For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Parallel Translations
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For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
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For we wrestle not agaynst flesshe and bloud: but agaynst rule agaynst power and agaynst worldy rulars of the darckenes of this worlde agaynst spretuall wickednes for hevenly thinges.
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For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, and against the worldly gouernours, the princes of the darkenesse of this worlde, against spirituall wickednesses, which are in ye hie places.
Cross-references (23)
Passages linked to Ephesians 6:12 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Colossians 1:13 who delivered us out of the power of darkness, and translated us into the Kingdom of the Son of his love,
- 2 Corinthians 4:4 in whom the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the light of the Good News of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
- Ephesians 2:2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the children of disobedience.
- Colossians 2:15 Having stripped the principalities and the powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
- Acts 26:18 to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
- Ephesians 1:21 far above all rule, authority, power, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in that which is to come.
- Romans 8:38 For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
- 1 Corinthians 9:25-27 Every man who strives in the games exercises self-control in all things. Now they do it to receive a corruptible crown, but we an incorruptible. I therefore run like that, not aimlessly. I fight like that, not beating the air, but I beat my body and bring it into submission, lest by any means, after I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected.
- Ephesians 3:10 to the intent that now through the assembly the manifold wisdom of God might be made known to the principalities and the powers in the heavenly places,
- Ephesians 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,
- 1 Corinthians 15:50 Now I say this, brothers, that flesh and blood can’t inherit God’s Kingdom; neither does the perishable inherit imperishable.
- 1 Peter 3:22 who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him.
- John 14:30 I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me.
- Hebrews 12:1 Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
- John 12:31 Now is the judgment of this world. Now the prince of this world will be cast out.
- John 16:11 about judgment, because the prince of this world has been judged.
- Job 2:2 Yahweh said to Satan, “Where have you come from?” Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “From going back and forth in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.”
- Luke 22:53 When I was with you in the temple daily, you didn’t stretch out your hands against me. But this is your hour, and the power of darkness.”
- Matthew 16:17 Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.
- Luke 13:24 “Strive to enter in by the narrow door, for many, I tell you, will seek to enter in and will not be able.
- 2 Timothy 2:5 Also, if anyone competes in athletics, he isn’t crowned unless he has competed by the rules.
- Hebrews 12:4 You have not yet resisted to blood, striving against sin.
- Galatians 1:16 to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles, I didn’t immediately confer with flesh and blood,
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this verse (20 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 12. For we wrestle not. To impress them still…
12. For we wrestle not. To impress them still more deeply with their danger, he points out the nature of the enemy, which he illustrates by a comparative statement, Not against flesh and blood. The meaning is, that our difficulties are far greater than if we had to fight with men. There we resist human strength, sword is opposed to sword, man contends with man, force is met by force, and skill by skill; but here the case is widely different. All amounts to this, that our enemies are such as no human power can withstand. By flesh and blood the apostle denotes men, who are so denominated in order to contrast them with spiritual assailants. This is no bodily struggle.
Let us remember this when the injurious treatment of others provokes us to revenge. Our natural disposition would lead us to direct all our exertions against the men themselves; but this foolish desire will be restrained by the consideration that the men who annoy us are nothing more than darts thrown by the hand of Satan. While we are employed in destroying those darts, we lay ourselves open to be wounded on all sides. To wrestle with flesh and blood will not only be useless, but highly pernicious. We must go straight to the enemy, who attacks and wounds us from his concealment, — who slays before he appears.
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But to return to Paul. He describes our enemy as formidable, not to overwhelm us with fear, but to quicken our diligence and earnestness; for there is a middle course to be observed. When the enemy is neglected, he does his utmost to oppress us with sloth, and afterwards disarms us by terror; so that, ere the engagement has commenced, we are vanquished. By speaking of the power of the enemy, Paul labors to keep us more on the alert. He had already called him the devil, but now employs a variety of epithets, to make the reader understand that this is not an enemy who may be safely despised.
Against principalities, against powers. Still, his object in producing alarm is not to fill us with dismay, but to excite us to caution. He calls them κοσμοκράτορας, that is, princes of the world; but he explains himself more fully by adding — of the darkness of the world. The devil reigns in the world, because the world is nothing else than darkness. Hence it follows, that the corruption of the world gives way to the kingdom of the devil; for he could not reside in a pure and upright creature of God, but all arises from the sinfulness of men. By darkness, it is almost unnecessary to say, are meant unbelief and ignorance of God, with the consequences to which they lead. As the whole world is covered with darkness, the devil is called “the prince of this world.” (John 14:30.)
By calling it wickedness, he denotes the malignity and cruelty of the devil, and, at the same time, reminds us that the utmost caution is necessary to prevent him from gaining an advantage. For the same reason, the epithet spiritual is applied; for, when the enemy is invisible, our danger is greater. There is emphasis, too, in the phrase, in heavenly places; for the elevated station from which the attack is made gives us greater trouble and difficulty.
An argument drawn from this passage by the Manicheans, to support their wild notion of two principles, is easily refuted. They supposed the devil to be (ἀντίθεον) an antagonist deity, whom the righteous God would not subdue without great exertion. For Paul does not ascribe to devils a principality, which they seize without the consent, and maintain in spite of the opposition, of the Divine Being, — but a principality which, as Scripture everywhere asserts, God, in righteous judgment, yields to them over the wicked. The inquiry is, not what power they have in opposition to God, but how far they ought to excite our alarm, and keep us on our guard. Nor is any countenance here given to the belief, that the devil has formed, and keeps for himself, the middle region of the air. Paul does not assign to them a fixed territory, which they can call their own, but merely intimates that they are engaged in hostility, and occupy an elevated station.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Secondly he declareth that our chiefest and mightiest enemies…
Secondly he declareth that our chiefest and mightiest enemies are invisible, that we may not think that our chiefest conflict is with men.
Against men, which are of a frail and brittle nature, against which are set spiritual subtleties, more mighty than the other by a thousand parts.
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He giveth these names to the evil angels, reason of the effects which they work: not that they are able to do the same of themselves, but because God giveth them the bridle.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain 12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,…
12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Ver. 12. Not against flesh and blood] Hereby the apostle meaneth not so much the corruption as the weakness of our natures, q.d. We have not only to conflict with weak, frail men, but with puissant devils. Look to it therefore, and lie open at no place; but get on every piece of this spiritual armour, whether those of defence (as the girdle of truth, breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of peace and patience, the helmet of hope), or those of offence, as the sword of the Spirit, and the darts of prayer. Fetch all these out of the Holy Scriptures, which are like Solomon’s tower, where hang a thousand shields and all the weapons of strong men. The apostle here soundeth the alarm, crying, Arm, arm, &c.
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But against principalities] So wicked men make the devils, by being at their beck and obedience. Observe here, saith an interpreter, in the Holy Ghost a wonderful pattern of candour: he praiseth what is praiseworthy in very enemies. How then shall not the saints be accepted and acknowledged, since they sin not of malicious wickedness, as devils do?
Against spiritual wickedness] Gr. πνευματικα της πονηριας, The spirituals of wickedness, those hellish plots and satanical suggestions, black and blasphemous temptations, horrid and hideous injections, &c. Whereby he seeks to dispirit and defeat us, by setting before us the difficulties of Christian warfare; like as some inhospitable savages make fearful delusions by sorcery upon their shore, to fright strangers from landing.
In high places] εν τοις επουρανιοις, or, about our interest in those heavenly privileges, which the devil would wring from us, and rob us of. He strove with the angel about the body of Moses; but with us about our precious souls. And herein he hath the advantage, that he is above us, and doth out of the air assault us, being upon the upper ground, as it were.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain We wrestle not; not only, or not principally.
We wrestle not; not only, or not principally.
Against flesh and blood; men, consisting of flesh and blood, Mat 16:17; Gal 1:16.
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But against principalities, against powers; devils, Col 2:15; see Eph 1:21.
Against the rulers of the darkness of this world; either that rule in the dark air, where God permits them to be for the punishment of men; see Eph 2:2; or rather, that rule in the dark places of the earth, the dark minds of men, and have their rule over them by reason of the darkness that is in them; in which respect the devil is called the god of this world, 2Co 4:4, and the prince of it, Joh 14:30. So that the dark world here seems to be opposed to children of light, Eph 5:8.
Against spiritual wickedness; either wicked spirits, or, emphatically, spiritual wickednesses, for wickedncsses of the highest kind; implying the intenseness of wickedness in those angelical substances, which are so much the more wicked, by how much the more excellent in themselves their natures are.
