Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Ephesians 6:11-12 (KJV)
One of the most declarative sections of scripture lays out the battle or struggle the Christian faces in this life. It is a battle against “spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” I like the King James Version of these verses for semantic reasons: armor, wrestle, etc. Let’s unpack some of this command.
The Whole Armor of God
Paul is going to describe this armor a few verses down, but the only thing that I wish to say about the armor is that it is not physical. With that said, we can then understand what Paul tells us about our struggle in that armor: we wrestle. Wrestling in physical armor is impractical and will lead to loss. Think about a wrestling match: two opponents dressed in barely more than their skivvies. Wrestling is one-on-one combat. That’s important. Paul mentions two prospective opponents for our one-on-one wrestling.
Our Opponents
Clearly, at the very start of our struggle, we must recognize that “we do not wrestle with flesh and blood,” so let’s get that out of the way. The only things we knowingly have in our world that consist of flesh and blood are the animal kingdom, perhaps insects, if we may lean in that direction, and humans. But because Paul concludes these verses with “the heavenly,” we are not fighting earthly human creatures in our present day and age. That means human beings are not our enemy, to Paul here. More specifically, humans are not to be our target. We cannot wrestle with humans, physically, in any way that would warrant our need to “put on the whole armor of God.” People are not the enemy of the Christian. Our neighbor, the mailman, our spouse, it doesn’t matter who is the human, we are not to physically wrestle with this person in this life as if God wills it. We are not in direct physical combat with any persons who may oppose us, like it or not, at war or not, locked up or not, not as ‘servants of God.’
We are in combat with unseen forces, Paul says early on here, with “the wiles of the devil,” and our status in such circumstance is “to stand.” Standing is not an offensive position, but is defensive. Since Paul immediately moves from standing against the devil to not wrestling with humans, we can see a direct comparison that includes a do and a do not and another do: Do stand, don’t wrestle humans, do wrestle “principalities”…”powers”…rulers of the darkness of this age”…”spiritual hosts of wickedness.”
Combative Christians
We may put on “the armor of God” only because we are in God’s service, the service of the King, and may therefore help fight for his cause. Again, Paul is clear here: God’s cause is against the devil and his minions, not other humans, even when they appear to be downright devilish. This does not mean we are not to do the right thing when confronting evil and fight it as necessary. We are built with conscience.
And Paul’s edict is not offensive, but defensive. If we think we are at war with humanity as the enemy of God, and that we are not only free, but instructed, to attack other people as such, we are not in the will of God. Our armor is broken, overall ineffectual, in self-defeat. We can go through the motions of putting it on, even getting corporate approval from others going through the motions, and we can target individuals we believe are enemies to us and our religious agenda, but that combativeness is not by God’s request. We may even hear voices telling us to be aggressive toward others, on whatever grounds we may come up with; again, even corporately, that does not comport with Paul’s instructions.
We are not at war with people. The sport of wrestling, again, is one-on-one. If we are wrestling with “flesh and blood,” then that is our struggle opponent. The reason Paul posits that dynamic against what we are to wrestle is because he knows we can only do one or the other at one time. Wrestling against human opponents means we must neglect the real wrestling we are called to against spiritual wickedness in high places. That spiritual wickedness may therefore feed off of our neglect, perhaps even be raised to greater heights since we are off-track and out of the will of God by wrestling with flesh and blood. It is one or the other, and Paul would have it that a far less destructive force of humans benefit, rather than wicked principalities and powers of the age further prospering by wiles of the devil.
Combat Christianity
Christians consider their enemies to be the world, the flesh, and the devil. And scripture is replete with instructions for addressing these three forces. The world is the world system that builds around us without the direct input and recognition of God. A humanism that denies God exists or has a valid say in the conversation for the birth and progress of humanity. We may fight it by calling it out as such and seeking to fill any gaps with scripture that may apply. Many great scholars and theologians have fought back against the world system as so. But it is not a fight against other humans. The devil is behind it.
The flesh to any Christian is the lust and idolatry inherent to the human condition. Even if other people are involved intimately in a temptation, those people are not the enemy of the Christian any more than the Christian is the enemy of those participants. The Book of Romans is clear about this dynamic. When it comes to the enmity of the flesh for the Christian, others are not to blame, but the Christian is guilty. While the devil may be behind it, the devil does not get the actual blame for sins of the flesh. We do.
The devil as the enemy of the Christian needs no introduction or exegesis. Scripture clearly identifies and elaborates extensively on the Satan creature falling to Earth for pride and thereby becoming the enemy of mankind through devious interactions in the Garden, as Adam and Eve yielded their devotion.
Conclusion
Wrestling against the wrong force will cripple the force it was not intended to wrestle with, while empowering the force it does not take on properly. Do we see wicked principalities in power today? Have we helped propel them there? Have we made the people Christ died for our personal enemies? Some of the answers lie in who we really are. Are we CINOs? Are we regenerated? Are we self-deluded?
I can’t answer those questions for anyone else. But I can look around and see what it appears is happening in our world in our time. Evil seems to be unbridled and installed at the top. It didn’t get there on its own, but was elected and maintained by people who consider other people to be their enemies. That is neither the gospel of Christ nor the heart of God. Any so-called Christian concerned with anything but fulfilling the gospel of Christ or understanding and sharing the heart of God is out of the will of God. It’s no deeper than that. Can we be out of the will of God on a grand scale and still be Christians. Sure. But, likely, not for long.
While humanity is in a dispensation of grace, and God says all is forgiven, just come to Me, judgment of this world is not where we are at in history; but, according to Peter, the stage we are at is the judgment of believers (1 Peter 4:17). Well-meaning Christians who think they are fighting against other humans, when they do damage to those persons God died for, in or outside the Church, are to be judged here and now. See some of their downfalls in our news. Peter also says to be of a sober mind, considering…
