I’ve got enemies

For a long time I congratulated myself on not having any enemies. I can reluctantly accept that not everyone positively likes me, but I thought that at least I didn’t have any real enemies; there was no one I would go out of my way to hurt or who would do the same to me. I’m by disposition a pretty irenic guy; I dislike conflict and I like most people, and I want to be liked in return.

I have spent much of my intellectual life applying that irenicism to political life. I believe that we do not have to be enemies with others in our public life. Other parties, lobbies or interest groups might be our opponents (even our adversaries), but they do not have to be our enemies. We do not have to make defeating, destroying or humiliating them one of the key goals of our public action; we do not have to cultivate feelings of contempt or loathing for them. We can even be “friends” in the sense that we can recognize each other as genuinely committed to the common good, even while we disagree about what that common good consists of. A politics oriented toward the thwarting or humiliation of enemies is a terribly distorted politics.

Inevitable adversaries

But if that’s true, why does the Bible so frequently speak as if we will inevitably have enemies? Can’t we just get along with everyone? Jesus doesn’t say “if you have an enemy, then love them and pray for them”; he says “love your enemies” (Matt. 5:44) as if having an enemy goes without saying. Paul does the same in Romans 12 when he quotes Proverbs 25: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him.” The instruction is not to have no enemies; it’s “love your enemies and pray for them.”

The key to understanding the Bible’s frequent mention of enemies is found in the caveat Paul states in his call to the Roman church: “If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone” (Rom. 12: 18). It is best to conduct yourself in a way that avoids making enemies or deliberately deepens animosity. But it’s not entirely up to you whether you have enemies or not.

Pray for our enemies

There are folks in life (including public life) who will insist on treating you as an enemy, who cannot or will not participate in the dance of mutual accommodation and fair competition that sharing a world requires. If you are not their friend (or toady), you are their enemy and they will focus their energy not simply on defeating you, but on destroying, humiliating and degrading you. These kinds of folks have always existed in our public life, but they seem to have renewed energy, numbers and power these days. They make you their enemy regardless of whether you want to be. It’s not easy, but we’re called to pray for them.

Taking all this into consideration, it is clear I have enemies. I need to work with others to defeat and restrain those enemies, even while I struggle not to become like them. For this, prayer helps. Prayer shapes our hearts and our wills; that’s why the command to pray for our enemies is no less “practical” than the command to feed them.

So far as it depends on me, I’ll have as few enemies as possible. But it’s not totally up to me. I’ve got some praying to do.