In high places; or heavenly, taking heaven for the whole expansum, or spreading out of the air, between the earth and the stars, the air being the place from whence the devils assault us, as Eph 2:2. Or rather, in for about heavenly places or things, in the same sense as the word rendered heavenly is taken four times before in this Epistle, Eph 1:3,20; 2:6; 3:10; being in none of them taken for the air; and then the sense must be, that we wrestle about heavenly places or things, not with flesh and blood, but with principalities, with powers, &c.
Objection. The Greek preposition will not bear this construction.
Answer. Let Chrysostom and other Greeks answer for that. They understood their language best, and they give this interpretation.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain The apostle mentioned our enemy in the former verse;…
The apostle mentioned our enemy in the former verse; here he describes the combat in this verse, We wrestle. A Christian’s life is a perpetual warfare, a continual wrestling; but with what, and with whom?
Ans. Negatively, Not with flesh and blood; that is, not only or chiefly with flesh and blood, with human enemies; but we must grapple and contend with angelical powers, with devils, who are principalities and powers, & c.
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Here note, How the devil and his angels are described:
1. By their prince-like authority and government which they exercise in the world, called therefore principalities and powers, to denote that Satan is a great and mighty prince: a prince that has the heart and knee of all his subjects.
2. By the seat of his empire: he rules in this world, not in the other; the highest the devil can go, is the air; heaven fears him not. And he is a ruler of the darkness of this world: that is, in such sinners as labour under the darkness of sin and ignorance.
3. Satan and his angels are here described by their spiritual nature, called spiritual wickedness, that is, wicked spirits: intimating to us, that the devils are spirits; that they are spirits extremely wicked; and that these wicked spirits do chiefly annoy Christians with, and provoke them to, spiritual wickedness.
4. They are described by their residence or place of abode: in high places; that is, in the air, of which he is called the prince.
From the whole note, How plainly Christ our captain deals with all his soldiers, and the difference between Christ’s dealing with his followers, and Satan with his: Satan durst not let sinners know who that God is whom they fight against, but Christ is not afraid to show his saints their enemy in all his power and strength; well he might, because the weakness of God is stronger than the powers of hell.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,.... The…
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood,.... The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, and some copies, read "you", instead of "we". This is a reason why saints should be strong in the Lord, and why they should put on the whole armour of God, and prepare for battle, since their enemies are such as here described: not "flesh and blood"; frail mortal men, such as were wrestled against in the Olympic games, to which the apostle alludes. For this wrestling, as Philo the Jew says (e), concerning Jacob's wrestling, is not of the body, but of the soul; see Mat 16:17; and the meaning is, not with men only, for otherwise the saints have a conflict with men; with profane men, and wrestle against them, by bearing a testimony against their enormities, and by patiently enduring their reproaches, and conquer them by a constant adherence to Christ, and an exercise of faith upon him, which gets the victory over the world; and with heretical men, and maintain a conflict with them, by watching and observing the first appearance of their errors and heresies, and declaring against them, and by using Scripture arguments to confute them, and by rejecting the stubborn and incorrigible from church communion: yet they wrestle not against these only,
but against principalities, against powers; by whom are meant not civil magistrates, or the Roman governors, though these are sometimes so called, Tit 3:1, and may be said to be the rulers of the darkness of this world, or of the dark Heathen world, and were in high places, and were of wicked and malicious spirits, against the people of Christ; yet these cannot be opposed to flesh and blood, or to men, since they were such themselves; and though they were in high, yet not in heavenly places; and the connection with the preceding verse shows the contrary, the enemy being the devil, and the armour spiritual; wherefore the devils are here designed, who are described from their power, rule, and government; see Gill on Eph 1:21, both in this clause, and in the next:
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and against the rulers of the darkness of this world; that is, over wicked men in it, who are in a state of darkness itself; and so Satan is called the prince, and god of the world, Joh 12:31. The Jews use this very word, the apostle does here, of the angel of death; who is called darkness (f); and the devil is called by them, , "the prince of darkness" (g); and mention is made by them of , "the darkness of the world" (h); from whom the apostle seems to have taken these phrases, as being in common use among the Jews; who also use it of civil governors (i), and render it, as here, "the rulers of the world", and say it signifies monarchs, such as rule from one end of the world to the other (k): some copies, and the Ethiopic version, leave out the phrase, of this world. It follows,
against spiritual wickedness in high places; or wicked spirits, as the devils are, unclean, proud, lying, deceitful, and malicious; who may be said to be in "high" or "heavenly places"; not in places super celestial, or in the highest heavens, in the third heaven, where God, angels, and saints are; but in the aerial heavens, where the power or posse of devils reside, and where they are above us, over our heads, overlooking us, and watching every advantage against us; and therefore we should have on our armour, and be in a readiness to engage them; and so the Syriac and Ethiopic versions render it, "under", or "beneath heaven"; and the Arabic version, "in the air".
(e) Leg. Allegor. l. 2. p. 96, (f) Vajikra Rabba, sect. 18. fol. 160. 1. & Shirhashirim Rabba, fol. 25. 4. (g) Pesikta in Kettoreth Hassammim in Targum in Gen. fol. 9. 4. Raziel, fol. 13. 1. (h) Zohar in Lev. fol. 19. 3. (i) Bereshit Rabba, sect. 58. fol. 51. 2. (k) Tanchuma & Aruch in Guidon. Diet. Syr. Chal. p. 169.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain For our wrestling is not only, not chiefly, against…
For our wrestling is not only, not chiefly, against flesh and blood - Weak men, or fleshly appetites. But against principalities, against powers - The mighty princes of all the infernal legions. And great is their power, and that likewise of those legions whom they command. Against the rulers of the world - Perhaps these principalities and powers remain mostly in the citadel of their kingdom of darkness. But there are other evil spirits who range abroad, to whom the provinces of the world are committed. Of the darkness - This is chiefly spiritual darkness. Of this age - Which prevails during the present state of things. Against wicked spirits - Who continually oppose faith, love, holiness, either by force or fraud; and labour to infuse unbelief, pride, idolatry malice, envy, anger, hatred. In heavenly places - Which were once their abode, and which they still aspire to, as far as they are permitted.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and…
Verse 12. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood] Ουκ εστιν ἡμιν ἡ παλη προς αἱμα και σαρκα· Our wrestling or contention is not with men like ourselves: flesh and blood is a Hebraism for men, or human beings. See Clarke on Ga 1:16.
The word παλη implies the athletic exercises in the Olympic and other national games; and παλαιστρα was the place in which the contenders exercised. Here it signifies warfare in general.
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Against principalities] αρχας. Chief rulers; beings of the first rank and order in their own kingdom.
Powers] εξουσιας, Authorities, derived from, and constituted by the above.
The rulers of the darkness of this world] Τους κοσμοκρατορας του σκοτους του αιωνος τουτου· The rulers of the world; the emperors of the darkness of this state of things.
Spiritual wickedness] Τα πνευματικα της πονηριας· The spiritual things of wickedness; or, the spiritualities of wickedness; highly refined and sublimed evil; disguised falsehood in the garb of truth; Antinomianism in the guise of religion.
In high places.] Εν τοις επουρανιοις· In the most sublime stations. But who are these of whom the apostle speaks? Schoettgen contends that the rabbins and Jewish rulers are intended. This he thinks proved by the words τουαιωνοςτουτου, of this world, which are often used to designate the Old Testament, and the Jewish system; and the words εντοις επουρανιοις, in heavenly places, which are not unfrequently used to signify the time of the NEW TESTAMENT, and the Gospel system.
By the spiritual wickedness in heavenly places, he thinks false teachers, who endeavoured to corrupt Christianity, are meant; such as those mentioned by St. John, 1Jo 2:19: They went out from us, but they were not of us, c. And he thinks the meaning may be extended to all corrupters of Christianity in all succeeding ages. He shows also that the Jews called their own city שר של עולם sar shel olam, κοσμοκρατωρ, the ruler of the world and proves that David's words, Ps 2:2, The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, are applied by the apostles, Ac 4:26, to the Jewish rulers, αρχοντες, who persecuted Peter and John for preaching Christ crucified. But commentators in general are not of this mind, but think that by principalities, c., we are to understand different orders of evil spirits, who are all employed under the devil, their great head, to prevent the spread of the Gospel in the world, and to destroy the souls of mankind.
