Ephesians 6:12 Wrestling The three great mistakes are: not knowing our own weakness; not knowing the strength of our spiritual foes; not knowing God’s provision for our defense (Ephesians 6:11) (Shaff)
Facts about our Struggle. 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood The Greek term pale translated "struggle" is used only here in the NT. It means "wrestling". Paul use a sporting term in a context pertaining to armor and military preparedness. Other terms for warfare such as strateia (2 Cor. 10:4; l Tim. 1:18) or mache (2 Cor. 7:5; 2 Tim. 2:23; Titus 3:9) or even agon (Phil. 1:30; Col. 2:1) are not used here but wrestling. (1 Cor 9:25-27) It is appropriate in this context because of its connotation of a close-in, hand-to-hand combat” (Boles) the hand to hand nature of the conflict suggests the personal, individualizing nature of the encounter” (Ell.) “Wrestling was an extremely popular event in the athletic games held in Asia Minor, particularly in Ephesus. Thus "in contrast to the flesh-and-blood wrestling, with which the readers of Ephesians would have been quite familiar, the true struggle of believers is a spiritual power encounter which requires spiritual weaponry" (Arnold) Ephesus was famous for the magical arts (Acts 19:1-41), principal among which were the "Ephesian Letters" (Ephesiagrammata). These six magical terms/names (askion, kataskion, lix, tetrax, damnameneus, and aisia) were alleged to possess power that would ward off evil spirits. People used them as either spoken charms or written amulets to obtain power and to protect them from harm. An Ephesian wrestler was unbeatable in the ancient Olympics because he wore the "Ephesian Letters" around his ankle. When this was discovered by the officials it was removed, after which he proceeded to lose three consecutive matches! Paul may have been alluding to this story with his use of pale. (Sam Storm) "The allusion could have proved an effective way of communicating to the converts that they should no longer 'put on' the Ephesia Grammata as an amulet (i.e., turn to magic), but should now 'put on' the armor of God (i.e., the power of God). Furthermore, they would also understand in a fresh way that the struggle in which they have been enlisted as Christians is against supernatural 'powers' -- in fact, the very supernatural 'powers' who were summoned to their aid by the Ephesia Grammata are now the attacking opponents which they need to resist!" (Arnold)
William Gurnall suggests three aspects of this spiritual wrestling match:
1) The Intensity of the combat. The kind of combat which the Christian experiences is here to set out the sharpness of the Christian's encounter. There are two things in wrestling that render it a sharper combat than others.
It is intense combat. Wrestling is not properly fighting against a multitude, but when one enemy singles out another, and enters a conflict with him, each exerting their whole force and strength against one another; as David and Goliath. Now this is more fierce than to fight in an army, where though the battle be sharp and long, the soldier is not always engaged, but falls off and takes a breath for a while; he can escape without hurt or injury, because there the enemy's aim is not at this or that man, but at the whole heap. In wrestling [however] one cannot escape he is the particular object of the enemy's fury. Satan has not only a general malice against the army of saints, but a
spite against you; he will single you out for his enemy. As God delights to have private communion with his single saints, so the devil [delights] to try hand to hand with the Christian when he gets him alone. We should be careful in our watchfulness, when we conceive of Satan's wrath and fury as bent in general against the saints, and not against me in particular. O how careful would a soul be in duty if he had such a serious meditation as this: Now Satan is at my heels to hinder me in my work, if my God help me not!
It is intimate combat. Armies fight at some distance. Wrestlers grapple hand to hand. An arrow shot from afar may be seen and avoided, but when the enemy has hold of you there is no declining, you must either resist or fall shamefully at your enemy's feet. Satan comes close up, and gets within the Christian, takes his hold of his very flesh and corrupt nature, and by this shakes him.
2) The Inclusiveness of the combat. ‘We wrestle’ comprehends all. Paul changed the pronoun you in the former verse, into we in this, that he may include himself as well as them; as if he had said, The quarrel is with every saint. Satan doesn’t fear the conflict with any saint. Great and small, minister and layman, all must wrestle; not one part of Christ’s army in the field, and the other at ease in their quarters, where no enemy comes. Here are enemies enough to engage all at once. Every Christian is in this fight. “Wrestling”.
2) The Interval of this combat; Notice the tense we wrestle. Not, our wrestling was at first at my conversion, but now over, not, we shall wrestle when sorrow, sickness discouragement, or despair comes; but our wrestling is; the enemy is ever in sight of us, yes, in a fight with us. (Gurnall) This battle will continue until we are taken to be with Jesus.
