<p>6:12 <i>For we do not wrestle only against flesh and blood, but also against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenlies</i>- At least three possible interpretations present themselves. The language is partly relevant to Angels; yet also to the Judaizers and also to the Roman authorities. Those three possibilities can mesh with each other. Paul is writing in Jewish terms to a group under the influence of Judaizers and Jewish thinking. The Old Testament presents the world as under the control of Angels, with each power group having Angelic representatives in the court of Heaven. For &quot;spirits&quot; see on Dan. 10:20,21. Paul sees the Christian conflict as not only against their own flesh and blood, or even against individual humans; but against systems of wickedness, both Judaist and Roman. Both groups were involved because the Jews were seeking to use Roman power and litigation to destroy the Christians, just as they had in the crucifixion of the Lord. And yet Paul frames the conflict in terms of Angels because he sees great comfort in the fact that all situations on earth are allowed by Angelic control, and God is not unaware of the earthly situation. We find this kind of approach commonly used in Revelation. Here, the &quot;principalities and powers&quot; can refer therefore both to literal Angels and to those they represent in the Roman system; the wicked spirits in heavenlies can refer to Judaizers within the church as well as to their representatives in the throne room of Heaven.</p><p>As regards common misunderstanding of this passages, note that the world is under God&rsquo;s control, not that of evil beings in heaven (Dan. 4:32). &ldquo;All power&rdquo; in heaven and in earth has been given to Jesus (Mt. 28:18) by God (Rev. 3:21; Lk. 22:29), so it cannot also be possessed by wicked beings in heaven. There can be no sinful being in Heaven itself (Ps. 5:4,5; Hab. 1:13; Mt. 6:10). There is much figurative language in vv. 11&ndash;17 &ndash; the armour of the Christian is figurative, as is the wrestling, seeing that &ldquo;the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men&rdquo; (2 Tim. 2:24); v. 12 should be similarly interpreted. If the &ldquo;Devil&rdquo; was cast out of heaven in Eden, how could he and his followers still have been in the literal heavens in Paul&rsquo;s time?</p><p>The same phrase &quot;Principalities and powers&quot; is used in Col. 2:15 concerning the Angels who gave the Law. The phrase &quot;wiles&quot; (:11) is only used again in 4:14 (&quot;Lie in wait&quot;) regarding the Judaizer-devil circulating false doctrine. The rulers of the Jewish heavenlies were both literal Angels and the Judaizers whom they represented in the court of Heaven. Eph. 6:13 warns of a forthcoming battle: &quot;Take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day&quot;- the spiritual battle between the Law of Moses and that of Christ which is detailed in Rev. 12. Paul could see that in the final conflict against the Judaizers, he would need courage to speak out as he should: &quot;Pray... for me... that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the Gospel&quot; (v. 19)- a phrase often used in connection with Gentiles and Jews having equal standing with God through Christ.</p><p>The Greek for &quot;wrestle&quot; in Eph. 6:12 is the same word as &quot;cast out&quot; in Rev. 12. The battle of the Christians then was not to cast out men- &quot;we wrestle not against flesh and blood&quot;. This is a real difficulty for any 'explanation of difficult passages' that tries to make this refer to human rulers alone. It was the Jewish devil that needed casting out, and the Angel principalities and powers which co-ordinated it. There is no doubt that &quot;principalities and powers&quot; does also refer to Jewish and Roman authorities (Lk. 12:11; 20:20; Mt. 7:29 etc). This is to be expected once we understand that the devil and satan of the New Testament often refers to both Jewish and Roman systems and the Angels behind them. Remember that the Angels rule the world. God's system of manifestation remains constant. In the same way as the &quot;pattern of things in the Heavens&quot; in the Angelic organization there was repeated on earth through the organization of the tabernacle and the <i>elohim</i> of Israel's judges and priests, so that Heavenly system is maybe also reflected through the judges and leaders of the world, every one of whom is controlled by an Angel. Hence the identical language used for both Angels and worldly rulers- in the same way as&nbsp;Angel-Cherubim language is used concerning both Angels and earthly armies, e.g. of Babylonians, who fulfilled their will.</p><p>This passage seems a footnote to the epistle: &quot;Finally, my brethren...