Ephesians 6:10

Here is a general exhortation to constancy in our Christian course, and to encourage in our Christian warfare. Is not our life a warfare? It is so; for we struggle with the common calamities of human life. Is not our religion much more a warfare? It is so; for we struggle with the opposition of the powers of darkness, and with many enemies who would keep us from God and heaven. We have enemies to fight against, a captain to fight for, a banner to fight under, and certain rules of war by which we are to govern ourselves. "Finally, my brethren (Eph 6:10), it yet remains that you apply yourselves to your work and duty as Christian soldiers." Now it is requisite that a soldier be both stout-hearted and well armed. If Christians be soldiers of Jesus Christ,

I. They must see that they be stout-hearted. This is prescribed here: Be strong in the Lord, etc. Those who have so many battles to fight, and who, in their way to heaven, must dispute every pass, with dint of sword, have need of a great deal of courage. Be strong therefore, strong for service, strong for suffering, strong for fighting. Let a soldier be ever so well armed without, if he have not within a good heart, his armour will stand him in little stead. Note, spiritual strength and courage are very necessary for our spiritual warfare. Be strong in the Lord, either in his cause and for his sake or rather in his strength. We have no sufficient strength of our own. Our natural courage is as perfect cowardice, and our natural strength as perfect weakness; but all our sufficiency is of God. In his strength we must go forth and go on. By the actings of faith, we must fetch in grace and help from heaven to enable us to do that which of ourselves we cannot do, in our Christian work and warfare. We should stir up ourselves to resist temptations in a reliance upon God's all-sufficiency and the omnipotence of his might.

II. They must be well armed: "Put on the whole armour of God (Eph 6:11), make use of all the proper defensitives and weapons for repelling the temptations and stratagems of Satan - get and exercise all the Christian graces, the whole armour, that no part be naked and exposed to the enemy." Observe, Those who would approve themselves to have true grace must aim at all grace, the whole armour. It is called the armour of God, because he both prepares and bestows it. We have no armour of our own that will be armour of proof in a trying time. Nothing will stand us in stead but the armour of God. This armour is prepared for us, but we must put it on; that is, we must pray for grace, we must use the grace given us, and draw it out into act and exercise as there is occasion. The reason assigned why the Christian should be completely armed is that he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil - that he may be able to hold out, and to overcome, notwithstanding all the devil's assaults, both of force and fraud, all the deceits he puts upon us, all the snares he lays for us, and all his machinations against us. This the apostle enlarges upon here, and shows,

1. What our danger is, and what need we have to put on this whole armour, considering what sort of enemies we have to deal with - the devil and all the powers of darkness: For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, etc., Eph 6:12. The combat for which we are to be prepared is not against ordinary human enemies, not barely against men compounded of flesh and blood, nor against our own corrupt natures singly considered, but against the several ranks of devils, who have a government which they exercise in this world. (1.) We have to do with a subtle enemy, an enemy who uses wiles and stratagems, as Eph 6:11. He has a thousand ways of beguiling unstable souls: hence he is called a serpent for subtlety, an old serpent, experienced in the art and trade of tempting. (2.) He is a powerful enemy: Principalities, and powers, and rulers. They are numerous, they are vigorous; and rule in those heathen nations which are yet in darkness. The dark parts of the world are the seat of Satan's empire. Yea, they are usurping princes over all men who are yet in a state of sin and ignorance. Satan's is a kingdom of darkness; whereas Christ's is a kingdom of light. (3.) They are spiritual enemies: Spiritual wickedness in high places, or wicked spirits, as some translate it. The devil is a spirit, a wicked spirit; and our danger is the greater from our enemies because they are unseen, and assault us ere we are aware of them. The devils are wicked spirits, and they chiefly annoy the saints with, and provoke them to, spiritual wickednesses, pride, envy, malice, etc. These enemies are said to be in high places, or in heavenly places, so the word is, taking heaven (as one says) for the whole expansum, or spreading out of the air between the earth and the stars, the air being the place from which the devils assault us. Or the meaning may be, "We wrestle about heavenly places or heavenly things;" so some of the ancients interpret it. Our enemies strive to prevent our ascent to heaven, to deprive us of heavenly blessings and to obstruct our communion with heaven. They assault us in the things that belong to our souls, and labour to deface the heavenly image in our hearts; and therefore we have need to be upon our guard against them. We have need of faith in our Christian warfare, because we have spiritual enemies to grapple with, as well as of faith in our Christian work, because we have spiritual strength to fetch in. Thus you see your danger.

2. What our duty is: to take and put on the whole armour of God, and then to stand our ground, and withstand our enemies.

(1.) We must withstand, Eph 6:13. We must not yield to the devil's allurements and assaults, but oppose them. Satan is said to stand up against us, Ch1 21:1. If he stand up against us, we must stand against him; set up, and keep up, an interest in opposition to the devil. Satan is the wicked one, and his kingdom is the kingdom of sin: to stand against Satan is to strive against sin. That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, in the day of temptation, or of any sore affliction.

(2.) We must stand our ground: And, having done all, to stand. We must resolve, by God's grace, not to yield to Satan. Resist him, and he will flee. If we distrust our cause, or our leader, or our armour, we give him advantage. Our present business is to withstand the assaults of the devil, and to stand it out; and then, having done all that is incumbent on the good soldiers of Jesus Christ, our warfare will be accomplished, and we shall be finally victorious.