The spiritual wickedness are supposed to be the angels which kept not their first estate who fell from the heavenly places but are ever longing after and striving to regain them; and which have their station in the regions of the air. "Perhaps," says Mr. Wesley, "the principalities and powers remain mostly in the citadel of their kingdom of darkness; but there are other spirits which range abroad, to whom the provinces of the world are committed; the darkness is chiefly spiritual darkness which prevails during the present state of things, and the wicked spirits are those which continually oppose faith, love, and holiness, either by force or fraud; and labour to infuse unbelief, pride, idolatry, malice, envy, anger, and hatred." Some translate the words εντοιςεπουρανιοις, about heavenly things; that is: We contend with these fallen spirits for the heavenly things which are promised to us; and we strive against them, that we may not be deprived of those we have.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Eph 6:12. For we wrestle not — Greek, ουκ…
Eph 6:12. For we wrestle not — Greek, ουκ εστιν ημιν η παλη, our struggle is not; against flesh and blood — Not merely against human adversaries, however powerful, subtle, and cruel, nor against fleshly appetites; but against principalities, against powers — The mighty princes of all the infernal legions: and great is their power, and that likewise of the legions which they command. Against the rulers of the darkness of this world — Greek, προς τους κοσμοκρατορας του σκοτους, του αιωνος τουτου, against the rulers of the world, of the darkness of this age. Dr. Whitby explains this of “those evil spirits that ruled in the heathen nations which were yet in darkness,” and of “those that had their stations in the region of the air.” “Perhaps,” says Mr. Wesley, “these principalities and powers” (spoken of in the former clause) “remain mostly in the citadel of the kingdom of darkness; but there are other evil spirits who range abroad, to whom the provinces of the world are committed.” By the darkness of this age, that spiritual darkness is intended, which prevails during the present state of things. “Evil spirits,” Macknight thinks, “are called rulers of this world, because the dominion which, by the permission of God, they exercise, is limited to the darkness of this world; that is, this world darkened by ignorance, wickedness, and misery, and which is the habitation or prison assigned them, until the judgment of the great day, Jude, Eph 6:6.” Against spiritual wickedness — Or rather, wicked spirits, as the Syriac translates the expression. The word πονηρια, rendered wickedness, properly signifies malice joined with cunning, and is fitly mentioned as the characteristic of those wicked spirits with whom we are at war; and it is a quality so much the more dangerous, in that it exists in beings whose natural faculties are very great. And it must be observed, that they continually oppose faith, love, holiness, either by force or fraud, and labour to infuse unbelief, pride, idolatry, malice, envy, anger, hatred. In high places — Greek, εν τοις επουρανιοις, in, or about, heavenly places. Those who translate it in the former way, think the expression refers to those places where they rebelled against the God of heaven, and drew in multitudes who were before holy and happy spirits, to take part with them in their impious revolt. But it seems more probable the sense is, about heavenly places; namely, the places which were once the abodes of those spirits, and which they still aspire to, as far as they are permitted; labouring at the same time to prevent our obtaining them. Dr. Goodwin, however, thinks that not heavenly places, but heavenly things are intended; namely, spiritual and eternal blessings, about which we may be properly said to wrestle with them, while we endeavour to secure these blessings to ourselves, and they to hinder us from attaining them.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain For we wrestle - Greek, “The wrestling to us;”…
For we wrestle - Greek, “The wrestling to us;” or, “There is not to us a wrestling with flesh and blood.” There is undoubtedly here an allusion to the ancient games of Greece, a part of the exercises in which consisted in wrestling; see the notes on 1Co 9:25-27. The Greek word used here - πάλη palē - denotes a “wrestling;” and then a struggle, fight, combat. Here it refers to the struggle or combat which the Christian has to maintain - the Christian warfare.
Not against flesh and blood - Not with people; see the notes on Gal 1:16. The apostle does not mean to say that Christians had no enemies among men that opposed them, for they were exposed often to fiery persecution; nor that they had nothing to contend with in the carnal and corrupt propensities of their nature, which was true of them then as it is now; but that their main controversy was with the invisible spirits of wickedness that sought to destroy them. They were the source and origin of all their spiritual conflicts, and with them the warfare was to be maintained.
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But against principalities - There can be no doubt whatever that the apostle alludes here to evil spirits. Like good angels, they were regarded as divided into ranks and orders, and were supposed to be under the control of one mighty leader; see the notes on Eph 1:21. It is probable that the allusion here is to the ranks and orders which they sustained before their fall, something like which they may still retain. The word “principalities” refers to principal rulers, or chieftains.
Powers - Those who had power, or to whom the name of “powers” was given. Milton represents Satan as addressing the fallen angels in similar language:
“Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.”
Against the rulers of the darkness of this world - The rulers that preside over the regions of ignorance and sin with which the earth abounds, compare notes on Eph 2:2. “Darkness” is an emblem of ignorance, misery, and sin; and no description could be more accurate than that of representing these malignant spirits as ruling over a dark world. The earth - dark, and wretched and ignorant, and sinful - is just such a dominion as they would choose, or as they would cause; and the degradation and woe of the pagan world are just such as foul and malignant spirits would delight in. It is a wide and a powerful empire. It has been consolidated by ages. It is sustained by all the authority of law; by all the omnipotence of the perverted religious principle; by all the reverence for antiquity; by all the power of selfish, corrupt, and base passions. No empire has been so extended, or has continued so long, as that empire of darkness; and nothing on earth is so difficult to destroy.
Yet the apostle says that it was on that kingdom they were to make war. Against that, the kingdom of the Redeemer was to be set up; and that was to be overcome by the spiritual weapons which he specifies. When he speaks of the Christian warfare here, he refers to the contest with the powers of this dark kingdom. He regards each and every Christian as a soldier to wage war on it in whatever way he could, and wherever he could attack it. The contest therefore was not primarily with people, or with the internal corrupt propensities of the soul; it was with this vast and dark kingdom that had been set up over mankind. I do not regard this passage, therefore, as having a primary reference to the struggle which a Christian maintains with his own corrupt propensities. It is a warfare on a large scale with the entire kingdom of darkness over the world. Yet in maintaining the warfare, the struggle will be with such portions of that kingdom as we come in contact with and will actually relate:
(1)To our own sinful propensities - which are a part of the kingdom of darkness;
(2)With the evil passions of others - their pride, ambition, and spirit of revenge - which are also a part of that kingdom;
(3)With the evil customs, laws, opinions, employments, pleasures of the world - which are also a part of that dark kingdom;
(4)With error, superstition, false doctrine - which are also a part of that kingdom; and,
(5)With the wickedness of the pagan world - the sins of benighted nations - also a part of that kingdom. Wherever we come in contact with evil - whether in our own hearts or elsewhere - there we are to make war.
Against spiritual wickedness - Margin, “or wicked spirits.” Literally, “The spiritual things of wickedness;” but the allusion is undoubtedly to evil spirits, and to their influences on earth.
In high places - ἐν τοῖς ἐπουράνιοις - “in celestial or heavenly places.” The same phrase occurs in Eph 1:3; Eph 2:6, where it is translated, “in heavenly places.” The word (ἐπουράνιος epouranios) is used of those that dwell in heaven, Mat 18:35; Phi 2:10; of those who come from heaven, 1Co 15:48; Phi 3:21; of the heavenly bodies, the sun, moon, and stars, 1Co 15:40. Then the neuter plural of the word is used to denote the heavens; and then the “lower” heavens, the sky, the air, represented as the seat of evil spirits; see the notes on Eph 2:2. This is the allusion here. The evil spirits are supposed to occupy the lofty regions of the air, and thence to exert a baleful influence on the affairs of man. What was the origin of this opinion it is not needful here to inquire. No one can “prove,” however, that it is incorrect. It is against such spirits, and all their malignant influences, that Christians are called to contend. In whatever way their power is put forth - whether in the prevalence of vice and error; of superstition and magic arts; of infidelity, atheism, or antinomianism; of evil customs and laws; of pernicious fashions and opinions, or in the corruptions of our own hearts, we are to make war on all these forms of evil, and never to yield in the conflict.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Flesh and blood, which may either signify temptations of…
Flesh and blood, which may either signify temptations of the flesh, or raised by mortal men. --- Principalities and powers; i.e. devils, or apostate angels, who before their fall were in such ranks of spirits, and who are permitted to rule over the wicked in this world of darkness. (Witham) --- By which we are to understand the fallen angels. For as by nature, and from their creation, they were the governors of this corporeal world, and were deprived of this their power on account of their pride, they received it (though limited by certain restrictions) in order to tempt man. (Estius) --- Rulers of the world of this darkness. By these are meant the devils who exercise their power and authority in our inferior and dark atmosphere, by raising winds, storms, tempests, &c. By darkness may be understood the wicked, in whom Satan reigns as in a citadel. (Menochius) --- Our inferior world is called dark and misty in comparison of the world above, which is always bright, serene, and clear. Our atmosphere is called the cloudy and dark heavenly. Cicero, in his Tuscul Quæst. Prudentius likewise, in Hamartigenia, writes thus: Non mentem sua membra premunt, nec terrea virtus
Oppugnat sensus liquidos, bellove lacessit;
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Sed cum spiritibus tenebrosis nocte deique
Congredimur quorum dominatibus humidus iste
Et pigris densus nebulis obtemperat aer.
