Answer: The enemies of God are alienated from God in
their minds because of their evil behavior, (verse 21).
MORE INFORMATION AND/OR OTHER SCRIPTURE REFERENCES:
Psalm 34:14-16: "Turn from evil and
do good; seek peace and pursue it. The eyes of the Lord are
on the righteous and His ears are attentive to their cry; the face
of the Lord is against those who do evil, to cut off the memory of
them from the earth."
Psalm 101:4: [God said,] "Men of
perverse heart shall be far from Me; I will have nothing to do with
evil."
Proverbs 8:13: [God said,] "To fear
the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior
and perverse speech."
Isaiah 59:1-8: [God said,] "Surely
the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor His ear too dull
to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from
your God; your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will
not hear. For your hands are stained with blood, your fingers
with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue
mutters wicked things. No one calls for justice; no one
pleads his case with integrity. They rely on empty arguments
and speak lies; they conceive trouble and
give birth to evil. They hatch the eggs of vipers and spin a
spider's web. Whoever eats their eggs will die, and when one
is broken, an adder is hatched. Their cobwebs are useless for
clothing; they cannot cover themselves with what they make.
Their deeds are evil deeds, and acts of violence are in their
hands. Their feet rush into sin; they are swift to shed
innocent blood. Their thoughts are evil thoughts; ruin and
destruction mark their ways. The way of peace they do not
know; there is no justice in their paths. They have turned
them into crooked roads; no one who walks in them will know
peace."
Jeremiah 4:22: [God said,] "My
people are fools; they do not know Me. They are senseless
children; they have no understanding. They are skilled in
doing evil; they know not how to do good."
Romans 6:11-12: "In the same way,
count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ
Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so
that you obey its evil desires."
1 Corinthians 15:25: "For He must reign
until He has put all His enemies under His feet."
Ephesians 4:22-24: "You were
taught, with regard to your former way of life, to put off your old
self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made
new in the attitude of your minds; and to put on the new self,
created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness."
Philippians 3:18-19: "For, as I
have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many
live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is
destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in
their shame. Their mind is on earthly things."
Hebrews 10:26-27: "If we
deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge
of the Truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful
expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the
enemies of God."
3 John 1:11: "Dear friend, do not
imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good
is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen
God."