(3.) We must stand armed; and this is here most enlarged upon. Here is a Christian in complete armour: and the armour is divine: Armour of God, armour of light, Rom 13:12. Armour of righteousness, Co2 6:7. The apostle specifies the particulars of this armour, both offensive and defensive. The military girdle or belt, the breast-plate, the greaves (or soldier's shoes), the shield, the helmet, and the sword. It is observable that, among them all, there is none for the back; if we turn our back upon the enemy, we lie exposed. [1.] Truth or sincerity is our girdle, Eph 6:14. It was prophesied of Christ (Isa 11:5) that righteousness should be the girdle of his loins and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. That which Christ was girded with all Christians must be girded with. God desires truth, that is, sincerity, in the inward parts. This is the strength of our loins; and it girds on all other pieces of our armour, and therefore is first mentioned. I know no religion without sincerity. Some understand it of the doctrine of the truths of the gospel: they should cleave to us as the girdle does to the loins, Jer 13:11. This will restrain from libertinism and licentiousness, as a girdle restrains and keeps in the body. This is the Christian soldier's belt: ungirded with this, he is unblessed. [2.] Righteousness must be our breast-plate. The breast-plate secures the vitals, shelters the heart. The righteousness of Christ imputed to us is our breast-plate against the arrows of divine wrath. The righteousness of Christ implanted in us is our breast-plate to fortify the heart against the attacks which Satan makes against us. The apostle explains this in Th1 5:8, Putting on the breast-plate of faith and love. Faith and love include all Christian graces; for by faith we are united to Christ and by love to our brethren. These will infer a diligent observance of our duty to God, and a righteous deportment towards men, in all the offices of justice, truth, and charity. [3.] Resolution must be as the greaves to our legs: And their feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, Eph 6:15. Shoes, or greaves of brass, or the like, were formerly part of the military armour (Sa1 17:6): the use of them was to defend the feet against the gall-traps, and sharp sticks, which were wont to be laid privily in the way, to obstruct the marching of the enemy, those who fell upon them being unfit to march. The preparation of the gospel of peace signifies a prepared and resolved frame of heart, to adhere to the gospel and abide by it, which will enable us to walk with a steady pace in the way of religion, notwithstanding the difficulties and dangers that may be in it. It is styled the gospel of peace because it brings all sorts of peace, peace with God, with ourselves, and with one another. It may also be meant of that which prepares for the entertainment of the gospel, namely, repentance. With this our feet must be shod: for by living a life of repentance we are armed against temptations to sin, and the designs of our great enemy. Dr. Whitby thinks this may be the sense of the words: "That you may be ready for the combat, be shod with the gospel of peace, endeavour after that peaceable and quiet mind which the gospel calls for. Be not easily provoked, nor prone to quarrel: but show all gentleness and all long-suffering to all men, and this will certainly preserve you from many great temptations and persecutions, as did those shoes of brass the soldiers from those galltraps," etc. [4.] Faith must be our shield: Above all, or chiefly, taking the shield of faith, Eph 6:16. This is more necessary than any of them. Faith is all in all to us in an hour of temptation. The breast-plate secures the vitals; but with the shield we turn every way. This is the victory over the world, even our faith. We are to be fully persuaded of the truth of all God's promises and threatenings, such a faith being of great use against temptations. Consider faith as it is the evidence of things not seen and the substance of things hoped for, and it will appear to be of admirable use for this purpose. Faith, as receiving Christ and the benefits of redemption, so deriving grace from him, is like a shield, a sort of universal defence. Our enemy the devil is here called the wicked one. He is wicked himself, and he endeavours to make us wicked. His temptations are called darts, because of their swift and undiscerned flight, and the deep wounds that they give to the soul; fiery darts, by way of allusion to the poisonous darts which were wont to inflame the parts which were wounded with them, and therefore were so called, as the serpents with poisonous stings are called fiery serpents. Violent temptations, by which the soul is set on fire of hell, are the darts which Satan shoots at us. Faith is the shield with which we must quench these fiery darts, wherein we should receive them, and so render them ineffectual, that they may not hit us, or at least that they may not hurt us. Observe, Faith, acted upon the word of God and applying that, acted upon the grace of Christ and improving that, quenches the darts of temptation. [5.] Salvation must be our helmet (Eph 6:17); that is, hope, which has salvation for its object; so Th1 5:8. The helmet secures the head. A good hope of salvation, well founded and well built, will both purify the soul and keep it from being defiled by Satan, and it will comfort the soul and keep it from being troubled and tormented by Satan. He would tempt us to despair; but good hope keeps us trusting in God, and rejoicing in him. [6.] The word of God is the sword of the Spirit. The sword is a very necessary and useful part of a soldier's furniture. The word of God is very necessary, and of great use to the Christian, in order to his maintaining the spiritual warfare and succeeding in it. It is called the sword of the Spirit, because it is of the Spirit's inditing and he renders it efficacious and powerful, and sharper than a two-edged sword. Like Goliath's sword, none like that; with this we assault the assailants. Scripture-arguments are the most powerful arguments to repel temptation with. Christ himself resisted Satan's temptations with, It is written, Mat 4:4, Mat 4:6, Mat 4:7, Mat 4:10. This, being hid in the heart, will preserve from sin (Psa 119:11), and will mortify and kill those lusts and corruptions that are latent there. [7.] Prayer must buckle on all the other parts of our Christian armour, Eph 6:18. We must join prayer with all these graces, for our defence against these spiritual enemies, imploring help and assistance of God, as the case requires: and we must pray always. Not as though we were to do nothing else but pray, for there are other duties of religion and of our respective stations in the world that are to be done in their place and season; but we should keep up constant times of prayer, and be constant to them. We must pray upon all occasions, and as often as our own and others' necessities call us to it. We must always keep up a disposition to prayer, and should intermix ejaculatory prayers with other duties, and with common business. Though set and solemn prayer may sometimes be unseasonable (as when other duties are to be done), yet pious ejaculations can never be so. We must pray with all prayer and supplication, with all kinds of prayer: public, private, and secret, social and solitary, solemn and sudden; with all the parts of prayer: confession of sin, petition for mercy, and thanksgivings for favours received. We must pray in the Spirit; our spirits must be employed in the duty and we must do it by the grace of God's good Spirit. We must watch thereunto, endeavouring to keep our hearts in a praying frame, and taking all occasions, and improving all opportunities, for the duty: we must watch to all the motions of our own hearts towards the duty. When God says, Seek my face, our hearts must comply, Psa 27:8. This we must do with all perseverance. We must abide by the duty of prayer, whatever change there may be in our outward circumstances; and we must continue in it as long as we live in the world. We must persevere in a particular prayer; not cutting it short, when our hearts are disposed to enlarge, and there is time for it, and our occasions call for it. We must likewise persevere in particular requests, notwithstanding some present discouragements and repulses. And we must pray with supplication, not for ourselves only, but for all saints; for we are members one of another. Observe, None are so much saints, and in so good a condition in this world, but they need our prayers, and they ought to have them. The apostle passes hence to the conclusion of the epistle.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(10) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord.—The address “my brethren” appears to be an interpolation (probably from Php_3:1). Frequent as it is from St. Paul, it is not found either in this or in the Colossian Epistle.

