Albert Barnes Commentary Ephesians 6:12

"For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual [hosts] of wickedness in the heavenly [places]." — Ephesians 6:12 (ASV)

For we wrestle. Greek, "The wrestling to us;" or, "There is not to us a wrestling with flesh and blood." There is undoubtedly an allusion here to the ancient games of Greece, a part of the exercises in which consisted in wrestling (see Barnes on 1 Corinthians 9:25 and following). The Greek word used here—palē—denotes a wrestling, and then a struggle, fight, or combat; here it refers to the struggle or combat which the Christian is to maintain—the Christian warfare.

Not with flesh and blood. Not with men (see Barnes on Galatians 1:16).

The apostle does not mean to say that Christians had no enemies among men who opposed them, for they were often exposed to fiery persecution; nor that they had nothing to contend with in the carnal and corrupt propensities of their nature (which was true of them then, as it is now); but that their main struggle was with the invisible spirits of wickedness who sought to destroy them. These spirits were the source and origin of all their spiritual conflicts, and the warfare was to be maintained with them.

But against principalities. There can be no doubt whatever that the apostle alludes here to evil spirits. Like good angels, they were regarded as divided into ranks and orders and were supposed to be under the control of one mighty leader (see Barnes on Ephesians 1:21).

It is probable that the allusion here is to the ranks and orders they held before their fall, a semblance of which they may still retain. The word principalities refers to principal rulers or chieftains.

Powers. Those who had power, or to whom the name of powers was given. Milton represents Satan as addressing the fallen angels in similar language:

"Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers."

Against the rulers of the darkness of this world. The rulers who preside over the regions of ignorance and sin with which the earth abounds (see Barnes on Ephesians 2:2).

Darkness is an emblem of ignorance, misery, and sin; and no description could be more accurate than that of representing these malignant spirits as ruling over a dark world. The earth—dark, wretched, ignorant, and sinful—is just the kind of dominion they would choose or cause; and the degradation and woe of the heathen world are just what foul and malignant spirits would delight in.

It is a wide and powerful empire. It has been consolidated by ages. It is sustained by all the authority of law, by all the omnipotence of the perverted religious principle, by all the reverence for antiquity, and by all the power of selfish, corrupt, and base passions. No empire has been so extended or has continued so long as that empire of darkness, and nothing on earth is so difficult to destroy.

Yet the apostle says that it was against that kingdom they were to make war. Against it, the kingdom of the Redeemer was to be set up, and that dark kingdom was to be overcome by the spiritual weapons he specifies. When he speaks of the Christian warfare here, he refers to the struggle with the powers of this dark kingdom.

He regards each and every Christian as a soldier to wage war on it in whatever way he could and wherever he could attack it. The struggle, therefore, was not primarily with men or with the internal corrupt propensities of the soul; it was with this vast and dark kingdom that had been set up over mankind.

I do not, therefore, regard this passage as having a primary reference to the struggle a Christian maintains with his own corrupt propensities. It is a warfare on a large scale with the entire kingdom of darkness throughout the world. Yet, in maintaining this warfare, the struggle will be with those portions of that kingdom with which we come in contact, and will actually relate to the following:

1. Our own sinful propensities—which are a part of the kingdom of darkness;
2. The evil passions of others—their pride, ambition, and spirit of revenge—which are also a part of that kingdom;
3. The evil customs, laws, opinions, employments, and pleasures of the world—which are also a part of that dark kingdom;
4. Error, superstition, and false doctrine—which are also a part of that kingdom;
5. And the wickedness of the heathen world—the sins of benighted nations—also a part of that kingdom.

Wherever we come in contact with evil—whether in our own hearts or elsewhere—there we are to make war.

Against spiritual wickedness. Margin: "or wicked spirits." Literally, "the spiritual things of wickedness;" but the allusion is undoubtedly to evil spirits and their influences on earth.

In high places—en tois epouraniois, meaning "in celestial or heavenly places." The same phrase occurs in Ephesians 1:3 and Ephesians 2:6, where it is translated "in heavenly places."

The word epouraniois is used of those who dwell in heaven (Matthew 18:35; Philippians 2:10), of those who come from heaven (1 Corinthians 15:48; Philippians 3:21), and of the heavenly bodies—the sun, moon, and stars (1 Corinthians 15:40). Subsequently, the neuter plural of the word is used to denote the heavens, and then the lower heavens—the sky, the air—represented as the seat of evil spirits (see Barnes on Ephesians 2:2).

This is the allusion here. The evil spirits are supposed to occupy the lofty regions of the air and from there to exert a baleful influence on human affairs. It is not necessary here to inquire into the origin of this opinion. No one can prove, however, that it is incorrect.

It is against such spirits and all their malignant influences that Christians are called to contend. In whatever way their power is put forth—whether in the prevalence of vice and error, of superstition and magic arts, of infidelity, atheism, or antinomianism, of evil customs and laws, of pernicious fashions and opinions, or in the corruptions of our own hearts—we are to make war on all these forms of evil and never yield in the conflict.