Ephesians 6:12

_ _ Greek, “For our wrestling (‘the wrestling’ in which we are engaged) is not against flesh,” etc. 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 (Genesis 32:24-29; Hosea 12:4). Translate, “The principalities ... the powers” (Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:16; see on Ephesians 3:10). The same grades of powers are specified in the case of the demons here, as in that of angels there (compare Romans 8:38; 1 Corinthians 15:24; Colossians 2:15). The Ephesians had practiced sorcery (Acts 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” (Ephesians 2:2; Ephesians 5:8; Luke 22:53; Colossians 1:13). On Satan and his demons being “world rulers,” compare John 12:31; John 14:30; John 16:11; Luke 4:6; 2 Corinthians 4:4; 1 John 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” (Ezekiel 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 (2 Corinthians 11:13, 2 Corinthians 11:14). 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.

_ _ 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 (Matthew 12:45).

_ _ in high places — Greek, “heavenly places”: in Ephesians 2:2, “the air,” see on Ephesians 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 (Revelation 12:5, Revelation 12:9, Revelation 12:10), 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 (Isaiah 14:12-15). But believers have naught to fear, being “blessed with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3).