Be strong.—Properly, be strengthened in the inner man; go on from strength to strength (as in Act_9:22; 2Ti_2:1). So in Php_4:13 we have the cognate expression, “Christ that strengtheneth me,” in whom “I can do all things.” The conception is nearly that of Eph_3:16; except that there the idea is rather of passive strength and firmness, here of active power to fight “in the power of God’s might,” working in us, because it works in our Master. (Comp. Eph_1:19-20.) It differs also from that which follows. “Christ in us” is here our life and indwelling strength; in the next verses the likeness of Christ, as manifested in various graces, is the armour “put on” for the battle.

(6. Conclusion (Eph_6:10-24).

(1) FINAL EXHORTATION to put on the whole armour of God, in order to stand fast in the struggle, not against flesh and blood, but against unearthly powers of evil (Eph_6:10-17).

(2) SPECIAL DESIRE OF THEIR PRAYERS, as for themselves and for all men, so especially for St. Paul himself (Eph_6:18-20).

(3) COMMENDATION OF TYCHICUS (Eph_6:21-22).

(4) CLOSING SALUTATION (Eph_6:23-24).]

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_6:10

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.

Why strength is needed

There is good reason for our being so often advised in the Scriptures to be strong. Christian character has two sides. We cease to do evil. We also learn to do well. But doing well is impossible if we are not strong. The forces of evil are many and mighty. Life is short. The love of ease is deep rooted. Unless we are strong we effect nothing. Our lives shall be mere bundles of resolves never effected, collections of impotent wishes that never come to anything. (Dr. John Hall.)

Moral strength

It often requires a braver man to say No, than to take the Cashmere Gate at Delhi. Perfect courage consists in doing without a witness all that we could do if the whole world were looking on. A poor mill girl in the north of England had been led by her clergymans teaching to become a regular communicant, and because of this she had to bear every kind of persecution, chiefly from members of her own family. They not only tried every kind of insult to vex her, but even blasphemed the Blessed Sacrament itself. At last the poor girl went to her clergyman, saying, What shall I do? I cannot bear it much longer. And he reminded her of her Saviours sorrow, and how that when he was reviled He opened not His mouth. At last, one day, this true heroine of humble life fell down dead from heart disease, and when they removed her dress, they found a piece of paper stitched inside it, on which were these words--He opened not His mouth. She had won her victory, and now she rests where the wicked cease from troubling and the weary are at rest. Anyone can resent an injury, it takes a brave man to bear it patiently. (H. J. Wilmot-Baxton, M. A.)

The apostles humility

Brother is a word of equality; in calling them brethren, he makes himself equal unto them, though he himself were one of the principal members of Christs body, one of the eyes thereof, a minister of the Word, an extraordinary minister, an apostle, a spiritual father of many souls, a planter of many famous Churches, yea, the planter of this Church at Ephesus; and though many of them to whom he wrote were poor, mean men, handicraftsmen, such as laboured with their hands for their living; and many also servants, and bondmen; yet without exception of any, he terms and counts them all his brethren, and so makes himself equal to them of the lower sort. Behold his humility. For if to affect titles of superiority, as Rabbi, Doctor, Father, be a note of arrogancy (as it is, and therefore Christ in that respect taxed the Scribes and Pharisees), then to take and give titles of humility is a note of humility. The like notes of humility may be oft noted both in other Epistles of this apostle, and in the Epistles of other apostles, yea, and in all the prophets also. Well they knew that, notwithstanding there were divers officers, places, and outward degrees, among Christians; yet they all had one Father, and were fellow members of one and the same Body, and in regard of their spiritual estate all one in Christ Jesus. (William Gouge.)

Of Christian courage end resolution, wherefore necessary, and how obtained

The Christian, of all men, needs courage and resolution. Indeed, there is nothing he doth as Christian, nor can do, but is an act of valour. A cowardly spirit is beneath the lowest duty of a Christian (Jos_1:7), Be thou strong and very courageous, that thou mayest--what? stand in battle against those warlike nations? No, but that thou mayest observe to do according to all the law, which Moses My servant commanded thee. It requires more prowess and greatness of spirit to obey God faithfully, than to command an army of men; to be a Christian, than to be a captain. What seems less than for a Christian to pray? yet this cannot be performed aright without a princely spirit; as Jacob is said to behave himself like a prince, when he did but pray; for which he came out of the field Gods banneret. Indeed if you call that prayer which a carnal person performs, nothing more poor and dastard-like. Such a one is as great a stranger to this enterprize, as the cowardly soldier is to the exploits of a valiant chieftain. The Christian in prayer comes up close to God, with a humble boldness of faith, and takes hold of Him, wrestles with Him; yea, will not let Him go without a blessing, and all this in the face of his own sins, and Divine justice, which let fly upon him from the fiery mouth of the law; while the others boldness in prayer is but the child, either of ignorance in his mind, or hardness in his heart; whereby not feeling his sins, and not knowing his danger, he rushes upon duty with a blind confidence, which soon fails when conscience awakes, and gives him the alarm that his sins are upon him, as the Philistines on Samson: alas! then in a fright the poor-spirited wretch throws down his weapon, flies the presence of God with guilty Adam, and dares not look Him in the face. Indeed, there is no duty in a Christians whole course of walking with God, or acting for God, but is lined with many difficulties, which shoot like enemies through the hedges at the Christian, whilst he is marching towards heaven: so that he is put to dispute every inch of ground as he goes. They are only a few noble-spirited souls, who dare take heaven by force, that are fit for this calling. For the further proof of this point, see some few pieces of service that every Christian engageth in.

1. The Christian is to proclaim and prosecute an irreconcilable war against his bosom sins; those sins which have lain nearest his heart must now be trampled under his feet.

