Paul Instructs the Ephesian Believers on Spiritual
Warfare Part 3: The Army We Fight Against
Ephesians
6:12 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. KJVThe devil is one created being by God the Father and is not omnipotent, omniscient, or omnipresent like our Father in Heaven, therefore, he cannot be everywhere at the same time to attempt to wreak havoc in the life of followers of Christ. Paul now explains to these Ephesian believers and we believers today how the devil is able to execute his wiles, schemes, and plots of evil against the believer. Paul calls the conflict a wrestling which constitutes a fierce struggle, fight, and battle. Anyone who has wrestled in high school or college knows how hard and engaging and exhausting every contest is and how it saps out of your body every ounce of energy and strength you have within you to come out victorious. This is the same way the Apostle Paul sees our daily fight in the spiritual realm.
Paul describes our conflict as not primarily with our old man or old nature (although we do have this struggle or battle going on in our inner man) nor against other human beings, but instead we are at all times in hand to hand combat with first principalities and powers. This English word principalities the Apostle Paul uses here is translated by the Greek word arche meaning chief ranking demon in order. Let us remember that when the devil rebelled, he convinced one third of the angels to rebel with him and they all were thrown out of Heaven. Now that they are loose in the universe, the devil has rule over them as the highest ranking General in an earthly army would rule and rank over all of the soldiers in that army. The principalities and powers no doubt are the devils highest ranking soldiers and this is perhaps due to their rank and power they had in Heaven before they rebelled or it may be that these principalities and powers have proven themselves to the devil to be more wicked than others.
Note: “Spiritual wickedness is constituted as active wickedness; hence the devil is called the wicked one because he is always and only actively purposing to do that which is vile and evil.” Let us always remember the description our Lord Jesus Christ gave us of the devil and the contrast between our Lord Jesus and him when He said, “The thief (the devil) comes only in order to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have {and} enjoy life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows).” (John 10:10). Those demons that the Apostle Paul describes as the “rulers of the darkness of this world” are perhaps the lower ranking demons that are over certain darkness that the devil wants to keep in order and under his control such as gambling, liquor, kidnapping young girls into prostitution, drug sales and distribution legal and illegal, anger and violence, gangs and the mafia, and terrorist are under the watch of these rulers to make sure wickedness continues and increases in these areas of spiritual darkness.
The people in Ephesus before Paul came to them with the Gospel of Christ practiced sorcery, wizardry, and witchcraft as their normal way of life, but many turned away from these things of spiritual darkness when they were made alive by God the Holy Spirit upon hearing the Gospel of Grace as recorded for us with these words written by Dr. Luke, “This became known to all who lived in Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks, and alarm {and} terror fell upon them all; and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled {and} magnified. Many also of those who were now believers came making full confession {and} thoroughly exposing their [former deceptive and evil] practices. And many of those who had practiced curious, magical arts collected their books and [throwing them, book after book, on the pile] burned them in the sight of everybody. When they counted the value of them, they found it amounted to 50,000 pieces of silver (about $9,300). Thus the Word of the Lord [concerning the attainment through Christ of eternal salvation in the kingdom of God] grew {and} spread {and} intensified, prevailing mightily.” (Acts 19:17-20). This reality is perhaps why the Apostle Paul chose to disclose who our primary enemies are to these Ephesian believers rather than in any of the other letters to the saints. The spiritual wickedness in high places is just a summing up by the Apostle Paul of all that these invisible enemies of we saints come against us with by harassing us and provoking us into spiritual sins such as pride, envy, jealousy, anger, and un-forgiveness just to name a few.
“Our enemies strive to prevent our ascent to heaven, to deprive us of heavenly blessings and to obstruct our communion with heaven. They assault us in the things that belong to our souls, and labor to deface the heavenly image in our hearts; and therefore we have need to be upon our guard against them. We have need of faith in our Christian warfare, because we have spiritual enemies to grapple with, as well as of faith in our Christian work, because we have spiritual strength to fetch in. Thus you see your danger.” Matthew Henry
“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.” Albert Barnes
If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ and His amazing healing power, pray this from your heart to the Lord Jesus Christ (you speaking directly to Him), Dear Lord Jesus, I confess to You that I am a sinner and I need Your forgiveness. I believe You shed Your Blood and died for my sins. I believe that You rose from the dead proving that You alone are God. I repent of my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I ask You Dear Lord Jesus to come into my heart and take control of my life. I want You to be my Lord, Savior, and my God. Amen...
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author of “Silent Assassins of the Soul - Are you Broken by Pornography and Masturbation? You can be Restored by the Lord Jesus Christ and brought into Deliverance, Freedom, and Victory! A Guide for Men and Women in the Enemy’s Crosshairs” e-book available now @ Amazon Kindle, @ Apple I Bookstore for IPod, Barnes and Noble for Nook, Reader Store for Sony Reade, Kobo, Copia, Gardners, Baker and Taylor, and eBookPie…
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