Not flesh and blood
The real enemy
Paul names the real opponent, and in doing so corrects a mistake we make constantly: our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the spiritual forces of evil. The people who frustrate and oppose and wound us are not, finally, the enemy. There is a deeper conflict behind the visible one, and we keep aiming at the wrong target.
This is one of the enemy's most useful confusions. If he can keep us treating other people as the enemy, he accomplishes two things at once: he escapes our notice entirely, and he turns us against the very people we are called to love. We exhaust our energy fighting human beings — the difficult relative, the opponent, the one who hurt us — while the real adversary works unseen behind them, delighted to watch us wound each other.
Seeing this changes the fight completely. The person in front of you, however difficult, is not the true enemy but very often another of the enemy's targets, someone to be fought for rather than against. Our weapons, Paul says, are not the weapons of the flesh, and our struggle is not with people. When you find yourself at war with a human being, look past them to the real foe — and turn your weapons, prayer chief among them, against the powers that work behind the visible.
“For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
— Paul, to the Ephesians — Ephesians 6:12 (WEB)
Look past the human enemy to the real one — refusing to treat people as the foe, and turning your weapons, prayer chief among them, against the powers behind the visible.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the throwing down of strongholds.”
We keep training our resentment on flesh and blood — the difficult relative, the rival, the person who wounded us — and so we never touch the conflict actually being waged behind them. The interior work is to raise our eyes past the human face to the real adversary, to recognize the one in front of us as more often a fellow prisoner of the dark powers than their author, and to trade attack for intercession against what is doing the wounding.
This week, take a person you have been fighting and change the target: instead of attacking or resenting them, pray for them and war in prayer against the real forces at work, treating them as someone to fight for rather than against.
The enemy could ask for nothing better than to keep you at war with people, for while you aim at flesh and blood he stays hidden and turns those who should love one another into adversaries. See the true foe and war for the person in prayer, and his concealed work is dragged into the light and opposed.
We spend enormous energy fighting the wrong enemy. The difficult person, the opponent, the one who wounded us — these become the targets of our resentment and struggle, when Paul insists our real battle is not against flesh and blood at all, but against spiritual forces working behind the visible. As long as we aim at people, the true enemy escapes our notice and accomplishes his favorite work: turning those who should love one another into adversaries.
This truth, taken seriously, transforms our conflicts. The person in front of you is not the real foe but, very often, another casualty of the same enemy — someone to be fought for, not against. Our most effective weapon shifts from attack to intercession, from wounding the human to warring, in prayer, against the powers behind them. Consider the human enemy you have been fighting, and ask whether the real battle lies somewhere behind them that you have never thought to engage.
- Have I been treating a person as the enemy rather than the real foe behind them?
- Could the one I am fighting be another casualty of the same enemy?
- What battle behind the visible have I never thought to engage in prayer?
Lord, I exhaust myself fighting flesh and blood while the real enemy works unseen and turns me against people I should love. Help me see the true foe. Let me fight for people rather than against them, and turn my weapons, especially prayer, against the powers behind the visible. Amen.