yes that helps me to focus on what I think I was trying to say. First that there IS an enemy (Jesus calls him satan I think only once(?), but it's a word I really dislike using because it sounds so 'far-out'). [Interestingly enough in the Orthodox church - especially in the monasteries - there is a very strong emphasis on the idea of spiritual warfare.] Jesus does indeed say 'love thy enemy' by which he means another person who hates us rather than the 'enemy within' but I think that it is not possible to 'love the enemy' until we have learnt to identify where the real enemy actually lies which is, of course, within us: our very own selves . . . .
and so the concept of spiritual battle is very important and very real and the danger comes when we either externalise it and think that we can win our battles by fighting others or pretend that there is no battle to be fought anyway and its all spiritual hocus-pocus - which is where the 'world' - in its unspiritual way - would take us if it could.
does that make any sense?
In the past I have found this idea of 'spiritual battle' really difficult because I have not understood how such a battle can ever be won without willpower and I've never believed in 'muscular christianity' in that particular way . . . . having no willpower of my own meant that I felt such 'spiritual battles' beyond me anyway - even if they were real . . . and I still think it has its dangers . . . .