days shall come upon you when your (Israel's) enemies will throw up a bank before you, and surround you, and hem you in on every side (This prophecy was fulfilled by the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman General Titus in 70AD)
Luke 20:43 Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet."'
Acts 2:35 Until I make Thine enemies a footstool for Thy feet."'
Acts 13:10 and said, "You who are full of all deceit and fraud, you son of the devil, you enemy (like father, like son) of all righteousness, will you not cease to make crooked the straight ways of the Lord?
Romans 5:10 (note) For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.
Romans 11:28 (note) From the standpoint of the gospel they (unbelieving Israel) are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God's choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers;
Romans 12:20 (note) "But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals upon his head."
1 Corinthians 15:25 For He (Messiah) must reign until (at the end of the Millennium) He has put all Hisenemies under His feet. 26 The last enemy that will be abolished is death.
Galatians 4:16 Have I therefore become your enemy by telling you the truth?
Philippians 3:18 (note) For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they areenemies of the cross of Christ,
Colossians 1:21 (note) And although you were formerly alienated and hostile (echthros) in mind, engaged in evil deeds,
2 Thessalonians 3:15 And yet do not regard him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.
Hebrews 1:13 (note) But to which of the angels has He ever said, "Sit at My right hand, Until I make Thineenemies A footstool for Thy feet "?
Hebrews 10:13 (note) waiting from that time onward until His enemies be made a footstool for His feet.
James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility (echthra = noun = hatred, inner disposition and external opposition) toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy (echthros = adjective) of God.
Revelation 11:5 (note) And if anyone desires to harm them (God's two witnesses during the first half ofDaniel's Seventieth Week), fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies; and if anyone would desire to harm them, in this manner he must be killed.
Revelation 11:12 (note) And they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And they (the two witnesses killed in Jerusalem at the end of the first 3.5 years of the 7 year "Tribulation") went up into heaven in the cloud, and their enemies beheld them.
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