Covert Operations

“Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous;
but who is able to stand before envy?” (Prov 27:4).

It’s one thing to fight a battle when the enemy is in front of you. It’s strength against strength, you know where the enemy will attack and you’re ready for him. It’s quite another thing when the enemy wages guerilla warfare, attacking in secret and disappearing again. It’s like fighting an enemy you can’t see. You almost wish they would attack you face to face!
This proverb says a similar thing about anger and unkindness. It hurts when people blow up at you, yell at you, and say mean things to you. You feel awful when a friend tells you they don’t want to spend time with you anymore. It hurts when a person hates you with every fiber of their being and can’t say a single nice thing about you. That kind of anger and hatred is cruel and hurtful. Even worse, though, is the person who is nice to your face but jealous, bitter, and spiteful behind your back. The person who pretends to be your friend but says cruel things when you aren’t around causes almost unbearable hurt.
You can probably think about times when former friends have wronged you like that, but can you think of times when you have hurt your friends? One of the signs of our self-centeredness is we can always see people hurting us, but we are blind to how we hurt others. Think about your friends and how you treat them. Do you love them with a genuine, godly love? Or do you just use them to get what you want? Are you kind and loyal? Or do you make fun of them behind their back to get others to laugh? Are you a good friend? Or are you a scheming, selfish, unkind person? Nothing hurts more than a friend who wrongs you. Don’t be that kind of friend.