For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Ephesians 6:12 NIVUK
In 1943, the real-life author of the James Bond stories, Sir Ian Fleming, was working for the British Government’s spy unit that went on to become MI5 and MI6. There, and with two of his colleagues, he drew up of the most audacious plans to confuse the Nazi war effort – something too audacious to even be in one of his books.
British agents got a hold of a dead body belonging to a Welsh labourer who had been found dead in a barn in London after accidentally ingesting rat poison. They gave him a fake name, a fake military record – even a fake funeral.
And then things got really bizarre. They dressed the dead body up as a senior military officer, had a boat take the body off the Atlantic coast of Nazi-occupied Spain and floated the body towards the coast.
In the pocket of the jacket worn by this fake military leader were fake documents stating that the Allies were planning to invade the Greek Island of Crete.
But they were not. They were planning to invade the southern Italian island of Sicily and push their way up through Nazi-sympathising Italy into southern Europe.
The body was floated towards the coast and picked up, as they suspected, by Nazi soldiers. To their amazement, British intelligence was able to get pictures of the documents on the desk of Adolf Hitler himself. Nazi troops and military hardware were moved to Crete to protect it against the invasion that never happened, and Allied troops were able to invade Sicily.
It was, quite frankly, am amazing intelligence trick that appeared too far-fetched for even a work of fiction. But it was true. And it worked.
Unfortunately, it’s plain to see that well-meaning Christians are often tricked into fighting in the wrong battleground.
Just like Adolf Hitler, we find ourselves fooled into fighting battles that are not ours to fight against people who are not our enemy. And the result is a serious loss of reputation for the Gospel and our God.
Over the past decade we have seen well-meaning Christians side-tracked into fighting political causes and hoodwinked into believing in preposterous conspiracy theories – none of which are Biblical. We have seen believers lining up behind dangerous men they believed would defend their cause, only to find that these men couldn’t care less about Christ and only care about power. We have seen the Christian message effectively ghettoised and corralled into becoming a nice, comforting message for the white elite rather than the earth-shaking message of repentance for all mankind.
A tremendous level of harm has taken place. The true, real, unmistakable and irreplaceable glory of the Gospel has been tarnished.
And that cannot be anything but wrong.
Paul has the antidote.
To understand the deep relevance of this verse, we must understand the context of the birth of the church in Ephesus, which we find in Acts 19.
The church began with a handful of local converts, whom Paul discipled and prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:1-7).
It then hit its first obstacle with an obstinate Jewish community who refused to believe (Acts 19:8-9).
This was followed by a series of outstanding supernatural events that led even adherents of occult practices to turn to the Lord (Acts 19:11-20).
It stands to reason that such times of revival and blessing could not go unnoticed. The success of Paul’s ministry on Ephesus caused a rise in profound jealousy among the pagan silversmiths who made a great deal of money selling images of the local goddess, Artemis – also known as Diana (Acts 19:21-27). This resulted in a riot (Acts 19:28-41).
So the church was planted in atmosphere of jealousy and violence.
It is into this context that Paul writes his words on the location of the battleground.
The church in Ephesus existed in a febrile atmosphere where three hostile forces were strong: Jewish, pagan and Roman. They had already experienced violent opposition. It would likely happen again.
Yet Paul deliberately tells them that their enemies are not ‘flesh and blood’! They are not physical; they are spiritual.
Paul goes on to use three terms that appear to refer to human beings: rulers, powers and authorities. These are like rungs in a hierarchy. However, it would be wrong to believe that Paul is using these to say that we are at war with human authorities – he’s just said that we are not. What this does mean is that there are ranks of evil powers at work in the world, tricking, threatening and cajoling unwitting human powers into doing their will.
But don’t let this strike fear into your heart. These spiritual powers, rulers and authorities are limited in what they can do and are already defeated:
The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him.
Colossians 1:15-16 NIVUK
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.
Ephesians 1:18-23 NIVUK
For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39 NIVUK
So what then should we do? How then should we wage war?
Paul tells Timothy – from a Roman prison – in a short couple of sentences that should take our breath away:
I urge, then, first of all, that petitions, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for all people – for kings and all those in authority, that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. This is good, and pleases God our Saviour, who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth.
1 Timothy 2:1-4 NIVUK
So Paul is saying that we wage spiritual warfare by praying for those who have power over us – even as they persecute, hound and harass us – so that they might be saved and we might all live peaceful lives through which the Gospel is free to spread.
That is how we wage war.
Not through protests. Not through revenge and reprisals. Not through countless vengeful legal cases. Not through fake news. Not through propaganda.
Through prayer. Through prayer for the very people who are persecuting us.
Many so-called Christians have weird ideas of what spiritual warfare really is – weird ideas that owe their existence more to strange pagan fantasies rather than sound theology.
Other Christians are so caught up in their cause – however just it might be – that they use it to justify any possible action, provided they reach their goal.
Both of these approaches to the Christian struggle are completely unbiblical and wrong.
Yes, Christians are engaged in a struggle. There is no doubt about that. Yes, we often have people who are determined to make themselves our enemies and to provoke us from behaving in ways that are not Christ-like. Yes, our cause may be entirely just. But they are not our enemy because our struggle is not against flesh and blood.
However, just because our struggle is not against flesh and blood does not permit us from carrying our bizarre pagan rituals or uncontrolled, ecstatic so-called ‘worship’ in order to wage warfare.
No, our warfare is far simpler and more humble than that. It’s prayer. Simple as that. Prayer that the authorities which oppose us will change their minds and grant freedom to the flow of the Gospel so that the Kingdom of God expands further.
And that’s it. No hidden secrets that are yours if you hand over $19.99 and every shred of theological and intellectual credibility. No bizarre rituals from a horror movie. No special words to say, spells to cast or incantations to use.
Just prayer. Prayer to a mighty God who answers.
Because that is where the victory lies.
Questions
1. Have you ever been distracted by a struggle that you shouldn’t have fought? What happened? How did you get out of it?
2. Why did Paul tell the Ephesians their struggle was not against flesh and blood? How would this have changed their attitude towards the authorities who were persecuting them?
3. What reasons are there in the Bible for us to be unafraid of the people who oppose us and the spiritual forces of evil that lie behind them?
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