Scilicet hoc medium cœlum inter et infima terræ
Quod patet ac vacuo nubes suspendit hiatu,
Frena potestatum variarum sustinet, ac suo
Principe Belial rectoribus horret iniquis.
His colluctamur prædoribus, at sacra nobis
Oris Apostoli testis sententia prodit. ------ (Estius)
--- Against the spirits of wickedness: or wicked spirits in the air, says St. Jerome. Literally, in celestials. (Witham) --- High places. That is to say, in the air, the lowest of the celestial regions in which God permits these wicked spirits or fallen angels to wander. (Challoner)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain Greek, "For our wrestling ('the wrestling' in which we…
Greek, "For our wrestling ('the wrestling' in which we are engaged) is not against flesh," &c. Flesh and blood foes are Satan's mere tools, the real foe lurking behind them is Satan himself, with whom our conflict is. "Wrestling" implies that it is a hand-to-hand and foot-to-foot struggle for the mastery: to wrestle successfully with Satan, we must wrestle with GOD in irresistible prayer like Jacob (Gen 32:24-29; Hos 12:4). Translate, "The principalities . . . the powers" (Eph 1:21; Col 1:16; see on Eph 3:10). The same grades of powers are specified in the case of the demons here, as in that of angels there (compare Rom 8:38; Co1 15:24; Col 2:15). The Ephesians had practiced sorcery (Act 19:19), so that he appropriately treats of evil spirits in addressing them. The more clearly any book of Scripture, as this, treats of the economy of the kingdom of light, the more clearly does it set forth the kingdom of darkness. Hence, nowhere does the satanic kingdom come more clearly into view than in the Gospels which treat of Christ, the true Light.
rulers of the darkness of this world--Greek, "age" or "course of the world." But the oldest manuscripts omit "of world." Translate, "Against the world rulers of this (present) darkness" (Eph 2:2; Eph 5:8; Luk 22:53; Col 1:13). On Satan and his demons being "world rulers," compare Joh 12:31; Joh 14:30; Joh 16:11; Luk 4:6; Co2 4:4; Jo1 5:19, Greek, "lieth in the wicked one." Though they be "world rulers," they are not the ruler of the universe; and their usurped rule of the world is soon to cease, when He shall "come whose right it is" (Eze 21:27). Two cases prove Satan not to be a mere subjective fancy: (1) Christ's temptation; (2) the entrance of demons into the swine (for these are incapable of such fancies). Satan tries to parody, or imitate in a perverted way, God's working (Co2 11:13-14). So when God became incarnate, Satan, by his demons, took forcible possession of human bodies. Thus the demoniacally possessed were not peculiarly wicked, but miserable, and so fit subjects for Jesus' pity. Paul makes no mention of demoniacal possession, so that in the time he wrote, it seems to have ceased; it probably was restricted to the period of the Lord's incarnation, and of the foundation of His Church.
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spiritual wickedness--rather as Greek, "The spiritual hosts of wickedness." As three of the clauses describe the power, so this fourth, the wickedness of our spiritual foes (Mat 12:45).
in high places--Greek, "heavenly places": in Eph 2:2, "the air," see on Eph 2:2. The alteration of expression to "in heavenly places," is in order to mark the higher range of their powers than ours, they having been, up to the ascension (Rev 12:5, Rev 12:9-10), dwellers "in the heavenly places" (Job 1:7), and being now in the regions of the air which are called the heavens. Moreover, pride and presumption are the sins in heavenly places to which they tempt especially, being those by which they themselves fell from heavenly places (Isa 14:12-15). But believers have naught to fear, being "blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places" (Eph 1:3).
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 12. Wrestle—The wrestle is to us. But as the…
12. Wrestle—The wrestle is to us. But as the wrestle requires no armour, St. Paul uses the word in the more extended sense of struggle.
Flesh and blood—Of which human bodies are composed, and which metal weapons mar and destroy. The real battle is super-earthly, in which men are the prizes of the victor, Christ or Satan. And St. Paul, in this picture of the war, looks upon men not as the true enemies, but as the proper objects, of salvation. The wrestle is not with physical bodies any more than with material weapons.
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Principalities—The same terms as in Rom_8:38; there applied to the holy dominances, here designating their unholy adversaries.
Rulers… of this world—A single powerful term, κοσμοκρατορας, cosmocrators, (the English language has not naturalized cosmocrat as it has democrat and autocrat,) world-rulers. The Rabbies adopted the expressive Greek word in Hebrew characters and said: “Three kings were cosmocrators, ruling the world from one extremity to the other, Nebuchadnezzar, Evilmerodach, and Belshazzar.” And as this wrestle is not with men, but with higher powers in whose hands men are but mere instruments, so these cosmocrators are diabolic powers, extending their infernal power over our world.
Rulers of the darkness of this world— The true reading unquestionably is, The world-rulers of this darkness. The term cosmocrators expresses the extent of their rule, and the phrase this darkness, the limitation of their territory and the moral nature of their realm. This darkness need not be rendered this “state of darkness” with Afford; but, if we mistake not, it is Paul’s appellation, simple and literal, for this world, just as in Eph_5:8, the unregenerate world is called darkness. There may be many darknesses in the universe of worlds; and our own world is this darkness overruled by its own world-rulers.
Spiritual wickedness—Literally, The spiritual (the word being a plural adjective, requiring a plural substantive to be supplied) of wickedness. As the substantive after spiritual Alford supplies “armies,” Braune “hosts.” As comprehending these and more we should rather propose forces, the spiritual forces of wickedness.
High places—The word high is an unsuitable rendering for the same word as is rendered heavenly in Eph_1:3, where see note, and notes on Eph_2:2; Eph_2:6, and 2Co_12:2-4. High here signifies super-earthly or supernal; and here specifically intends that region in the supernal in which the spirits of good and the spirits of evil have their range. St. Paul uses the very generic Greek word rendered by us supernal, to include, specifically, either the “third heaven,” as in Eph_2:6, or the “aerial heaven,” (the air, of Eph_2:2,) as here; just as a European might, under the generic term America, specifically intend what takes place either in New York or New Orleans.
Paul’s terse description in this verse of the entire hostile array may therefore be rendered, principalities, powers, the world-rulers of this darkness, the spiritual forces of evil in the aerial regions.
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Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 12. we wrestle] Lit., our wrestling is. War and…
12. we wrestle] Lit., our wrestling is. War and the games are associated in the language of 2Ti_2:4-5. But here, as Ellicott observes, there need be no mingling of metaphors. War involves wrestling, in many a hand to hand encounter.—The Gr. word (palê, wrestling) is found only here in Gr. literature, but is cognate to palæstra, and other familiar words.
The Apostle takes it for granted that the Christian life is, from one point of view, essentially a conflict. “We” obviously, by context, means all Christians as such. Cp. 1Co_9:25, &c. But it is a conflict maintained, in Christ, with Divine power and from a dominating position.
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flesh and blood] Lit., “blood and flesh”; but English usage makes the other order better, as a rendering. The phrase occurs (in the opposite order of words) Mat_16:17; 1Co_15:50; Gal_1:16; Heb_2:14. It denotes (as 1 Corinthians 15) humanity in its present mortal conditions, or (other reff.) humanity simply. “Man,” as now constituted, will not inherit the eternal kingdom; “man” did not illuminate St Peter; “man” did not teach the Gospel to St Paul; Christ so became “Man” as to be able to taste death. The thought here is not that we are not wrestling with our bodily desires, or weaknesses, but that we are not wrestling with mere mortal men. True, they may be our ostensible and immediate enemies or obstacles, but behind them is the central force of evil in the spirit-world. See the language of Rev_2:10, and Abp Trench’s note upon it (Epistles to the Seven Churches, p. 104). It will be observed how forcible is the testimony of the Apostle here to the objective existence of the world of evil spirits. He not merely takes it for granted, but carefully distinguishes it from the world of humanity. See further, Appendix G.
principalities … powers] Lit., the principalities, &c. See Eph_1:21, Eph_3:10; and notes. Here, as Rom_8:38; Col_2:15; the ref. obviously is to personal evil spirits as members and leaders of an organized spirit-world. For allusions to such organization, under its head, cp. the visions of the Revelation, esp. Rev_12:7; Rev_12:9. And cp. Mat_25:41; 2Co_12:7. Note also the “Legion” of evil spirits (Mar_5:9; Mar_5:15; Luk_8:30), compared with the “more than twelve Legions of (holy) angels”, Mat_26:53. Great numbers and organized action are at once suggested by the military word; a word used on both occasions with profound earnestness and appeal to fact.