&quot; (v. 10). This is similar to the footnotes begun in Phil. 3:1; Gal. 6:12 and 1 Tim. 6:20, all of which warn against the Judaizers - indicating the immense importance Paul attached to the coming struggle with the &quot;Principalities and powers&rdquo;.</p><p>The context is set in v. 13. The preparation was to be because the church was facing &ldquo;the evil day&rdquo;. This refers to a period of especial persecution of the church, which was to come at the hands of the Romans, seeing they were the only people with enough power to create an &ldquo;evil day&rdquo; for the Christian church at the time Paul was writing. (1 Pet. 4:12; 5:8&ndash;9). The wrestling was against &ldquo;the rulers of this dark world&rdquo;, who at the time were the Romans. Note that the wrestling is spiritual wrestling to keep the faith (2 Cor. 10:3&ndash;5). This time of evil had already begun as Paul was writing (Eph. 5:16) &ndash; &ldquo;the days are evil&rsquo;. &ldquo;Principalities&rdquo; is translated &ldquo;magistrate&rdquo; in Luke 12:11; human &ldquo;rule&rdquo;, in the sense of human government, in 1 Corinthians 15:24, and the &ldquo;power&rdquo; of the Roman governor in Luke 20:20. So it does not necessarily have reference to any power or prince in heaven. &ldquo;Powers&rdquo; is translated as the &ldquo;authority&rdquo; of the Roman governor in Luke 20:20, and regarding one having &ldquo;authority&rdquo; in Matthew 7:29. We must &ldquo;be subject to principalities and powers&rdquo; (Titus 3:1) in the sense of earthly governments, insofar as they do not ask us to do things which are contrary to the law of God (Acts 5:29; 4:19; Mt. 19:17). If &ldquo;principalities and powers&rdquo; are evil beings in heaven whom we must resist, why are we told to be subject to them? If we accept that they refer to human governors and authorities, then this is easily understandable. &ldquo;Heavenly places&rdquo; may also refer to positions of authority in the secular world. Thus the king of Babylon was a figurative &ldquo;star&rdquo; in heaven (Is. 14:12), i.e. a great ruler. Jesus is the &ldquo;sun&rdquo; (Mal. 4:2), the saints are the &ldquo;stars&rdquo; (Dan. 12:3) of the future order. The present &ldquo;heavens&rdquo; of man will be replaced by the new Heavens when the Kingdom is established on the earth (2 Pet. 3:13), i.e. the positions of power and rulership, now in the hands of sinful men, will be handed over to the true Christians. The saints of the Most High shall possess the kingdoms of men (Dan. 7:27). Thus wicked spirits in the &ldquo;heavens&rdquo; could refer to men of wicked minds in places of power in the world who were persecuting the Christians.</p><p>&ldquo;Wicked spirituals in high (heavenly) places&rdquo; does not refer to wicked beings in heaven itself. The exalted position of the true believers in Christ is described as being &ldquo;in heavenly places in Christ&rdquo; (Eph. 2:6). &ldquo;Spirituals&rdquo; can be used to describe those in the church who had the gift of the spirit; having given a list of commands as to how the gifts of the spirit should be used, Paul concludes: &ldquo;If any man (in the church) think himself to be a prophet, or spiritual (i.e. spiritually gifted, see N.I.V.), let him acknowledge that the things that I write unto you are the commandments of the Lord&rdquo; (1 Cor. 14:37). 1 Corinthians 14 shows there was a big problem in the church of believers misusing the spirit gifts. Hebrews 6:4&ndash;6 describes some Jewish Christians in the first century who had the gift of the spirit, but who were leading the church away from true Christianity by their attitude. These would be a prime example of wicked spirituals in the heavenlies (i.e. in the church). The temple and ark are sometimes referred to as the heavens (2 Sam. 15:25, cp. 1 Kings 8:30; 2 Chron. 30:27; Ps. 20:2,6; 11:4; Heb. 7:26). The church is the new temple. In the same way as wicked people could be in the temple, so, too, they could be in the heavenlies of the church. Possession of the Spirit did not mean that someone was necessarily acceptable in God&rsquo;s sight, e.g. Saul possessed it for a time (1 Sam. 10:10) as did the judges of Israel (Num. 11:17) although they were not righteous; they did not believe the report of Joshua and Caleb and therefore were condemned to die like the other Israelites, despite their having the Spirit &ndash; Psalm 82:1&ndash;7 says as much. For a period the churches of Revelation 2 and 3 possessed the gifts despite their errors, until eventually their candlestick was removed (cp. Acts 20:28&ndash;29; Eph. 4:11; Rev. 2:5). Thus the wicked spirits in the heavenlies were apostate Christians within the church, in league with the Judaists, leading the church into an &ldquo;evil day&rdquo; of temptation.