Foes of our Struggle but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil There is a negative and positive aspect of the foes we wrestle with; Not against and but against. The negative expresses who we do not battle with. It is not against flesh and blood, which basically means humanity (Mt. 16:17; Gal. 1:16; Heb. 2:14). Behind and beneath the daily, earthly struggles with people and institutions and ideologies is an unseen spiritual battle. However, this is not to suggest that Paul intends an absolute negation (Luke 10; Eph. 4:14). The point is not to deny that we have earthly and human antagonists. The point is that even when we do fight them, Satan lurks behind their efforts (Mt. 16:23). (Storm). Our wrestling or contention is not with men like ourselves: flesh and blood is a Hebraism for men, or human beings (Clarke). By flesh and blood he means fallen human nature. That means people. So the apostle is saying that the focus of this spiritual war in which every Christian is engaged is not against people as such. It is primarily against a whole array of evil spiritual forces which are under the control of the devil. (Stearle) 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 carnality and corruption 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. (Barnes) 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 to contrast them with spiritual assailants. This is no bodily struggle. (Calvin) The positive aspect of our foes expresses the character of the ones we do battle with. It is not in the human realm, but the spiritual. There are four descriptive words to identify the nature of our opponent: rulers, authorities, cosmic powers and the spiritual forces. Some suggest the words were describing four different orders of angelic beings here. (Dan 10:10-14) But more probably the four terms are used of our spiritual enemies not to identify four separate kinds of adversaries as much as they point out four characteristics of all of them. "Rulers" stresses their authority and "powers" or "authorities" their strength. "World forces of this darkness" or "cosmic powers " point to their wide influence in the world, and forces "of wickedness" or "spiritual forces of evil" relate to their evil character. The combat is with spirits (Eadie) The terms express how the devil and his angels are described: Rulers – literally prince expresses the authority and government which they exercise in the world, It denotes that Satan is a great and mighty prince: a prince that has the heart and knee of all his subjects. He is the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2). Authorities - He is the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4) where he rules over the demons and knowing or unknowing without consent those who do not follow Christ. God still rulers the world, but Satan dominates those who are his. (Eph 2:2-3). He is a ruler of the darkness of his world. Spiritual forces- which describe by their spiritual nature, wicked spirits- that chiefly annoy Christians with, and provoke them to, spiritual wickedness. Our “wrestling” is with foes of an evil natural and supernatural. (Robertson) The powers work in concert with the world and the flesh. The world and the flesh are under the deceitful scheming of the devil himself (Eph 2) You walked (lived) according the course of this world. The pattern established by the world marked the way we lived, worldly living. The course of the world was established by the prince of the power of the air who is working in the sons of disobedience. It is among them we formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh and indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind. The pervasive evil powers don’t typically act independently of the world and the flesh. We wrestle principalities and powers just as much as we are fighting the flesh as Luther did when he hurled an in well at the devil. Your struggle is not just in the sensational terms, and overt attacks, but also in the daily fleshly struggles. (Borgman)
Field of our struggle in the heavenly places Gk Epouranios - “in celestial or heavenly places.” Eph 1:3; 2:6, It is used of those that dwell in heaven (Matt 18:35; Phil 2:10); (Barnes) It is used in order to mark the higher range of their powers than ours (Rev 12:5, 12:10, 12:9,), dwellers “in the heavenly places” (Job 1:7), and being now in the regions of the air which are called the heavens. (Jamieson) High here signifies super-earthly or supernatural; and here specifically intends that region in the supernatural where the spirits of good and the spirits of evil have their range (Whedon) They operate in the heavenly realms ( Eph 1:3; 1:20; 2:6; 3:10).(Constable) It refers to a spiritual realm, distinct from heaven and distinct from earth, a realm somewhere in between heaven and earth. It speaks of that spiritual realm as it makes contact with the here and now in which we live. And in this spiritual realm there are whole battalions of demons-spiritual forces of evil-mustering their unseen array against the people of God. (Searle) It is the spiritual sphere of operation and combat. It is where the believer finds the authorities powers and presence of Satan. Cast from heaven Satan operates both on earth and in the heavenlies (Dickerson)
Faith in our Struggle
Hope over this present darkness Paul is saying something very encouraging when he calls the forces of evil over this present darkness. He is saying that the evil powers will not last forever. (1 Cor 15:25) They are limited, because 'this world' is limited. This world has a beginning and an end. Therefore, evil also must have an end. (Jude 6, Rev 20:1-3) The goodness and love of God are eternal. But the badness and evil of Satan are restricted to time and space. And in our strenuous climb up the steep pathway of life, as we struggle with the obstacles in our way, we are here encouraged that soon we will reach the summit, because the mountain track ultimately comes to an end. (Searle)
Help in the heavenly places Although the battle is in the “heavenly realms” our victory is found there. The enthroned Christ is our strength and the source of our might. He has disarmed the rules and authorities by his death on the cross (Col 2:11-15). (Searle) The Lord has defeated the powers and even now they are subjected to him (Eph 1:19-20) We share in the triumph in the heavenly places. Although these forces operate in the heavenly places, we get all of our spiritual blessings in the Heavenly places (Eph 1:3) and we are seated with Christ in the heavenly places (Eph 2:6). Even though the heavenly places are where the power of darkness operate, function and carry out their schemes, that domain belongs to us in Jesus. It is the domain where we now share in the exaltation and the enthronement of the Lord. Those in Christ Jesus have been delivered from their realm so that their darkness has no power over you. Christians have been rescued from the "domain of darkness" (Col 1:13-14), but our foe will continually try to lure us back. (Stott). You were formerly darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. (Eph 5:8) The darkness of the power of darkness has no power over those who have been made light in the Lord. Their darkness has no power over us or ability to deceive us. We have been delivered from their domain, their darkness, but that doesn’t discount the fact that our present conflict is still with them. What it does mean is that they can’t ultimately win (Borgman) Our battle is in the spiritual realm against spiritual forces, so the cure can only be a spiritual cure. We cannot use ordinary water to wash away the guilt of sin. We cannot use bread and butter to feed the hungry souls of people. We cannot use grape juice to revive those who are fainting from spiritual exhaustion. Spiritual problems can be solved only by spiritual power. He empowers us and enables us to daily win the “wrestling match” as we appropriate the “spiritual apparel” of his supernatural strength and his Spiritual armor to fight. (Searle)
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