John Calvin 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 not. To impress them even more deeply with their danger, he points out the nature of the enemy, which he illustrates by a comparative statement: Not against flesh and blood. This means that our difficulties are far greater than if we had to fight with humans. In that case, we resist human strength, sword is opposed to sword, person contends with person, force is met by force, and skill by skill; but here the case is widely different. It all amounts to this: our enemies are such that no human power can withstand them. By flesh and blood, the apostle denotes humans, who are called this to contrast them with spiritual assailants. This is no bodily struggle.

Let us remember this when the harmful treatment of others provokes us to revenge. Our natural disposition would lead us to direct all our efforts against the people themselves; but this foolish desire will be restrained by the consideration that the people who annoy us are nothing more than darts thrown by the hand of Satan. While we are busy destroying those darts, we leave ourselves exposed to be wounded on all sides. To wrestle with flesh and blood will not only be useless but highly pernicious. We must go straight to the enemy, who attacks and wounds us from his concealment—who slays before he appears.

But to return to Paul. He describes our enemy as formidable, not to overwhelm us with fear, but to heighten our diligence and earnestness, for there is a middle course to be observed. When the enemy is neglected, he does his utmost to oppress us with sloth and afterwards disarms us by terror, so that, before the engagement has commenced, we are defeated. By speaking of the power of the enemy, Paul strives to keep us more on the alert. He had already called him the devil, but now employs a variety of epithets to make the reader understand that this is not an enemy who may be safely despised.

Against principalities, against powers. Still, his object in producing alarm is not to fill us with dismay, but to excite us to caution. He calls them κοσμοκράτορας, that is, princes of the world; but he explains himself more fully by adding—of the darkness of the world.

The devil reigns in the world because the world is nothing else than darkness. Therefore, it follows that the corruption of the world yields to the kingdom of the devil, for he could not reside in a pure and upright creature of God; instead, all arises from the sinfulness of humanity.

By darkness, it is almost unnecessary to say, are meant unbelief and ignorance of God, with the consequences to which they lead. As the whole world is covered with darkness, the devil is called the prince of this world (John 14:30).

By calling it wickedness, he denotes the malignity and cruelty of the devil and, at the same time, reminds us that the utmost caution is necessary to prevent him from gaining an advantage. For the same reason, the epithet spiritual is applied, for when the enemy is invisible, our danger is greater. There is emphasis, too, in the phrase in heavenly places; for the elevated station from which the attack is made causes us greater trouble and difficulty.

An argument drawn from this passage by the Manicheans, to support their wild notion of two principles, is easily refuted. They supposed the devil to be (ἀντίθεον) an antagonist deity, whom the righteous God would not subdue without great exertion.

For Paul does not ascribe to devils a principality which they seize without consent and maintain in spite of the opposition of the Divine Being—but rather a principality which, as Scripture everywhere asserts, God, in righteous judgment, yields to them over the wicked.

The inquiry is not what power they have in opposition to God, but how far they should excite our alarm and keep us on our guard. Nor is any support given here to the belief that the devil has formed and keeps for himself the middle region of the air. Paul does not assign to them a fixed territory which they can call their own, but merely suggests that they are engaged in hostility and occupy an elevated station.