The leaders of the host of evil are alone mentioned here, and in the parallels, as are the leaders of the host of good in Eph_1:21, &c. The “plebeian angels militant” (Par. Lost, x. 442), are taken for granted, represented in their chiefs.
the rulers of the darkness of this world] Lit. as R. V., the world-rulers of this darkness. The words “of this world” (or rather “age”) are probably an explanatory insertion.
“This darkness” is the present order of things on earth, in its aspect as a scene of sin. As such it is dark, with the shadows of delusion, woe, and death. See Luk_22:53 (a suggestive parallel) and other reff. under Eph_4:18.
“The world-rulers”:—the context obviously points to personal evil spirits, exercising rule, in some real sense, over the world; and the question is, what does the world (cosmos) mean here? See in reply Eph_2:2 and note. “The world” here, as very often in St John, and often in St Paul (esp. in 1 Cor.), denotes not the Universe, nor the earth and sea, but humanity as fallen and rebel. As such, it is the realm of these powers of evil. Their Head is the usurping, but permitted, Cæsar of this empire, which is not so much local as moral; and his subordinate spirits are accordingly “imperial rulers” within it, for him.—The Gr. word (cosmocratôr) appears in Rabbinic literature, transliterated (see Ellicott here). It is used sometimes there as a mere magniloquent synonym for “king.” But we may be sure of a more special meaning in a passage like this.
For allusions to the mysterious “authority” of the Evil Power over the human “world,” in its ethical aspect at least, cp. Luk_4:6; Joh_14:30; Joh_16:11; 2Co_4:4; 1Jn_5:18. It has been asked whether this authority is connected with a previous lawful presidency of the great Spirit now fallen, over this region of the Universe. But “God knoweth” is the best answer to such enquiries, till the veil is lifted. The fact of the present authority is our chief concern; and in this respect we are plainly warned that there is a real antagonism between the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of the Evil One, and that in both cases we have the phenomenon of a spiritual dominion expressing itself through human organization and institution. See further on Eph_2:2, above.
spiritual wickedness in high places] Lit., the spiritual things of wickedness in the heavenly places. R.V. paraphrases “the spiritual hosts, &c.”; and this well gives the meaning. The idea is of beings and forces, spiritual as distinguished from material, belonging to and working for “wickedness.” Wickedness is viewed as having its visible and invisible agents, and these are the invisible.
“In the heavenly places”:—the fifth occurrence of the phrase in this Epistle (cp. Eph_1:3; Eph_1:20, Eph_2:6, Eph_3:10). The adjective occurs also Mat_18:35; Joh_3:12; 1Co_15:40; 1Co_15:48-49; Php_2:10; 2Ti_4:18; Heb_3:1; Heb_6:4; Heb_8:5; Heb_9:23; Heb_11:16; Heb_12:22. The connexion of it with anything evil is confined to this passage, and is confessedly startling. Of the several expositions offered, the oldest, given by St Jerome here, seems best to meet the case; that which interprets “heaven” as the large antithesis to “earth” (cp. Mat_6:26, “birds of the heaven”; &c.), and “heavenly,” accordingly, as “un-earthly,” super-terrestrial, belonging to the region of things unseen and (in power) superior to man, of which the impalpable sky is the parable. See above on Eph_2:2, “the authority of the air.” The import of the words, then, is that we have to deal, in the combat of the soul and of the Church, with spiritual agents of evil occupying a sphere of action invisible and practically boundless.—In St Ignatius’ Ep. to the Ephesians, c. xiii, the same Gr. adjective is used, with an almost certainly similar reference. See Bp Lightfoot there (Ignatius, vol. ii. p. 66), and our Introduction, p. 28.
G. THE CONFLICT WITH PERSONAL EVIL SPIRITS. (Ch. Eph_6:12.)
We have remarked in the notes on the strong testimony given by this verse, with its exact wording, to the real and objective existence of such personal beings. We may add that such testimony still gains in strength when it is remembered that it was first addressed (at least among other destinations) to Ephesus, and that Ephesus (see Acts 19) was a peculiarly active scene of asserted magical and other dealings with the unseen darkness. Supposing that the right line to take in dealing with such beliefs and practices had been to say that the whole basis of them was a fiction of the human mind, not only would such a verse as this not have been written, but, we may well assume, something would have been written strongly contradictory to the thought of it. As it stands, the passage is in full accord with main lines of Scripture doctrine, in both Testaments.
H. OLD TESTAMENT QUOTATIONS AND REFERENCES IN THE EPISTLE
Genesis
Gen_2:24,
quoted
Eph.
Eph_5:31.
Exodus
Exo_20:12,
quoted
Eph.
Eph_6:2.
Psalm
Psa_4:4,
quoted
Eph.
Eph_4:26
(see note).
Psalm
Psa_8:6,
referred to
Eph.
Eph_1:22.
Psalm
Psa_68:18,
quoted
Eph.
Eph_4:8.
Psalm
Psa_118:22,
referred to
Eph.
Eph_2:20.
Canticles
Psa_4:7,
referred to
Eph.
Eph_5:27
(possibly).
Isaiah
Isa_57:19,
referred to
Eph.
Eph_2:17.
Isaiah
Isa_60:1,
quoted
Eph.
Eph_5:14;
with probable recognition also of Isa_51:17; Isa_52:1 (see note).
In view of the fact that the Church addressed in the Epistle is a Church of Gentile converts, these quotations and allusions illustrate instructively the degree to which the Apostle took it for granted that all his converts would study the Old Testament as the Word of God.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (12) For we wrestle.—Properly, For our wrestling is. That…
(12) For we wrestle.—Properly, For our wrestling is. That there is a struggle, a “battle of life,” must be assumed at once by all who look at the world as it is; the question is whether it is against flesh and blood, or against a more unearthly power of evil.
Flesh and blood.—Or rather (as perhaps also in Heb_2:14), blood and flesh. So in Joh_1:13, “Not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh.” In Mat_16:17, 1Co_15:50, we have “flesh and blood.” The sense is clearly, as the comparison of all these passages shows, “mere human power.” Possibly the word “blood” is here put first to prevent even a moment’s confusion with the idea of wrestling against “the flesh” as an evil power within ourselves. In many passages of this Epistle St. Paul had dwelt on the opposition of the Christian to the heathen life, and the duty of rebuking and putting to shame the works of darkness; but here he warns us that the struggle is not a struggle with the “flesh and blood” of wicked men—a struggle which may still admit of some reserve of sympathy—but a truceless war with the spiritual powers of evil themselves.
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Against principalities, against powers.—See Note on Eph_1:21.
Against the rulers . . .—“Principalities” and “powers” describe simply angelic powers, whether of good or evil. But in the following clauses St. Paul defines them as powers of evil, and appears to indicate two different aspects of this evil power. The original phrase is striking and powerful, “against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual powers of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
The rulers of the darkness.—Properly, the world-rulers of this darkness. This phrase is simply a poetical expression of the idea conveyed by the title “the prince of this world,” applied to Satan in Joh_12:31; Joh_14:30; Joh_16:11 (on which see Notes). For “this darkness” is obviously (as our version renders it, following an early gloss on the passage) “the darkness of this present world,” as a world overshadowed by sin, and so kept, wholly or partially, from the light of God. The title “the prince of this world,” was applied by the Jews to Satan, especially in reference to his power over the heathen, as lying outside the safety of the covenant. St. Paul applies it in a corresponding sense here to those outside the wider covenant of the gospel; just as in 1Co_5:5, 1Ti_1:20, he speaks of excommunication from the Church as a “delivery to Satan.” The spirits of evil are therefore spoken of as wielding the power which the Tempter claims for himself (in Luk_4:6) over such souls as are still in darkness and alienation from God. This is a power real, but limited and transitory, able only to enslave those who “yield themselves” to it, and destined to be overcome; and it seems to refer especially to the concrete power of evil, exercised through physical and human agency.
