“Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against 

the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Ephesians 6:12).

The King James renders Ephesians 6:12 like this: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood.”  Many Christians have mis-heard and mis-read these words as saying “we don’t have to wrestle.”  But if you are a Christ follower, you are already in a wrestling match; at your baptism you were plunged into struggle, into battle.  Jesus’ call to “Follow me!” is a call to follow our King into a war zone. “Eyes wide open, church; don’t mis-see your lives!”

Paul is trying to do at least two things in these verses, both having to do with opening the eyes of the believers in Ephesus.  First, he wants them to know that other humans (“flesh and blood”) are not the real enemy. Yes, we are all capable of doing evil—Paul, following Jesus, will be executed by the Roman authorities—but Paul, following Jesus, knows that these “enemies” aren’t the real enemy; he knows that Jesus has commanded us to love our (human) enemies.

Second, Paul wants us to see where the struggle really lies.  We are wrestling “authorities, rulers, powers, spiritual forces of evil” – there is more going on than we see.  Paul goes into zero detail about the opponents we face, other than naming them. But he clues us into the nature of the battle by detailing our armor: truth, righteousness, peace, faith, salvation, the word of God.  

God’s truth is constantly assailed by lies, God’s righteousness by injustice and oppression, God’s peace by endless human wars.  We are constantly tricked into putting our faith in anything other than Jesus, hornswoggled into thinking salvation comes as our accomplishment rather than as God’s gift, constantly seduced into listening to everything  and everyone other than God.

Paul pictures us as ordinary foot soldiers.  Not generals or high officers, just “grunts.”  He wants us in armor and on station. We each have responsibilities to our Commander, our church has been given a common assignment. What he wants us to do is to stand, fully armored, fully alert, fully on duty, always in communication with HQ (“pray at all times in the Spirit with all kinds of prayers,” verse 18).

We are wrestling, just not against people. There’s a wonderful hymn whose opening lines run, “Christian, do not seek repose/Cast your dreams of ease away/You are in the midst of foes/Watch and pray, watch and pray.”  

Pick a person with whom you are often in conflict.  How would your prayers change if you saw that there was “something more” going on than simply that person being difficult?

 What if our political struggles are really spiritual battles “in disguise”?  How could that shape our prayers for our leaders?