If Paul is so hateful, why does he weep for those that he calls "enemies of the cross"?

To many of us the issue might seem microscopic. All of this ventilating from Paul is about the question of whether Christians ought to require circumcision or not. "Who cares?" We might think. (And then we'd launch into a discussion based on what we've read in parenting magazines or on medical websites.) But Paul understands that those who insist on the one little requirement are actually putting a price on our salvation. In order to be saved, they say, we must obey at least this law.

Think of it this way... You are sitting in a room at the realtor's office, ready to sign all the papers for the purchase of your new house. And they slip one last form in front of you for your signature. In order to buy this house you must agree that any changes to it will be approved first by your neighbors.

Well, not a big requirement. You might have wanted their input anyway. But this invites the question, whose house is it? If you cannot change it without permission, do you really own it?

I dare say, most of us would react to such a treacherous deal with a good deal more indignation than Paul does. And in Paul's case it is not just a building, but eternal life that is at stake!

I would not weep for my opponents in a contract argument. But Paul is so distressed at these enemies of Jesus' gospel that he weeps for them, because THEY are the ones who suffer. They are the ones who lose the gift that God offers them by placing their human laws upon it.

I wonder. We seldom speak as forcefully as Paul does here. Is that because we love our neighbors more than he did? Or is it because we love them less?