by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n
When I chose to be your friend, I knew there would be rough times. It is rare for two people to always see eye-to-eye. There have to be times when friends need to tell each other things the other person really doesn’t want to hear or face. Paul faced that when he had to rebuke the Galatians for straying from the Gospel: “Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?<\/em>” (Galatians 4:16).<\/p>\n Yes, it hurts me that you’ve closed me out of your life. I suspect you’ve done so because I remind you of what you left behind for drugs and because I end up making you face the reality of what you have chosen to become. The lazy way is to close off all the reminders and lie to yourself that you aren’t\u00a0that<\/em>\u00a0bad.<\/p>\n I know you are a better man than that. I hope and pray that you have the courage of David when he said, “Let the righteous strike me; it shall be a kindness. And let him rebuke me; it shall be as excellent oil; let my head not refuse it. For still my prayer is against the deeds of the wicked<\/em>” (Psalms 141:5). I tell you the truth because I sincerely love you. I won’t give up on you because I’ve seen your heart and know your love for God. Thus, I won’t accept your choice to ruin yourself with drugs because the man I know and love can leave his sins behind if he can just trust Jesus and have the courage to face the pain of returning.<\/p>\n I’m at your side in my prayers, thinking of you, and longing for your return — even when you refuse to see that I’m there.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tPrior Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSearching for My Friend\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tNext Lesson\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Have I Become Your Enemy? by Jeffrey W. Hamilton When I chose to be your friend, I knew there would be rough times. It is rare for two people to always see eye-to-eye. There have to be times when friends need to tell each other things the other person really doesn’t want to hear or…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":25976,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-65668","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":38076,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/liberty-a-study-of-galatians\/the-galatians-relationship-with-paul\/","url_meta":{"origin":65668,"position":0},"title":"The Galatians\u2019 Relationship with Paul","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 22, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"The Galatians' Relationship with Paul Galatians 4:12-20 There was a time that they admired Paul (Galatians 4:12-15) Paul wants the Galatians to become a follower of Christ, just as he is a follower (I Corinthians 11:1). He has left Judaism and its rights and in doing so, Paul has become\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8767,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/moral-principles-for-young-people\/the-wolves-within\/","url_meta":{"origin":65668,"position":1},"title":"The Wolves Within","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 31, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"The Wolves Within Author Unknown modified by Jeff Hamilton A young boy stormed into the house, angry at the injustice a schoolmate had done to him. He ran to his grandfather for sympathy and his grandfather said, \u201cLet me tell you a story. I too, at times, felt hatred for\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/wolves.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37997,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/liberty-a-study-of-galatians\/what-it-means-to-become-a-child-of-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":65668,"position":2},"title":"What It Means to Become a Child of God","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 16, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"What It Means to Become a Child of God Galatians 4:1-11 We were in bondage (Galatians 4:1-3) A child is typically considered to be a minor until he reaches a certain age. The word \"child\" in Galatians 4:1,3 refers to someone prior to puberty who is lacking in strength and\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13925,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/moral-principles-for-young-people\/the-courage-to-live\/","url_meta":{"origin":65668,"position":3},"title":"The Courage to Live","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 24, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"The Courage to Live by Lonnie Garrison It takes courage to die! But sometimes it takes more courage to live. When a Christian dies, he goes to be with Christ, which is far better. But to live day after day, year after year, with pain or difficult circumstances is another\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/CourageInBattle.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3477,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/the-revelation-given-to-john\/the-destruction-of-satan-and-his-followers\/","url_meta":{"origin":65668,"position":4},"title":"The Destruction of Satan and His Followers","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 16, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"The Destruction of Satan and His Followers Revelation 20:7-15 When we last talked about Satan, we left him bound in the abyss he originally came from. His servants, the beast (the Roman Empire), and the false prophet (the false religion of emperor worship) had been destroyed. The binding was like\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42884,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/bible-studies\/jesus-and-the-pharisees\/the-pharisees-and-personal-retaliation\/","url_meta":{"origin":65668,"position":5},"title":"The Pharisees and Personal Retaliation","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 4, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"The Pharisees and Personal Retaliation The Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5:38-42) The question has been \"Who actually honors the Law?\" The accusation that Jesus came to destroy the Law was not true. What we are seeing is how Jesus upholds the righteousness of the Law in contrast to the\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/65668\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}