2. The Christian is to walk singularly, not after the worlds guise (Rom_12:2).

3. The Christian must keep on his way to heaven in the midst of all the scandals that are cast upon the ways of God, by the apostasy and foul falls of false professors.

4. The Christian must trust in a withdrawing God (Isa_50:10). This requires a holy boldness of faith.

5. The believer is to persevere in his Christian course to the end of his life; his work and his life must go off the stage together. This adds weight to every other difficulty of the Christians calling. We have known many who have gone into the field, and liked the work of a soldier for a battle or two, but soon have had enough, and come running home again; but few can bear it as a constant trade. Many are soon engaged in holy duties, easily persuaded to take up a profession of religion, and as easily persuaded to lay it down; like the new moon, which shines a little in the first part of the night, but is down before half the night be gone; lightsome professors in their youth, whose old age is wrapt up in thick darkness of sin and wickedness. O this persevering is a hard word! this taking up of the cross daily, this praying always, this watching night and day, and never laying aside our clothes and armour; I mean indulging ourselves to remit and unbend in our holy waiting on God, and walking with God; this sends many sorrowful away from Christ; yet this is the saints duty to make religion his everyday work, without any vacation from one end of the year to the other. These few instances are enough to show what need the Christian hath of resolution.

The application follows.

1. This gives us then a reason why there are so many professors and so few Christians indeed; so many go into the field against Satan, and so few come out conquerors; because all have a desire to be happy, but few have courage and resolution to grapple with the difficulties that meet them in their way to happiness.

2. Let us, then, exhort you Christians to labour for this holy resolution and prowess, which is so needful for your Christian profession, that without it you cannot be what you profess. The fearful are in the forlorn of those that march for hell (Rev_21:1-27). The violent and valiant are they which take heaven by force; cowards never won heaven. Say not, thou hast royal blood running in thy veins, and art begotten of God, except thou canst prove thy pedigree by this heroic spirit, to dare to be holy in spite of men and devils. The eagle tries her young ones by the sun; Christ tries His children by their courage, that dare look on the face of death and danger for His sake (Mar_8:34-35). Now, Christian, if thou meanest thus courageously to bear up against all opposition, in thy march to heaven as thou shouldst do well to raise thy spirit with such generous and soul-ennobling thoughts, so in an especial manner look thy principles be well fitted, or else thy heart will be unstable; and an unstable heart is weak as water, it cannot excel in courage.

Two things are required to fix our principles.

1. An established judgment in the truth of God. He that knows not well what or whom he fights for, may soon be persuaded to change his side, or at least stand neuter. Such may be found that go for professors, that can hardly give an account what they hope for, or whom they hope in; yet Christians they must be thought, though they run before they know their errand; or if they have some principles they go upon, they are so unsettled that every wind blows them down, like loose tiles from the housetop. Blind zeal is soon put to a shameful retreat, while holy resolution, built on fast principles, lifts up its head like a rock in the midst of the waves. Those that know their God shall be strong and do exploits (Dan_11:32).

2. A sincere aim at the right end in our profession. Let a man be never so knowing in the things of Christ, if his aim be not right in his profession, that mans principles will hang very loose; he will not venture much, or far for Christ, no more, no further than he can save his own stake. A hypocrite may show some metal at hand, some courage for a moment in conquering some difficulties, but he will show himself a jade at length. He that hath a false end in his profession, will soon come to an end of his profession, when he is pinched on that toe where his corn is; I mean, called to deny that his naughty heart aimed at all this while; now his heart fails him, he can go no further. O take heed of this wistful eye to our profit, pleasure, honour, or anything beneath Christ and heaven; for they will take away your heart, as the prophet saith of wine and women; that is, our love; and if our love be taken away, there will be nothing left for Christ. (W. Gurnall, M. A.)

Strength in the Lord

The meaning of the text is--Be strong as those may be who are bound to God in Christ.

1. Our enlistment. We have been taken into Christs army, to fight under His banner. Not solitary knight errants; but an embattled host set in array under the banner of a Captain. This prevents our thinking too much of ourselves. The more we forget ourselves the better. The soldier in an army does not fight for himself. He fights as one of many, for a common cause. He is willing to die, for his part--to have his place filled up, and be forgotten, provided the victory be won by his commander. This is what touches us all in a soldiers life; and it touches us first because it is an image of the true Divine law for each. To lose ones self in the cause, and to be zealous, enduring, brave, in the service of the King and the Realm, is as much the glory of a soldier of Jesus Christ, as of the professional soldier.

2. This feeling, of the community of our service, may be strengthened much by thinking of our common enemies. There are wickedness and darkness in the world, spiritual in their nature, and to be fought against as spiritual foes. Victory is to be won over evil; over ignorance and stupidity; over malignant errors and false opinions; over vice and misery. These are the devils servants, ever active and encroaching, whom we are commissioned to repel. Our fighting against these enemies must be done in common. The evils are social, or rather anti-social. Every man is hindered or helped by all his neighbours. We cannot, if we would, fight alone. No man liveth or dieth to himself. We know not whom we may help by a truth, or whom we may hinder by a lie. Let us remember that our own enemies are our brothers enemies, and that his enemies are ours, and that all victories over evil are a common gain. (J. Ll. Davies, M. A.)

Strong Christians

A weak and cowardly soldier is a pitiful object, but a weak-kneed, cowardly Christian is still more so. I do not mean that we must be noisy and violent, and quarrelsome in our religion. None of these things are a proof of strength. A giant of power is ever the gentlest, having the hand of steel in the glove of silk. So the stronger a Christian is the more humbly he bears himself. A writer of the day says very truly, If the world wants iron dukes, and iron men, God wants iron saints.

I. Be strong in faith. Be quite sure that you do believe; be quite clear what you believe, and then show your faith strongly. Oar faith is not built on sand, but on a rook. It is not founded on such words as--perhaps, I suppose, I hope. No, the Creed of the Church says, I believe. Be ready to give a reason for the faith that is in you.