Spiritual wickedness in high places.—The “spiritual powers” are not spiritual principles, but “spiritual hosts” of wickedness; and the phrase “in the heavenly places,” corresponding to “the power of the air” in Eph_2:2 (where see Note), stands obviously in antithesis to “the darkness of this world.” The sense, as in all other cases, seems to be local. (See Note on Eph_1:3.) The spiritual hosts of evil are described as fighting in the region above the earth. But the meaning underlying this figure surely points to the power of evil as directly spiritual, not acting through physical and human agency, but attacking the spirit in that higher aspect, in which it contemplates heavenly things and ascends to the communion with God. As the former idea corresponds to the gross work of temptation on the high mountain, so this to the subtler spiritual temptation on the pinnacle of the temple.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our…
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our conflict is not with men, here denoted by "flesh and blood," which is usually a symbol of weakness, therefore denoting that our opponents are not weak mortals, but powers of a far more formidable order. But against the principalities, against the powers. The same words as in Eph_1:21; therefore the definite article is prefixed, as denoting what we are already familiar with: for though all of these, evil as well as good, have been put under Christ the Head, they have not been put under the members, but the evil among them are warring against these members with all the greater ferocity that they cannot assail the Head. Against the world-rulers of this state of) darkness. (comp. Psa_144:1; Php_2:12, 13) We are not called to do merely as well as our neighbors; nor even to do well on the whole, but to do all to leave nothing undone that can contribute to the success of the battle; then we shall be able to stand, or stand firm.
Vers. 13-17.
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The whole armor of God.
I CHRISTIANS NEED TO BE ARMED. Aldershot cannot dispense with Woolwich. The army must be equipped before it can take the field. The knight must don his coat of mail and draw his sword if he is to make any use of his martial skill and prowess. So the Church must be prepared for the great conflict with unbelief, worldliness, and immorality. The individual Christian must be armed to meet temptation and to win a triumph. Many a sanguine young Christian soldier has fallen shamefully through rushing rashly into the fray without due preparation.
II THE REQUISITE ARMOR MUST BE DIVINE. "Armor of God.
1. Provided by God. We cannot forge our own armor. Our own resolutions, like home-made weapons, will be sure to betray some weakness and clumsiness. The Christian armor consists of God-given graces. The pilgrim had his armor given him at the house "Beautiful.
2. God-like. A steel breastplate is no protection against a poison-cup. The character of our defenses must be spiritual and holy, like the character of God, in order that we may be able to withstand great spiritual foes.
III IT IS NECESSARY TO SECURE A COMPLETE SUIT OF ARMOR. "The whole armor." We are assailable in every part of our nature. It is useless to be only half-armed, for the subtle tempter is sure to aim his dart at the most vulnerable spot. We are all inclined to make much of favorite graces and to fortify ourselves against certain selected sins.
Where we think ourselves most secure we are likely to be most open to attack. It will not be sufficient to be sound on all points but one. Achilles was said to be vulnerable only on the heel. But that was enough. His one weak place was fatal to him. God knows both the variety of foes we have to face and the different susceptibilities of our own constitution, and has provided complete armor accordingly.
IV THE CHRISTIAN ARMOR IS VARIOUS IS KIND.
1. Defensive.
(1) We have first to be braced and girded by a firm grasp of the eternal verities of the faith. Looseness of conviction is a fatal source of weakness. Truth being the girdle we are not to embrace it, but it is to encircle us, i.e. we not to be satisfied with holding the truth, we must let the truth hold us.
(2) Our heart must be protected by righteousness. An evil conscience, with sin unrepented, unforgiven, and unamended, is fatal to future firmness.
(3) We must be active in spreading the gospel of peace.
(4) Where we have not sufficient resisting power in our own persons let us trust the defending grace of God. Then if the breastplate of righteousness is thin, the shield of faith held before it may still protect us.
(5) Salvation in part secured, in whole promised, will help us to hold our head erect in calm confidence.
2. Offensive. We have not only to stand the shock of the enemy"s blows; we have to return them. The necessary weapons are supplied from the Divine armory.
(1) The Word of God. This is the sword of the Spirit, because God"s Spirit inspired it and now gives it edge and penetrating power. Christ used this sword in his temptation. We resist evil by dwelling on Divine truths.
(2) Prayer. In the garden Christ prayed and Peter slept; in the house of Caiaphas Christ was faithful and Peter fell. W.F.A.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but…
Eph_6:12
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities.
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The invisible enemies of man
Does it not appear, philosophically speaking, a somewhat violent assumption to decide that man is really the highest being in the created universe, or, at least, that between man and his Maker there are no gradations with different moral colourings of intermediate life? Would it not be, rather, reasonable to suppose that the graduated series of living beings, graduated as it is so delicately, which we trace from the lowest of the zoophytes up to man, does not stop abruptly with man, that it continues beyond, although we may be unable to follow the invisible steps of the continuing ascent? Surely, I submit, the reasonable probability would incline this way, and revelation does but confirm and reveal these anticipations when it discovers to faith, on the one hand, the hierarchies of the blessed angels, and on the other, as in this passage of Scripture, the corresponding gradations of evil spirits, principalities, and powers, who have abused their freedom, and who are ceaselessly labouring to impair and to destroy the moral order of the universe. Two great departments of moral life among men are watched over, each one of them, beyond the sphere of human life, by beings of greater power, greater intelligence, greater intensity of purpose, than man in the world of spirits. These spiritual beings, good and evil, act upon humanity as clearly, as certainly, and as constantly as man himself acts upon the lower creatures around, and thus it is that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Does not our experience, my brethren, bear this out, at least sometimes in our darker hours? Have we never known what it is, as we phrase it, to be carried away by a sudden impulse--to be driven, we know not why, hither and thither in conscious humiliation and shame before some strong, overmastering gust of passion? Have we, too, never seen another law in our members, warring against the law of our minds, and bringing us into captivity to the law of sin that is in our members? And what is this at bottom but to feel ourselves in the strong embrace and gripe of another power, who, for the moment, has overmastered us, and holds us down? We may be unable to discern his form; we may be unable to define the precise limits and nature of his power; we may despair to decide what it is that we supply to the dread result out of our own fund of perverted passion, and what it is that he adds from the hot breath of an intenser furnace. But then the most ordinary processes of our vital functions themselves defy analysis, however we may be certain of their reality. No, depend upon it, it is not any mere disposition, inseparable from the conditions of human thought, to personify, to externalize passion which has peopled the imagination of Christendom with demons. As well, just as well, might you say that the fearful epidemic which has ravaged London this autumn was itself a creation of human fancy, that it had in itself no real existence, that it was the real cause of no real disease in the individuals who succumbed to it. Our imagination may, no doubt, do much; but there are limits to its activity, and the higher facts are just as much beyond it as are the facts of nature. The contests of which St. Paul is speaking were not only to be waged on the great scenes of history. St. Paul is speaking of contests humbler, less public, but certainly not less tragical, the contests which are waged, sooner or later, with more or less intensity, and with the most divergent results, around and within each human soul. It is within ourselves, my brethren, that we meet now, as the first Christians met, the onset of the principalities and the powers. It is in resisting them--aye, at any cost--in driving them from us at the name of Christ, in driving from us the spirits of untruthfulness, of sloth, of anger, and of impure desire--that we really contribute our little share to the issue of the great battle which rages still, as it raged then, and which will rage on between good and evil until the end comes, and the combatants meet with their rewards. (Canon Liddon.)
The holy war
I. The foes. Spiritual enemies. Our danger arises from--
1. The advantage they find in this world. It is in many respects their own.
2. Our natural inclinations.
3. Their number--Legion.
4. Their mightiness.
5. Their invisibility.
6. Their artfulness.
7. Their malignity.
II. The armour.
1. The articles in which it consists. None provided for the back. He who flees is wholly defenceless, and sure to perish.
2. Its nature--Divine.
(1) Appointed by God.
(2) Provided by God.
3. The appropriation of it. You must apply it to the various purposes for which it has been provided. There are some who are ignorant of it; these cannot take it to themselves, and they are perishing for lack of knowledge. There are others who know it, but despise it; they never make use of it; their religion is all speculation; they know these things, but they do them not; they believe--and the devils believe and tremble.
