Why is an enemy not a friend?
By Baldmichael Theresoluteprotector’sson
I was in a church service on Sunday and saw the word ‘enemy’ on the overhead projector and wondered where the word came from.
A few minutes thought and I realised it must be ‘non ami’ as in French meaning ‘no friend’.
I had never thought about it before as one so often accepts words and their meanings without question.
When I got home I double checked and indeed the etymology was confirmed by Wiktionary.
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/enemy
It says it is derived from Latin inimīcus, from in- (“not”) + amīcus (“friend”).
This is a common form of creating words which have the opposite meaning of another, such as non-sense and non-violent, although with ‘enemy’ the word has become somewhat corrupted, obscuring its origins.
Anyway, in the church service, I wondered how does one change an enemy to a friend. There are various passages in the Bible that address being kind to one’s enemy. As Jesus says
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbour’ and ‘Hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.”
If God the Father is kind to those who hate him, so should we.
And it is not just in the New Testament, even the Old talks of helping an enemy.
“If you see the donkey of one who hates you fallen under its load, do not leave it there; you must help him with it.” Exodus 23 v.5
You may think your enemy a complete ass but you should still help him recover his ass rather than kick it!
There are other passages you can read which say similar things, but what struck me was that to counter a negative one needs a positive. This reminded me of the verse
“For all the promises of God are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through Him, our ‘Amen’ is spoken to the glory of God.” 2 Corinthians 1 v.20
Perhaps the most important promise is that in Christ there is forgiveness for sins. As is written
“If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1 v. 9
If we do that then we can forgive others too, love others who hurt us, even our enemies and help them.
Then a ‘yes, I will’ cancels out a ‘no, I won’t’ and an enemy may then have the possibility of being a friend when the ‘in’ of ‘inamicus’ is removed, cancelled out by the love of God.
And I would certainly rather have friends than enemies.
P.S. If you should be interested in more meanings of words then TAPPER’S BAR in my World Menu of my WordPress site is a good place to start.
Fascinating connection to the Sun religions as well outlined in Lara Atwood's book 'The Ancient Religion of the Sun'. "He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good". We were always taught that these were horrible pagan religions yet now it appears that Christ really is the true Son and Sun of God and One who can live and dwell within all who welcome and receive Him! We may find quite a few 'non-amis'. Lara is quick to point out that Masonry was hi-jacked and turned into something very 'non-ami' just as the Aztecs turned the ancient solar religion to evil religions of sacrifice. Very enlightening illumination of the origin of the great megalithic sites and pyramids. History has been buried and Atlantis become but a legend!
So your enemies are... friends? Are you aware of the torturous deaths suffered at the hands of leftists, even someone who was thought of as friend?
An Anti communist mercenary was asked what it felt like to take human life, he responded, "I wouldn't know, I've only ever killed Communists....." https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ive-only-ever-killed-communists-daniel-mark-waghelstein Yeah, that's how I feel.