II. Be strong in your language. When Lord Nelson was going into his last battle, they wished him to cover, or lay aside, the glittering orders of victory which adorned his breast. But the hero refused, and perhaps his refusal cost him his life. Well, let us never hide the marks of our profession as Christian soldiers; even if we have to suffer, let men know that we bear about in our bodies the marks of the Lord Jesus.

III. Be strong in self-sacrifice for Jesus. We must not forget our cross. Let me tell you the stories of two simple servant maids who, under very different circumstances, gave up their life for the life of little children. The scene of the first story was in America, nearly five and twenty years ago; that of the second story was in London, quite recently. A young English girl had taken service in a family going to America, and her special duty was the charge of the three motherless children of her widowed master. One cold day in December they all embarked in a great Mississippi steamboat bound for the far Northwest. Day after day they steamed through the swollen river, where pieces of ice were already showing, past dark and gloomy shores, lined with lonely forest. One night, near the end of their voyage, the girl had seen her charges, two girls and a boy, safely asleep, and now, when all the other passengers had retired, she was reading in the saloon. Suddenly the silence was broken by a terrible cry, which told the frightened passengers that the steamboat was on fire. The captain instantly ran the vessel for the shore, and ordered the people to escape as best they could, without waiting to dress. The faithful servant had called her master, and then carried the children from their beds to the crowded deck. Quickly the blazing vessel touched the muddy bank, and the father placed the shivering children and the servant on one of the huge branches which overhung the river. A few other passengers, fifteen in all, reached other branches, the rest went down with the burning steamer. But what hope could there be for the children, just snatched from their warm beds, and now exposed unclad to the bitter December night? Their father had no clothing to cover them, and, as he spoke of another steamer which would pass by in the morning, he had little hope of his children holding out. Then the servant maid declared that if possible she would keep the little ones alive. Clinging in the darkness to the icy branches, she stripped off her own clothing, all but the thin garment next her body, and wrapped up the shivering children. Thus they passed the long, dark hours of that terrible night. I know not what prayers were spoken, but I know that Jesus, who suffered cold and hunger for our sakes, made that servant girl strong to sacrifice herself. During the night one of the children died, but in the morning, when the first light came, the little girls were still alive. Then, when her work was done, the freezing limbs of the brave girl relaxed their hold, a deadly sleep fell on her, and she dropped silently into the rushing river below. Presently a steamer came in sight, and the two children for whom she had died were safe. Only quite lately there was a great fire in London. In the burning house were a husband and wife, their children, and a servant maid. The parents perished in the flames, but the servant appeared to the sight of the crowd below, framed, as it were, in fire, at a blazing window. Loudly shouted the excited crowd, bidding the girl to save herself. But she was thinking of others. Throwing a bed from the window, she signalled to those below to stretch it out. Then, darting into the burning room, she brought one of the children of her employers, and dropped it safely on to the bed. Fiercer grew the flames, but again this humble heroine faced the fire, and saved the other children. Then the spectators, loudly cheering, begged her to save herself. But her strength was exhausted, she faltered in her jump, and was so injured that death soon came to her. My brothers, no one will raise a grand monument to Emma Willoughby, and Alice Ayres, who passed, the one through water, the other through fire, for Christs dear sake. But surely in Gods great Home of many mansions their names are written in letters of gold.

IV. Be strong in fighting the battle. You know that life is a great battlefield. Put on, then, the whole armour of God. Stand, as Christs soldiers, side by side, shoulder to shoulder, with your faces to the foe. When Napoleon retreated from Moscow, and the main body had passed by, the mounted Cossacks hovered around the stragglers, who, overcome by cold and fatigue, could only force their way slowly through the snow. Many a weary Frenchman thus fell beneath the Cossack lances. Presently a band of these fierce horsemen saw a dark object on the snowy plain, and dashed towards it. They were face to face with a small body of French who had formed into a square to resist them, their bayonets at the charge. The Cossacks rode round and round, seeking for a weak place for attack, and finding none. At length they charged the square, and found it formed of frozen corpses. The Frenchmen had died whilst waiting for the foe. Brothers, may death find us fighting the good fight. Be strong in the Lord. (H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, M. A.)

Christian strength

Christian strength is a subject which needs emphasizing. Christians have not always been strong. The mediaeval saints, with their fastings and scourgings, their pale faces and emaciated forms, in spite of much that was beautiful in their lives, were not strong. It was a false conception of the Christian life which drove them to the fancied safety of the cloister, while the voice of the great Captain was calling His soldiers, then as now, to fight the eternal battle against sin and selfishness in the glare of day and amid the temptations of the world. And in our own day how many religious biographies are but a tedious record of lives that were in no sense strong. It is scarcely surprising that the average young mans opinion of the religious life should be that it is not a very attractive thing; at any rate, as wanting in broad, strong, cheerful humanity. And yet strength and common sense--sturdy strength and masculine common sense--have always been the characteristics of true Christianity. They are the characteristics of Christ Himself. How strong and fearless the spirit with which He went ever to the heart and core of religion! Woe unto you, ye formalists! Or look again at the life of the great apostle. Was not His religion strong and masculine, healthy and practical. Study the way in which He dealt with the vexed questions of His time, such as slavery, or mixed marriage, or meats offered to idols, or circumcision, or the larger question of the relation of Jew to Gentile; and you will find He never fails to divide the kernel from the husk, the essential from the accidental, the eternal from the temporal. You will find that freedom, and love of truth, and a great-hearted catholic sympathy from the very fibre and tissue of his teaching. And so it should be now. So it is now, with all true saints of God. Human nature is not a poor thing, but a grand thing-grand in its origin, for in His own image God created us: grand in its achievements, for men have lived and are living heroic lives by the power of Christ; grand in its destiny, for we shall one day be like Christ and see Him as He is. (W. M. Furneaux, M. A.)

