Last week’s Presidential Address to Congress was a disappointment.

Shame on President Trump, who acted anything but “presidential.” With the opening lines of his speech, Trump began to taunt the Democrats. He opined that President Biden was “the worst President in American history,” a thought that didn’t need to be shared. Trump later paused to remark that no matter what he said, no Democrat would ever applaud his words. In a speech that could have pointed America toward unity in solving our common problems, the President picked a fight.

Shame on the Democrats who joined the fight! They actually planned that, meeting earlier to plot their “resistance” to Trump and his policies. Some Democrats carried signs that they held up to express their disagreement at various points in the President’s speech, and several wore t-shirts to signal their distaste for the President and his goals. Some announced their intention to walk out when they heard something they disagreed with, and they followed through on that threat. The Democrats were so determined to blunt Trump’s message that they couldn’t even bring themselves to applaud in support of a 13-year-old cancer victim.

For their part, the Republicans displayed no class. They cheered nearly every line of the speech, turning the speech into a 99-minute marathon. They reveled in their majority and the decline of the Democrats in last November’s election, victors who seemed to forget that they won’t always be.

In a Congress that desperately needs some maturity, there were no adults in the room.

Jesus has a message for the folks in Congress; the rest of us should heed it as well. “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven…” (Matthew 5:43-44, NIV). Rivals don’t always have to be treated like rivals!

Political opponents or business competitors need not be enemies. If politicians placed the good of the country above the good of party or their own political future, solutions could be found to America’s problems through cooperation and compromise. But if politicians view those on the other side of the aisle as enemies, then let them treat those “enemies” the way Jesus commanded: “Love your enemies and pray…so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

In a single term shortened by an assassin’s bullet, President Abraham Lincoln modeled this ideal. Lincoln worked with Democrats to finance the war effort, mobilize soldiers and conduct humanitarian endeavors. Lincoln talked about and planned for reconciliation with the Confederate states after the Civil War was over. President Lincoln even included some of his political rivals in his Cabinet.

The 1860 election produced three strong Republican candidates: Abraham Lincoln, William Henry Seward and Salmon P. Chase. Lincoln emerged from the Republican Convention as the nominee, despite Seward having been the strong pre-convention favorite. To build the strongest possible government heading into the War, Lincoln asked Seward to serve as Secretary of State and Chase to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. Later, when questioned about his conciliatory attitude toward his political rivals and enemies, Lincoln responded, “Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”

Author Max Lucado tells how, at the inauguration in 1861, Lincoln, dressed in formal wear for the occasion, didn’t quite know what to do with his hat while speaking. Handing it to someone would seem demeaning, but laying it on the ground would get the fancy hat dirty. One man, a close friend, saw Lincoln’s dilemma and stepped out of the crowd to take the hat from the President’s hand. That friend became one of Lincoln’s staunchest supporters during the early days of the war, even touring the South begging Southerners not to secede. Then, wearied from all the travel, he developed a fever and died three months into Lincoln’s term. Lincoln honored his friend, Stephen A. Douglas, by having the White House flag flown at half-mast.

Of course, Douglas isn’t usually remembered as Lincoln’s close friend, but rather as the opponent who defeated Lincoln in the 1858 Illinois Senate race, a contest known in history for its debates, and as the Democratic nominee for President that Lincoln had just defeated in the election.

“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?” America would be stronger if all Americans ascribed to that philosophy.