Gospel Light Christian Church Thru-The-Bible Series (14.1)

The Epistle to the Ephesians

Ephesians 6:10-12 - Read this Bible passage once through before referring to the notes below.

The Warfare Of The Christian (Chapter 6:10-24)

Introduction

Someone once said, “the Christian life is not a playground but a battle-ground”.  This is absolutely true. The moment you put your faith in Jesus Christ, you entered into a battle, not a physical battle but a spiritual battle. As Christians, we face three enemies: the world, the flesh and the devil (Eph. 2:1-3). “The world” refers to the system around us that is opposed to God, that caters to “the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (I Jn. 2:15-17).  “The flesh” is the body of sin (Rom. 6:6) that we inherited from Adam. It is that part of you that drives you to sin. The third enemy is “the devil”.  The devil is the leader of this unholy trinity. He takes the world and appeals to your flesh with the goal of driving you from God.

But by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the world (Gal. 6:14), the flesh (Gal. 2:20) and the devil (Eph. 1:19-23) were defeated.  As Christians we do not fight for victory but we fight from victory. The Spirit of God enables us, by faith, to appropriate Christ’s victory for ourselves.  In this section of Scripture (Eph. 6:10-24), Paul reminds us that as we walk according to our wealth we can be victorious in our warfare.

The Authority In Spiritual Warfare.

The word “finally” is a call to arms and no one is exempt from this call. When Paul said, “Finally my brethren,” he is not calling only fellow apostles or fellow pastors but he is calling all believers to take up arms and prepare for battle. Satan is no respecter of persons and will attack any and every member of Christ’s body. In order to be victorious in this battle, we must understand our authority in Christ.

Our Position In Christ (v.10a).

When Paul said, “be strong in the Lord” he was reminding us of our position in Christ. When Jesus died on the cross, He defeated Satan and delivered us from his power (Col. 1:13). As a Christian, Satan has no independent authority in your life, he can only do to you what you allow him to do. He can tempt you but he cannot force you to sin. When you are tempted to sin, exercise your authority and your position in Christ by saying to the devil who stands behind the temptation, “This is an illegitimate attempt to place me under your authority. You have no rights in my life, because you have been defeated and I have been delivered by Christ.”  

Our Power In Christ (v.10b).

Not only do we have a new position but we have a new power in Christ. The phrase “the power of his might” refers to power that Christ provides. Not only has Christ delivered us from Satan authority but He has given to us His power to say no to the devil. Apart from “the power of his might” man is no match for Satan, but when we exercise our position and rely upon Christ’s power, Satan is no match for man. Victory begins when we understand and appropriate our authority in Christ.

The Adversary In Spiritual Warfare (Eph. 6:11b).

“Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” The word “devil” occurs 52 times in the Bible and it means “slanderer.” One of the devil’s primary duties is to slander and accuse the brethren before God (Rev. 12:10).  The “devil” is “the prince of this world” (Jn. 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). He is the chief architect of this evil world system designed to draw man away from God. He is the “god of this age” (II Cor. 4:4). He has the power to shape and direct the course of this world. The “devil” is the second most powerful being in the universe apart from God the Father, Son and Spirit. He is more powerful than any other created being. He is able to counterfeit miracles (Ex. 7), destroy families (Job 1-2, Acts 5) and make a disciple into a traitor (Jn. 13). His one desire is to receive worship (Is.48).

The Attack In Spiritual Warfare (Eph. 6:11a).

Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  The word “wiles ”means schemes and methods of the devil. The devil’s primary method used in driving people from God is deception. The reason Satan uses deception is because he cannot out-power God. At the beginning of human history he deceived man in the Garden (Gen. 3, II Cor. 11:3) and at the end of human history he will deceive man with the antichrist (II Thess. 2:3-10, Rev. 20:8). Today he is still deceiving man saying, “there are no consequences for your actions,” “live for the day, get all you can, death ends it all,” “Find your satisfaction in work, wealth and the world,” etc.  If Satan cannot deceive us, he will try to divide us. He will divide the church and our families. Or he will distract us from our worship, or our outreach and our service. Or he will distress us with the cares and affairs of life.  

The Arena In Spiritual Warfare (Eph.6:12a).

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood.”  The word “wrestle” means “to struggle, to fight.” It refers to hand-to-hand combat. In other words, the battle we are fighting is not physical but spiritual. It is not a visible but an invisible battle, it is not an earthly battle but a heavenly battle. Everything we see in this realm is either caused, influenced or provoked by something in the spiritual realm (Dan 4:32). Since our battle is not physical but spiritual, we must fight with spiritual weapons (II Cor. 10:4).

The Antagonists In Spiritual Warfare (Eph. 6:12b).

“But against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We are not fighting man, our battle is not with one another, but we wrestle against Satan’s antagonists – the demons. Satan has a well-organised army.

"Principalities” refers to princes in Satan’s kingdom who have been assigned authority over specific geographical regions (Dan. 10:13-20). “Powers” refers to evil spirits that incite men to acts of violence. “Rulers of the darkness” refers to those demons that keep people in darkness. It refers to those spirits that stand behind sorcery, astrology, idolatry and superstition. “Spiritual wickedness in high places” refers to demons that energise false religions or that guise as angels of light. Satan has a well-trained and highly organised army and he is likely to have learned his organisational skills from God in heaven (Col. 1:16).