Strong in prayer

Be strong in the Lord means Be strong in prayer: and never was the warning more needful than in our day. We live in an age of steam and electricity, of activity and bustle, of jostle and close contact: an age which is nothing if it is not practical: an age which scarcely disguises its contempt for a life of contemplation. We are all tempted to fancy that the hours which we give to prayer and meditation are wasted hours: we are all the more tempted to think so, because on every side of us are earnest men, working zealously in the cause of humanity, who do not even pretend to be in any sense men of prayer. And yet it is my profound conviction that every life, however faithfully it be spent in the services of others, falls immeasurably below what it might be, if it is not inspired by prayer. I stood a few weeks ago before the grandest creation of human art, the San Sisto Madonna of Raphael. On an easel at my side was a finished copy. It was the work of a good artist. Every line of feature, every fold of drapery, every shade and tint of colour, seemed a faithful reproduction of the great masterpiece. Yet something was lacking. The nameless something which constitutes the divine genius of the original had evaporated and perished in the copy. My brothers, it is even so with the life of a man who prays, and the life of a man who prays not. We all know men whose faces, as we look upon them, are transparent with a radiant purity: we feel that the light upon their features is a reflection from the light which falls upon the countenance of their Angel who always beholds the face of their Father in heaven: we feel that in their presence we breathe a purer atmosphere, which sends us away stronger in courage and in purpose: we feel that they have a strength which others have not, because they are men of prayer. They go forth every morning to the days work, refreshed and invigorated by prayer: they have learnt to turn, now and again, throughout the day, to their Masters face. In proportion as we train ourselves, in every moment of doubt and difficulty, of trial and temptation--nay, in every little act of daily life--to look upon that Face so helpful in its calm strength, so sweet in its radiant purity, we shall lead noble lives, which shall be indeed strong in the Lord. (W. M. Furneaux, M. A.)

The need of Christian courage

Christian valour and spiritual courage is a needful grace.

1. Because of our own indisposition, timorousness, dulness, and backwardness to all holy and good duties. What Christian findeth not this by woeful experience in himself? When he would pray, etc., there is I know not what fearfulness in him; his flesh hangeth back, as a bear when he is drawn to the stake.

2. Because of those many oppositions which we are sure to meet.

(1) The world.

(2) The devil. (William Gouge.)

All strength from God

The strength and valour whereby we are enabled to fight the Lords battle, is hid in the Lord, and to be had from Him. The Lord has thus reserved all strength in Himself, and would have us strong in Him, for two reasons:

1. For His own glory, that in time of need we might fly unto Him, and in all straits cast ourselves on Him; and, being preserved and delivered, acknowledge Him our Saviour, and accordingly give Him the whole praise.

2. For our comfort, that in all distresses we might be the more confident. Much more bold may we be in the Lord, than in ourselves. Gods power being infinite, it is impossible that it should be mated by any adverse power, which at the greatest is finite. Were our strength in ourselves, though for a time it might seem sufficient, yet would there be fear of decay; but being in God, we rest upon an Omnipotency, and so have a far surer prop to our faith. (William Gouge.)

Gods power is most mighty

The power of God, whereunto we are to trust, is a most mighty and strong power, a power able to protect us against the might of all other powers whatsoever. According to Gods greatness is His power--infinite, incomprehensible, unutterable, inconceivable. As a mighty wind which driveth all before it; as a swift and strong stream, against which none can swim; as a burning flaming fire which consumeth and devoureth all--so is Gods power. Whatsoever standeth before it, and is opposed against it, is but as chaff before a strong wind, or bulrushes before a swift current, or stubble before a flaming fire; for all other power, though to our weakness it seem never so mighty, can be but finite, being the power of creatures, and so a limited power, yea, a dependent power subordinate to this power of might, of His might who is Almighty, and so no proportion betwixt them.

1. A strong prop is this to our faith, and a good motive to make us trust entirely to the power of God, without wavering or doubting, notwithstanding our own weakness, or our adversaries power.

2. It is no matter of presumption, to be sure of victory, being strong in this mighty power, because it is the power of Almighty God. (William Gouge.)

The benefit of confidence in God

1. It will remove causeless fear (Neh_6:11; Pro_22:13).

2. It will make bold in apparent danger (Psa_3:6; Pro_28:1).

3. It will recover a mans spirit, though he should by occasion be wounded, stricken down, and foiled; so as though at first he prevail not, yet it will make him rise up again and renew the battle (Jos_8:3; Jdg_20:30). (William Gouge.)

A Christians warfare

A few general observations on the warfare of a Christian.

I. It is in its nature honourable.

1. As to what he opposes. Sin. Satan. Sinners, He.

2. As to what he aims at. Gods glory. The salvation of souls.

3. As to the parties that are with him. God. Angels. Saints.

II. It is very mysterious. As--

1. The principal agents in it are invisible.

2. None see or understand it but by experience.

3. His enemies eventually promote his victory. Job. Paul. But I would ye should understand, brethren, etc. (Php_1:12).

4. Its weapons can be used by thousands at once.

5. He dies to conquer and be crowned.

III. It is the most important.

1. Whether Christ or Satan be superior.

2. Whether he shall be saved or lost.

IV. His armour is complete.

V. His enemies are condemned, and virtually conquered.

1. Sin.

2. Satan.

3. Death. (H. J. Foster.)

The apostolic exhortation

1. Brethren--

(1) As begotten of the same spiritual Father.

(2) As entitled to the same privileges.

(3) As bearing the same spiritual features.

2. Be strong.

I. The nature of the exhortation. Seen by describing a Christian soldier strong in the Lord, etc. As he has to do--

1. With the guilt of accumulated sin (Psa_51:1, etc.).

2. With a body of indwelling sin (Rom_7:1, etc.).

3. With Satans temptations (2Co_12:7-9).

4. With great outward trials (Job_1:1, etc.; Act_20:23-24).

5. With death.

II. The way in which the Lord brings His people to be as He exhorts.

1. By showing them the importance of their situation. As made for eternity. As accountable to God. Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in His sight, etc. (Heb_4:13). As called to glorify God.

