Ephesians 6:10-20

“Finally, be strengthened in the Lord and in the strength of his power. Clothe yourselves with the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens. For this reason, take up the full armor of God so that you may be able to stand your ground on the evil day, and having done everything, to stand. Stand firm therefore, by fastening the belt of truth around your waist, by putting on the breastplate of righteousness, by fitting your feet with the preparation that comes from the good news of peace, and in all of this, by taking up the shield of faith with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. And take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With every prayer and petition, pray at all times in the Spirit, and to this end be alert, with all perseverance and requests for all the saints. Pray for me also, that I may be given the message when I begin to speak – that I may confidently make known the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may be able to speak boldly as I ought to speak.”

— ‭‭Ephesians‬ ‭6‬:‭10‬-‭20‬‬ 

Countless sermons on this passage, and it’s pretty difficult to mess up the explanation of the armor. Most of these are genitives of apposition. So arming ourselves with truth, righteousness, faith, the gospel, etc. I don’t know if I would make a huge deal about which body part is covered with which attribute, but maybe that was Paul’s intention. It’s obviously compared to the Roman soldier, and there are distinctions, for example, in the type of shield he is referencing and the type of sword. This is the nice, big shield that everyone came together to make a barricade and nothing could penetrate it. This is the short dagger.

The other grammatical thing to point out is “pray” and “be alert” at the end of the passage are participles, probably more means. The NET says they are “loosely related” to this list. It could be prayer is how we arm ourselves. It could be the mind is where this battle really rages. Something along those lines. 

But the major point of this passage, is the first few verses. I hope someday certain groups of Christians learn and digest these words that we are not fighting flesh and blood. Some days I wish the “war” imagery weren’t in the Bible because it’s way too easy to translate that into fighting for x, y, z. And if we don’t “win,” then we’re losers. So we have to “stand” stronger and “fight” harder. But that only turns into yelling louder and using tactics and “methods” of the world. Not what we find in Ephesians 6 or the rest of the NT for that matter. We don’t fight against flesh and blood.

Of course, the problem is there are humans and concepts and ideologies that are affected by the “principalities and powers/rulers of the age” and so there’s tension knowing how to respond, how to take a stand, how to “fight.” But we have failed multiple times. One of my biggest takeaways from grad school was the term cultural engagement, not culture war. It’s not us vs. them. We are not fighting people. We are extending hope and light to a broken and chaotic world.

At the same time, yes, we are withstanding the true enemy. I recognize the tension there, but we must maintain the tension. Releasing the tension means we ignore clear teachings of Scripture and have casualties along the way, either our testimony, potential believers, etc.