4. The entireness of the application--The whole armour. Every part is necessary. A Christian may be considered with regard to his principles, with regard to his practice, with regard to his experience, with regard to his comfort, and with regard to his profession; and oh! how important is it in each of these that neither of them is to be left in him exposed and undefended. He is to stand complete in all the will of his heavenly Father; he is to be perfect and entire, lacking nothing. Nothing less: than this must be our aim.
III. The success. Three inquiries are here to be answered. The first regards the posture; what does the apostle mean by standing? It is a military term; and standing is opposed to falling. A man is said to fall when he is slain in battle; and he does so literally. It is opposed to fleeing. We often read of fleeing before the enemy in the Scriptures: this cannot be standing. It is opposed to yielding or keeping back; and so the apostle says, Neither give place to the devil. Every inch you yield he gains, and every inch he gains you lose; every inch he gains favours his gaining another inch, and every inch you lose favours your losing another inch. The second regards the period; what does the apostle mean when he says, Stand in the evil day? All the time of the Christians warfare may be so called in a sense, and a very true sense; but the apostle refers also to some days which are peculiarly evil days. Days of suffering are such. The days in which the poor martyrs lived were evil days; they could not confess and follow Christ without exposing their substance and their liberty and their lives; but they stood in the evil day, and rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His Dame. There are evil days morally considered--perilous periods, in which iniquity abounds and the love of many waxes cold, in which many may turn aside from the faith and give themselves to vain janglings. The third regards the preeminence of the advantage gained; stand in the evil day, and, having done all, stand. Some of Gods servants have been foiled after various successes, and have become affecting examples to show us that we are never out of the reach of danger as long as we are in the body and in the world. The battle of Eylau, between the French and the Russians, was a dreadful conflict; more than fifty thousand perished. Both parties claimed the victory. What, then, is the historian to do? To do? Why, he will inquire, Who kept the field? And these were the French, while the Russians all withdrew. Oh, my brethren! it is the keeping of the field to the last--to see all the adversaries withdrawn--that is to make us more than conquerors through Him that loved us. It is this that gives decision to the battle. Some have overcome, and then, alas! they have been overcome. What is it to gain success and yield it at last? The Romans often were checked: they often met with a defeat; but then they succeeded upon the whole, and having done all, they stood. Of Gad it is said, A troop shall overcome him, but he shall overcome at the last. And this will be the case with every real Christian. What comes from God will be sure to lead back to God. (W. Jay.)
The Christian soldiers warfare
I. The enemies with whom, as Christian soldiers, we are called to contend.
1. Spirits.
2. Wicked spirits.
3. Formidable spirits.
(1) On account of their strength.
(2) On account of their weapons.
(3) On account of their extensive influence.
(4) On account of their wiles.
II. In what manner we are instructed to contend with them.
1. In the armour of God.
(1) This must be all put on.
(2) We must retain it till our warfare be past.
(3) We must take and use it whenever assaulted.
2. In the spirit of prayer and watchfulness.
3. In the exercise of firm resistance. Let your resistance be--
(1) Early. At the first approach of the enemy.
(2) Courageous.
(3) Unwearied. Till you conquer.
III. The reasons by which we should be induced thus to contend.
1. Because the most important objects depend on this contention.
(1) Your steadfastness;
(2) your liberty;
(3) your glory;
(4) your eternal life.
2. Because victory is certain to the faithful soldiers of Christ.
(1) Victory over the world;
(2) victory over sin;
(3) victory over Satan;
(4) victory over tribulation;
(5) victory over death.
3. Because victory will be attended with certain glory.
(1) A glorious rest from all painful toil and contention;
(2) glorious exemption from all penal evil;
(3) glorious honours;
(4) a glorious throne, crown, kingdom. (Theological Sketchbook.)
The existence of evil spirits
Against the existence of evil spirits, against the possibility of their exerting a malignant influence on the moral and spiritual life of mankind, nothing has ever been alleged, as far as I am aware, that has any force in it. Some people appear to suppose that they have said enough to justify their disbelief when they have recited the grotesque and incredible legends, the monstrous and childish superstitions about the devil which laid so firm a hold on the imagination and the fears of Europe in the Middle Ages; or when they have illustrated the history and growth of analogous legends and superstitions among savage or half-civilized races. But they could justify atheism by a precisely similar line of reasoning. The mythologies of Greece and of Scandinavia are incredible; their original and central elements are obviously nothing more than the product of the imagination under the excitement of the glories and the terrors, the majesty and the beauty, of the visible universe. But because these mythologies are incredible shall I refuse to believe in the living God, the Creator of the heavens and of the earth, the God that loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity? The attributes and deeds attributed to Kali, the black and blood-stained goddess, with her necklace of human skulls, fills me with horror and fierce disgust; but is this horror, this disgust, any reason for withholding my faith from the revelation of Gods infinite love in the Lord Jesus Christ? Many false, childish, dreadful things have been imagined and believed about invisible and Divine powers; but this does not prove that there is no God. Many monstrous and absurd things have been imagined and believed about invisible and evil spirits; but this does not prove that there is no devil. Three hundred years ago men received popular stories about grotesque and malicious appearances of evil spirits without evidence and without inquiry. It was the habit of the age to believe in such things; men believed, in the absence of all solid reasons for believing. And now we disbelieve, without evidence and without inquiry, what Christ Himself and His apostles have told us about the devil and his temptations. It is the habit of the age to disbelieve in such things; we disbelieve, in the absence of solid reasons for disbelieving. We do not care to investigate the question. We go with the crowd. We think that everybody cannot be wrong. We regard with great complacency the contrast between our own clear intelligence and the superstition of our ancestors. But when we are challenged to state our reasons for refusing to accept what Christ has revealed on this subject, we have nothing to answer except that other people refuse to accept it; and our ancestors had just as good an apology for accepting the superstitions of their times--everybody accepted them. It is not quite clear that there is any good ground for our self-complacency; the belief of our ancestors was as rational as our own disbelief.
1. The subject is confessedly difficult, obscure, and mysterious; but there is nothing incredible in the existence of unseen and evil powers, from whose hostility we are in serious danger. Give the faculty of vision to the blind, and they see the sun and the clouds and the moon and the stars, of whose existence they had known nothing except by hearsay; give a new faculty to the human race, and we might discover that we are surrounded by principalities and powers, some of them loyal to God and bright with a Divine glory; some of them in revolt against Him, and scarred with the lightnings of the Divine anger. The moral objections to the existence of evil spirits can hardly be sustained in the presence of the crimes of which our own race has been guilty. There may be other worlds in which the inhabitants are as wicked as the most wicked of ourselves; we cannot tell. We may be surrounded--we cannot tell--by creatures of God, who hate righteousness and hate God with a fiercer hatred than ever burned in the hearts of the most profligate and blasphemous of our race. And they may be endeavouring to accomplish our moral ruin, in this life and the life to come.
2. Our Lord plainly taught the existence of evil spirits (Mat_13:19; Mat_13:39; Luk_10:18; Luk_22:31; Joh_12:31; Mat_25:41). No use to say that as He spoke the language, He thought the thoughts, of His country and His time; for it was impossible that He should mistake shadows for realities in that invisible and spiritual world which was His true home, and which He had come to reveal to man. Nor can we believe that Christ Himself knew that evil spirits had no existence, and yet consciously and deliberately fell in with the common way of speaking about them. The subject was one of active controversy between rival Jewish sects, and in using the popular language Christ took sides with one sect against another. That He should have supported controverted opinions which He knew to be false is inconceivable. Again: He came to preach glad tidings; can we suppose that, if the popular dread of evil spirits had no foundation, He would have deliberately fostered such a falsehood?
3. The teaching of Christ on this point is sustained by all the apostles (Jam_3:7; 2Co_4:4; 2Co_11:14; Eph_4:26; 1Pe_5:8; 1Jn_2:13-14; 1Jn_3:8; 1Jn_3:10; 1Jn_3:12; 1Jn_5:18-19, etc.).