2. By giving them to feel that they can do nothing.

3. By showing that in the Mediator is all they want.

4. By teaching them to pray for strength.

5. By giving them to know that He dwells in them.

6. By showing them what He has done before for them and for others. (H. J. Foster.)

Strength in the Lord

What makes the strongest things in the material world--the trees, the rocks, the mountains? A law which we call the law of their gravitation. That is, they are under a law which draws first the parts one to another, and then altogether into one centre. It is the same law which does both--that attracts them to each other, and then to a common point. Hence their firmness; hence their fixedness; hence their strength. And as it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual world. There must be, and there must be felt, a great pervading, constraining principle. This principle must fasten us altogether, and it must fasten to one deep, hidden centre. And that principle is the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. God meant that to be to the moral world what the law of gravitation is to the material world. Perhaps the chief end of the material law was to be an illustration of the spiritual. We must all follow the attractiveness of Christ. So we must each tend to Christ, and all draw to the Christ which we see in one another. And if we all drew to one common Christ, and to the Christ we see in each other, we should have true strength--we should be strong in the Lord. There is another truth which nature teaches. If I wish to give intensity of strength to anything,--say to the light--I gather it to a focus. And so God has constituted the human mind, it is strong only when it is concentrated. And to meet this necessity of our being, God has provided one great, all-absorbing object, to which the whole man is to converge. Need I say what that object is? It is His own glory. For this we were created--for this we were redeemed--for this we were sanctified. And according as we live indeed for that, we are efficient and we are happy. Divide your end--live for many ends, and immediately talents are frittered, energies wasted, the man is enervated. But be a man of one thing--bent on one purpose--and you will be astonished to find how strong you will become. But, besides this, there is a deep, mysterious rock of strength, which I must not leave out of the calculation. And it is essential, very essential, for no man can be strong who has it not. The vine and the branches shadow it out--the Lords Supper embodies it--every spiritual office promotes it--I mean the actual union which there is between the soul and Christ. I should be afraid to say such a thing if God had not declared it in the plainest terms--the actual oneness of a believers spirit with the spirit of the Lord Jesus--He in us, and we in Him--for this is the strength. Strength, then, is always flowing--just as the oil flowed from the two olive trees, which are the priestly and the kingly character of Jesus--the grace sufficient for the human mind--the strength for every days need--the bidden life--the innate power of God in a man. You must be always realizing and cherishing the union with the Spirit by certain acts--acts of pious thought--holy fondness--frequent participation in the Lords Supper--secret communion, and habitual prayer. (J. Vaughan, M. A.)

Strength against temptation

On the eve of one of the most eventful of Englands naval conflicts, Nelson hung aloft from the masthead that inspiring admonition, which was read with a thrill of heroic feeling by his fleet: England expects every man to do his duty. Not less startling and inspiring, as addressed to the young men of our land, should be the stirring admonition that comes to us from a greater leader, and at a crisis more momentous, Be strong in the Lord.

I. The strength required.

1. It is not primarily physical strength. The time was when this was a prime element in the estimate of a man, nor can we doubt that it is undervalued now.

2. Neither does the direction of the text apply specifically to intellectual strength. This is not without its importance, although without moral aims it is a blind giant, and with perverted aims it is a wilful giant.

3. But far more important than this is moral strength. Here, too, something depends upon original endowment. There are some whose moral natures seem made of wax. Most unfortunately there is nothing in them like flint to strike fire from. The devil shapes them at will, as a woman kneads her dough. A strong temptation bears them away, as a whirlwind does the down of a thistle. Yet sometimes where we witness this, it is not all due to nature. It would be a libel upon her to say so. There is a moral greatness, not necessarily religious, which we admire, for it is strong. It may be heathen greatness, it may be a Pagan strength, but it rests upon the basis of strong character, and the moral element of it forces our applause. There was strength, when Socrates scorned to escape from prison, and chose rather to drink the fatal hemlock. There was strength, when Joseph Reed, of Revolutionary memory, approached by bribes of British gold, nobly replied: I am poor, very poor, but poor as I am, the King of Great Britain is not rich enough to buy me. But how much more noble and enviable than this is the strength of religious principle, strength in God. It is not strong necessarily in muscle, in intellect, in strategy; but it is strong in resistance to moral assault, to temptations that, in winning guise and in more than carnal strength, would draw the soul to perdition. The real battle of life is with Satan and his arts and followers, and the real hero is he who wins in this conflict.

II. But whence is this strength to come? Be strong in the Lord, is the reply. (E. H. Gillett.)

Strength in suffering

A. B--was a young woman residing at Acton at the time I was a student for the ministry. She was heavily afflicted, paralyzed, crippled, deaf, and half blind. Her life was passed in one chamber, for the most part on one couch, but the circle of her influence had a wide radius. In the face of overwhelming infirmities she maintained a spirit of serene and cheerful contentment which no new adversity could break. When her bodily strength rallied a little she filled her room, not with wailing or complaint, but with songs of thankfulness; when the wave of physical vitality ebbed again, the unspoken praise lay in quiet sunshine on the pale but smiling face. When the benumbed fingers recovered for a few days some portion of their former nimbleness, she was happy in resuming the dainty needlework by which her bread was earned. When she could do nothing but suffer, her brave soul shone in undiminished patience. Even among women I have never known another so strong in grace--in love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. And what, think you, was her own explanation of this noble and beautiful strength? She gave it to me one evening after I had watched her through a paroxysm of neuralgic torture: He giveth power to the faint, and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. (W. Woods.)

The secret of strength

Many small wax lights, which of themselves burn faintly, when put into one torch or taper send forth a bright and shining flame; many tittle bells, which tinkle together to the pleasing of children, when melted and cast into one great bell do affect the ear in a more solemn and awful sound; and many single threads, which snap asunder with the least touch, when twisted together make a strong cable, which can withstand the fury and violence of a storm. So it is with the mind; the more it is scattered and divided through multiplicity of objects, the more weak it is; and the more it is fixed on one single object, the more masculine and strong are the operations of it, either for good or evil. (W. Spurstowe.)

