NOTES for Eph 6:11-12

It is not always easy to understand adequately Paul's words concerning the spiritual fight. For us today "the principalities, the powers and the rulers of the world” designate either the representatives of the earthly power, or a certain spiritual hierarchy, of course of the darkness.

However, neither the “yahvisme”, nor the Christian tradition has ever tended to an excessive spiritualism. Certainly, the existence of the spiritual world wasn’t a secret neither for the Judaism, nor for the Christianity, but this world (in exception maybe of the sects with gnostic orientation) has never thought as something, completely separated from our world.

Besides, neither the Jews, nor the Christians have ever exaggerated the influence of this world on the human affairs, although they did not deny it. And under "principalities", "powers" and "rulers of the world", if Paul probably hinted at certain spirits of the darkness, then it would be above all only about the sense of their influence on the spiritual state of concrete people. But indeed, the apostle says concretely that Christians will fight not with people!

It is not surprising: indeed, the battle of concrete people (even if it is about representatives of the power) can hardly change something radically: to the replacement of some come others, no society can be without power, and there is no reason for hope that the new ones will be better that the old.

The only battle, to which are called Christians is the battle against evil, in which lies the world. And there is only one way to resist this evil: do in such way that the Kingdom spreads the most fast and most widely possible in the world, transforming it. Because only a complete victory of the Kingdom can end this evil, in which the fallen world is laying.

Instructing the Christians of Ephesus, the apostle Paul lists at the end of his letter the spiritual means given to us so that we may serve God and resist evil. He calls them the “whole armor of God,” and from this arose the very concept of spiritual weapons. Having listed everything that belongs to this armor, the apostle turns to the way it should be used; the concluding passage of the letter that we read today is devoted to this. First and foremost, it speaks of prayer. Prayer in all the diversity of its forms is precisely the field in which the apostle calls us to employ the “whole armor of God.” The apostle deliberately does not choose particular forms or kinds of prayer; he speaks of “all” prayer. From his point of view, the essential thing is that prayer be offered. The constancy of our spirit in this offering to God of ourselves, other people, and the whole world is the chief thing to which the apostle calls us. The second important point is the call to embrace the whole Church in our prayer, and especially its mission. The apostle’s concluding phrases open to us an extraordinary opportunity to participate in the ministry carried out by other people by praying for them and receiving them into our heart.

From the theme of social relations Paul moves to the theme of Christian ministry and its place in society. He immediately proclaims that Christians do not struggle against people, even if those people are in power. Following Jewish usage, he calls people "flesh and blood." The aim of their struggle is the spiritual forces that determine the condition of the fallen world, which he calls "rulers," "authorities," and "controllers of this present darkness" ("world rulers of the darkness of this age"), connecting with them "the breath of evil that is under heaven" ("spiritual hosts of wickedness under heaven," v. 12). The goal of Christians, as we can see, is not the seizure of power or social change as such, but the lessening of the influence of those forces of evil which, while acting mainly through people, are not themselves human, using the human person only as an instrument. Of course, a person can become such an instrument only by giving consent to it.

In saying this, the apostle was probably warning those who were carried away by ideas of religious-political messianism, which were widespread in those days in synagogue and near-synagogue circles. And any struggle for power in general, if it becomes an end in itself, by no means lessens the measure of evil in the world; it gives the spirits of darkness the broadest scope for their activity. Only the Kingdom entering the world can lessen that measure, and therefore the Christian's main task is witness to the Kingdom and to salvation, as well as to the One who brought it into the world. But for this witness to be adequate, the witness needs faithfulness ("truth") and righteousness, without which one cannot share in the Kingdom (vv. 14-15). And the main weapons of the witness in resisting the evil in which the world lies are trust in God ("faith"), righteousness, which is the best witness to the Kingdom, and the Torah, the word of God, which makes it possible to distinguish good from evil and to make the right choice in the difficult situations in which the witness sooner or later will find himself (vv. 14-17). On that choice, in the end, will depend not only the fate of those to whom he bears witness, but also his own salvation.

‘…and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God…’ Saint Philaret (Drozdov) writes: ‘A soldier girds himself to bind his clothing, brace his body and thus act with greater strength and freedom. Truth must be your girdle. Come to know the truth, hold fast to the truth, bind your thoughts, inclinations and desires with the truth. Girded in this way, you can act spiritually with strength and freedom, without growing weak through sloth, stumbling over temptation, wavering because of false teachings, or falling into sin and vice. A soldier puts on armour so that the enemy's weapon cannot wound him even if it strikes him. Let righteousness, honesty and virtue be your armour. An upright conscience will keep you inwardly unharmed even if slander or injustice assails you outwardly. By putting on his footwear, a soldier becomes ready to advance against the enemy without injuring his feet. In place of footwear, let yours be a readiness to go forth not to attack and strike—for that is not what your warfare consists in—but to proclaim the good news of peace: the peace of Christ that overcomes all enmity and strife. A soldier takes up a shield to keep the enemy's arrows from reaching his body. The invisible enemy also directs arrows at you, sharp and wounding, fiery and burning: sometimes the less visible arrows of thoughts that oppose God, of doubts, of inflamed passions and lusts; sometimes the more visible arrows of false accusations, insults and even persecutions at the hands of the enemies of truth and virtue. But if your heart is covered by the shield of faith, even the sharp arrows will not pierce it, and the burning ones will be extinguished without doing harm. A soldier protects his head with a helmet against wounds, especially dangerous in this part of the body. You too must protect your mind with the helmet of salvation or, as the apostle explains more fully in another epistle, the helmet of the hope of salvation (see 1 Thess 5:8). Whatever difficulties or dangers you may encounter, hope in God must not let the spirit of despondency enter your soul, for deadly despair could follow it. By striking the enemy with his sword, a soldier renders both the enemy's strength and the power of his weapons ineffective. In this same way, and still more victoriously, acts the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. With this weapon our Commander Himself, the Lord Jesus, fought a battle that is an example for us and won a victory over the prince of evil that brings us good. It is written, He said, man shall not live by bread alone... It is written: you shall not put the Lord your God to the test... It is written: you shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him alone (Mt 4:4, 7, 10). And, pierced three times by the sword of the Spirit, the enemy left the battlefield exhausted. Arm yourself too, Christian, with the sword of the Spirit, with the word of God; keep it in your memory and in your heart; train yourself to turn its point against every word of lawlessness—and no evil will be invincible for you, no power of the enemy fearsome, no stratagem of his impenetrable, and all his weapons will be shattered and brought to nothing.’