4. The teaching of Christ and His apostles is confirmed by our religious experience. Evil thoughts come to us which are alien from all our convictions and from all our sympathies. There is nothing to account for them in our external circumstances or in the laws of our intellectual life. We abhor them and repel them, but they are pressed upon us with cruel persistency. They come to us at times when their presence is most hateful; they cross and trouble the current of devotion; they gather like thick clouds between our souls and God, and suddenly darken the glory of the Divine righteousness and love. We are sometimes pursued and harassed by doubts which we have deliberately confronted, examined, and concluded to be absolutely destitute of force, doubts about the very existence of God, or about the authority of Christ, or about the reality of our own redemption. Sometimes the assaults take another form. Evil fires which we thought we had quenched are suddenly rekindled by unseen hands; we have to renew the fight with forms of moral and spiritual evil which we thought we had completely destroyed. There is a Power not ourselves that makes for righteousness; light falls upon us which we know is light from heaven; in times of weariness strength comes to us from inspiration which we know must be Divine; we are protected in times of danger by an invisible presence and grace; there are times when we are conscious that streams of life are flowing into us which must have their fountains in the life of God. And there are dark and evil days when we discover that there is also a power not ourselves that makes for sin. We are at war, the kingdom of God on earth is at war, with the kingdom of darkness. We have to fight against the principalities, etc. And therefore we need the strength of God and the armour of God. The attacks of these formidable foes are not incessant; but as we can never tell when the evil day may come, we should be always prepared for it. After weeks and months of happy peace, they fall upon us without warning, and without any apparent cause. If we are to withstand them, and if after one great battle in which we have left nothing unattempted or unaccomplished for our own defence and the destruction of the enemy we are still to stand, to stand with our force unexhausted and our resources undiminished, ready for another and perhaps fiercer engagement, we must be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might, and we must take up the whole armour of God. (R. W. Dale, LL. D.)
The nature of the contest
Wrestle. It denotes--
1. That our enemies aim at us personally.
2. The nearness of the parties to each other.
3. The severity of the struggle, παλη.
4. The continuance of it. The present tense. (H. J. Foster.)
The evil angels
I. Here are presented beings whose attributes are very appalling.
1. Actual beings, possessing an angelic order of existence.
2. Beings deeply and fearfully characterized by evil.
3. Beings who possess wide power and authority over the world.
II. The beings here presented are engaged in active and malignant conflict against the interests of redeemed men.
1. Notice the manner in which that conflict is conducted. These principalities, etc., fight against the children of God through the medium of their own thoughts; as those thoughts may be influenced independent of external objects, or as those thoughts may be influenced by the thoughts and passions of other men; and by the various events and occurrences which are transpiring in this sublunary and terrestrial world. It is intended by this power and instrumentality to lead to principles, to actions, and to habits which are inconsistent with the maintenance of the Christian character.
2. Mark the spirit in which that warfare is conducted. It is precisely such as we might expect from the character and attributes of the principalities, the powers, and the rulers against whom we wrestle. It is, for instance, conducted with subtlety and cunning. We find that Satan is said to transform himself into an angel of light. Hence, again, we read of the devices of Satan and the rulers of Satan as being the old serpent. It is, further, conducted in cruelty, Hence, we read of Satan as being the adversary; we read of his fiery darts; and we are told that he goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. It is, again, conducted in perseverance. All the statements which are urged with regard to subtlety on the one hand, and cruelty on the other, show that there is one incessant labour, which is perfectly unvaried and unremitting on their part, to accomplish the great designs they have in view with respect to the character and the final destiny of the soul.
3. Observe for what purpose the conflict is designed. That there may be a failure on the part of the redeemed, in their character, their consistency, and their hopes; and this, under the impulse of one dark and fearful result, as bearing both upon God and upon man. As regards God, it is intended that the purpose of the Father should be foresworn; that the atonement of the Son should be inefficacious; and that the influence of the Spirit should be thwarted. And, as bearing on man, it is intended that his life should become bereft of honour, comfort, and peace; that his death should be a scene of agitation, pain, and darkness; that his judgment should he an event of threatening and bitter condemnation; that his eternity should be the habitation of torment and woe; and that over spirits, who once had the prospects of redemption, there shall be pronounced that fearful sentence, Depart ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.
III. The knowledge, on the part of redeemed men, of such a conflict, ought, at once, to bind on thee those practical impressions which are essential to their perseverance and victory.
1. The nature of the means of preservation.
(1) A constant and diligent attempt, in the strength of the living God, to live in practical conformity with the doctrines and precepts of the gospel.
(2) Watchfulness.
(3) Prayer.
2. The effect which these means, when used aright, will secure. That the Christian warrior, fighting against these mighty and invisible foes, shall, although faint, yet pursue, and although feeble, shall yet conquer. (J. Parsons.)
The craft of our invisible foes
The great art of these invisible world rulers consists in never seeming to be against us. They conceal themselves in our affections, and plead for our wishes. And, as though from quite a motherly consideration for our weakness, and a warm concern for our enjoyment, they make it appear that the claims of God are unreasonable, and that the way to heaven is cold and forbidding. Seated in the warmth of our hearts, they reason warmly for our pleasure, and then flatter us that we reason well. We are taken by the wiles, we suck in the flattering honey, and know not that we are being poisoned unto the second death. These spirits are too much for us. Their strongholds are in our hearts. Before we can successfully oppose those who clothed themselves with the armour of our own life, we must put on the armour of God. Jesus is the only man who ever prevailed in this war. He came to the encounter, not in natures heats, nor with natures reasonings; but clothed with truth and purity, guilelessness and perfect love. We must put on Christ. (J. Pulsford.)
Our spiritual foes
The apostle brings out into bold relief the terrible foes which Christians are summoned to encounter.
1. Their position. They are no subalterns, but foes of mighty rank, the nobility and chieftains of the spirit world.
2. Their office. Their domain is this darkness in which they exercise imperial sway.
3. Their essence. Not encumbered with an animal frame, but spirits.
4. Their character--evil. Their appetite for evil only exceeds their capacity for producing it. (J. Eadie, D. D.)
Every part must be protected against the adversary
It is reported by the poets of Achilles, the Grecian captain, that his mother, being warned by the oracle, dipped him--being a child--in the river Lethe, to prevent any danger that might ensue by reason of the Trojan war; but Paris, his inveterate enemy, understanding also by the oracle that he was impenetrable all over his body, except the heel or small part of his leg, which his mother held him by when she dipped him, took his advantage, shot him in the heel, and killed him. Thus every man is, or ought to be, armed cap-a-pie with that panoply--the whole armour of God. For the devil will be sure to hit the least part that he finds unarmed; if it be the eye, he will dart in at that casement by the presentation of one lewd object or other; if it be the ear, he will force that door open by bad counsel; if the tongue, that shall be made a world of mischief; if the feet, they shall be swift to shed blood, etc.
Spiritual wrestling is personal
At the battle of Crecy, in 1316, the Prince of Wales, finding himself heavily pressed by the enemy, sent word to his father for help. The father, watching the battle from a windmill, and seeing his son was not wounded and could gain the day if he would, sent word: No, I will not come. Let the boy win his spurs, for, if God will, I desire that this day be his with all its honours. Young man, fight your own battle, all through, and you shall have the victory. Oh, it is a battle worth fighting! Two monarchs of old fought a duel, Charles V and Francis, and the stakes were kingdoms, Milan and Burgundy. You fight with sin, and the stake is heaven or hell. (Dr. Talmage.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain 12. For we wrestle. Fights then were a hand…
12. For we wrestle. Fights then were a hand to hand grapple. Not against flesh and blood. While flesh and blood may seem to assail us, the real enemies are evil spiritual powers. Principalities and powers. These terms designate different rank of evil spirits. These were fallen angels. In 1:21, The same terms are applied to the different ranks of holy angels. Against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Satan is described as the ruler of this world (John 12:31; 14:30; 16:11) and the god of this world (2 Cor. 4:4). He uses for his dominion not only evil spirits, but wicked men, and his sway is darkness rather than light. Spiritual wickedness. See the Revision. It is likely that the meaning is the same as in 2:2. The high places, the air, is a dwelling-place and medium of these evil influences.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 flesh and blood
flesh and blood
This expression refers to people, not spirits who do not have human bodies. (See: Synecdoche)
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against the powers over this present darkness
Here it is implied that "the powers" refers to powerful spiritual beings. Here "darkness" is a metaphor for things that are evil. AT: "against the powerful spiritual beings that rule over people during this present evil time" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Metaphor)
Therefore put on the whole armor of God
Christians should use the protective resources God gives them in fighting the devil in the same way a soldier puts on armor to protect himself against his enemies. (See: Metaphor)
so that you may be able to stand in this time of evil
The words "stand firm" represent successfully resisting or fighting something. AT: "so that you may be able to resist evil" (See: Metaphor)
translationWords
flesh
blood
spirit
authority
rule
evil
demon
heaven
armor
God
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 6:12 Believers should not consider human beings to be…
6:12 Believers should not consider human beings to be their enemies. Instead, the opposition they face comes from the unseen world of spiritual evil, and Christ has authority over that realm (see 1:21-22).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.