Ephesians 6:11-12 11Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. 12For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.
Paul shifts to the image of a solder to illustrate how believers can have spiritual victory. Believes are like soldiers in a battle. We can choose what type of armor we will put on. We can try to fight our battles with our own power and strength, but Paul has already shown that this will only lead to defeat. We need a source outside of ourselves. Therefore, he urges the Ephesians to put on the armor supplied by God. The verb put on (endysasthe) is in the middle voice, implying that this is something we must do for ourselves. No one else can put on this armor for us. We have to act in faith and put our lives into God’s care. We must live by God’s grace and the strength God gives through relationship with the Lord Jesus. The purpose of armor is to protect against the weapons of the enemy. Our enemy is the devil (1 Peter 5:8) who schemes how to deceive us into disobeying God. The devil will bring temptations that entice us to look to things of the world and the pull of the flesh that will tempt us to commit sin. The various pieces of armor that Paul lists will help us fight the battle against these things.
In verse 12, Paul makes it clear that we are in a spiritual battle. It is not a physical battle with flesh and blood. That implies that people are not the problem. People should be the object of our love and not our enemies in a battle. We must pause when faced with difficult people and realize that the issue is spiritual in nature. There is something deeper than simply a disagreement over opinions or preferences. Most divisive issues can be traced back to spiritual battles either within a person or between people. Love does not necessarily overlook valid disagreements, but love in the form of compromise or correction can solve many challenges.
The battles are deeper and internal in the minds of people. These wrestling matches are against four types of spiritual entities. It is unclear what Paul means by the various terms, but it is clear that these are spiritual in nature. This does not discount these being human in form since people can be the instruments of evil forces. The actual entities listed here could have some overlap and do not necessarily mean separate beings. Rulers and authorities show positions of power and influence. These could include earthly rulers who follow the way of evil. Cosmic powers could be translated as “worldly rulers.” These are spiritual in nature but work in the created order to cause problems because of a misuse of authority. The last spiritual enemy is clearly beyond the world but still influences what goes on here. These are evil spirits who are in the heavens but cause trouble among people.
It is difficult to know how literally to take Paul’s list here or if he is being poetic and using some parallelism. Rather than attempt to solve the mystery of what these various entities are, we may find more insight by realizing that there are evil forces out to get us. The existence of evil is undeniable, but Christians can have victory in the battle against this evil. We can be more than conquerors through him who loves us (Romans 8:37).
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