</p><p>Thus the threat to the church was twofold: from the Roman/Jewish persecution and from the (often Judaist) &ldquo;false apostles&rdquo; (2 Cor. 11:13) within. Remember Ephesians 6:11&ndash;13 was written to the church at Ephesus. Paul had previously warned them about this threat from within: &ldquo;For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock. Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them&rdquo; (Acts 20:29&ndash;30). Rotherham&rsquo;s translation brings this out well: &ldquo;Our struggle is against the principalities against the authorities against the world &ndash; rulers of this darkness, AND against spiritual wickedness in heavenlies&rdquo;.</p><p>It is possible to still interpret &ldquo;the Devil&rdquo; in v. 11, as having a certain degree of reference to the &ldquo;Jewish Satan&rdquo;. The &ldquo;Heavenly places&rdquo; of v. 12 may refer to the Jewish heavenlies; 2 Peter 3 and Deuteronomy 32:1 speak of the Jewish heavens. This is strengthened by the fact that the &ldquo;sun, moon and stars&rdquo; are sometimes figurative of the Jews (e.g. Genesis 22:17; 37:9; Dan. 8:9,10,24). We have shown that the wicked spirituals may have reference to the Jewish Christians who were spirit&ndash;gifted, but turned to apostasy. They would thus be in both the Christian and Jewish &ldquo;heavenlies&rdquo;. The threat from within the church posed by the Judaizers infiltrating the church, who were Jews. Thus &ldquo;the Devil&rdquo; was manifested in the Roman authorities <i>and </i>the Jews within the Christian church. The two entities were connected insofar as the Jewish synagogue powers often informed the Roman authorities against the Christians.</p><p>The &ldquo;wiles of the Devil&rdquo; offers support to the Jewish context in that the Greek word for &ldquo;wiles&rdquo; is elsewhere translated &ldquo;to lie in wait to deceive&rdquo;, in a verse which talks about the Judaizers subtly trying to introduce false doctrine into the church: the church was being &ldquo;tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive&rdquo; (Eph. 4:14). If the &ldquo;heavenly places&rdquo; also represent the Jewish system, further meaning is given to Ephesians 3:3&ndash;10: &ldquo;The mystery... that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs (with the Jews), and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the Gospel... To make all men (both Jews and Gentiles) see what is the fellowship of the mystery... To the intent now that unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God&rdquo;, i.e. that by the church showing the unity that existed between Jew and Gentile within it, the Jewish leaders (&ldquo;principalities and powers in heavenlies&rdquo;) might come to appreciate &ldquo;the manifold wisdom of God&rdquo;. This, in turn, opens up John 17:21: &ldquo;That they all (Jews and Gentiles) may be one... that the world (this phrase almost always means the Jewish world in John&rsquo;s Gospel) may believe that You have sent me&rdquo;. The &ldquo;evil day&rdquo; of v. 13 would be a result of the Judaizers, who were &ldquo;evil men and seducers&rdquo; (2 Tim. 3:13).</p><p>Another approach is to be found by considering the view that many of the later New Testament documents are full commentary upon and critical allusion to popular ideas of false religion which were circulating at the time. The commentary of David Pitt-Francis on&nbsp;Ephesians 6 bears quoting at more length:</p><p>&ldquo;The object of the Christian message was to shake such imagined deities out of their places, so that men would give real glory to Christ, and to the God of Heaven alone. Paul describes the conflict of Christian witness as a struggle, not against flesh and blood but... &ldquo;against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this present darkness; against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places&rdquo;. To many unacquainted with the real impact of the gospel, both sun and moon seemed to have personal&shy;ities which they did not possess, as did the stars of heaven, heaven itself, and those exalted parts of nature such as mountains and islands. Thus Isaiah 2, which contains primarily a prophecy against idolatry in Israel and describes idol&ndash;worship in the context of &lsquo;high mountains&rsquo; and &lsquo;lofty hills&rsquo; contains a description of the flight of men into caves and holes of the rocks from the terror of God, and this description is borrowed in Revelation. The end of the worship of sun, moon and stars is also foretold by Isaiah in a later passage, where the imagined gods of heaven are described as being punished: &ldquo;On that day, the Lord will punish the host of heaven, in heaven &ndash; and the kings of the earth, on earth &ndash; they will be gathered together as prisoners in a pit... then the moon will be ashamed, and the sun confounded for the Lord of hosts will reign&rdquo; (David Pitt-Francis, <i>The Most Amazing Message Ever Written</i> (Irchester: Mark Saunders Books, 1984) chapter 4).</p>