The power of Gods might

What the power of Gods might is, we very well know. Mountains tremble, and rocks melt before it; the sea feels it, and flies; Jordan is driven back. Armies are discomfited, and cut off by a blast in the night. The world itself was produced by this power, in one instant, and may be destroyed in another. All created power, if opposed to that of the Creator, withers and falls, like a leaf in autumn, when shaken by the stormy wind and tempest. It is in the power of this might, that the apostle exhorts as to be strong. But how is this--Hast thou an arm like God; or canst thou thunder with a voice like Him? Yet St. Paul would never enjoin us to seek after that which could not be obtained, Our Redeemer is Almighty; He is with us by His Spirit, and His strength is ours. Look at His apostles in their natural state; ignorant, and fearful of everything: view them endued with power from on high; acquainted with the whole counsel of God, and bold to proclaim it through all the nations of the earth. During the persecutions of the Church in her infant state, numbers of the weaker sex, receiving strength and courage from above, in the hour of trial, patiently endured all the torments which the malice of men and devils could invent. They triumphed gloriously--Now are they crowned, and receive palms from the Son of God whom they confessed in the world. The promise of assistance in time of need is to us all: to us, and to our children, and to as many as the Lord our God shall call. From Thee, blessed Jesus, we learn our duty: to Thee must we look, and to thy all-powerful grace, for strength to perform it. Not in ourselves, but in Thee, and in the power of Thy might, we are strong. Without Thee, we can do nothing: with Thee we can do all things. It is this consideration which alone can support us, when we take a view of the enemies whom we must encounter. (Bishop Home.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 6:10-11. The apostle having delivered the preceding precepts respecting relative duties, now adds a general exhortation to the believing Ephesians, to be hearty and zealous in the performance of all their duties, which he enforces by the discovery of another deep article of the mystery of God; namely, that evil angels are leagued together against men, and are continually occupied in tempting them to sin. Finally — Το λοιπον, as to what remains; my brethren — This is the only place in this epistle where he uses this compellation. Soldiers frequently use it to each other in the field. Be strong in the Lord — Since every relation in life brings along with it corresponding duties, and requires vigour and resolution in the discharge of them, whatever therefore the circumstance or situation may be which you are in, see that you do not rely on your own strength, but apply to the Lord, for his strength, and arm yourselves with the power of his might —

Confiding therein by faith, persuaded that nothing else will suffice to enable you to withstand the assaults of your spiritual enemies, and to do and suffer the will of God concerning you. Remember, that to be weak and remain so, is the way to be overcome and perish. Put on the whole armour of God — The Greek word here used, πανοπλια, means a complete suit of armour, offensive as well as defensive; consisting in the exercise of all those Christian graces with which we are furnished by God, to be used in his strength, as well to annoy the enemy, as to defend ourselves: and it appears, by the particular description which the apostle here gives of it, that it includes every sort of armour, and is adapted to the defence of every part liable to be attacked. He says, not armour, but whole armour; and the expression is repeated Eph 6:13, because of the strength and subtlety of our enemies, and because of an evil day of sore trial being at hand. Macknight thinks the apostle contrasts the graces and virtues which he mentions, with the complete armour fabled by the heathen poets to have been fabricated by the gods, and bestowed on their favourite heroes. “That armour was vastly inferior to the complete armour of God. For, 1st, The Christian’s complete armour is really of divine workmanship, and is actually bestowed on the Christian soldier; whereas the other is mere fiction. 2d, The armour said to have been given by the heathen gods, consisting of brass and steel, could only defend the body of the hero who was covered with it; but the complete armour given by the true God, consisting of the Christian virtues, is useful for defending the minds of the faithful against all the temptations with which their enemies attack them. 3d, The complete armour of God gives strength to the Christian soldier in the battle; and therefore is far preferable to any armour made of metals, which may defend, but cannot strengthen the body of the warrior.” That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil — Against all his artifices and subtle methods, against all the snares he may lay for you, and all the rage and fury with which he may attack you. The original expression, μεθοδειας, signifies crafty ways. The apostle does not simply intend the temptations which arise from the motions of the flesh, the love of pleasure, the fear of persecution, the contagion of evil example, the solicitations of the wicked, the sophisms of the philosophers and the unbelieving Jews, and the false glosses of heretical teachers in the church itself; but all these temptations as prepared and pointed against men, by such skilful, experienced, and malicious enemies as the devil and his angels. See the next verse.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Closing appeals, Eph_6:10-24.

10. Finally—St. Paul, having finished his model Church, home Church included, now remembers that it is a militant Church. His Ephesians are the elect eternal of God; they have become so in conspicuous array against the Gentiles they have left; but they are to fight against apostate foes of God, who would conquer and capture them for a reprobate, instead of an elect, destiny.

My brethren—The only place, says Bengel, in which he calls them brethren; for in no place are fellow-soldiers so brethren as in battle array. But later critics decide that even here the word is not genuine.

Be strong—Rather, strengthened; for his whole letter has been cheering and triumphant.

Power of his might—Note on Eph_3:16.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES

Eph_6:10. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.—In Eph_1:19 the phrase “power of His might” is reversed. See note there.

Eph_6:11. The whole armour.—“The panoply.” “A complete suit of armour.” The wiles of the devil.—A craftily designed plan of attack.

Eph_6:12. For we wrestle.—We need not suppose a transference of the metaphor. It may describe the hand-to-hand fight in which equally matched opponents refuse to back an inch. Not against flesh and blood.—With “vulnerable crests” (Macbeth). When ghostly combatants appear, unassailable, and with powers of injury against which we are helpless, we may well say:

“Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves

Shall never tremble.”

MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—Eph_6:10-12

The Christian Warfare—

I. Can be fought only with divine help.—“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might” (Eph_6:10). The apostle has dwelt like one enraptured on the sublime constitution and glorious destiny of the Church; now he deals with the formidable foes with which the Church will have to contend. He sees the evil forces gathering, and hears the clash of arms among the approaching enemies. He warns believers that unaided they will be powerless in the strife and must suffer defeat. They are secure and will be victorious only as they make the strength of God their own. The strength of the general, in other hosts, lies in his troops; he flies, as a great commander once said, upon their wings; if their feathers be clipped, their power broken, he is lost. But in the Christian army the strength of every saint lies in the Lord of hosts. God can overcome His enemies without their hands; but they cannot even defend themselves without His arm. Man is impotent without the strength of God. If the ship, launched, rigged, and with her sails spread, cannot stir till the wind fills them, much less can the timber in the carpenter’s yard hew and frame itself into a ship. Power to contend with the spiritual foes must come from God.

II. Involves a fierce conflict with the powers of evil.—

1. A conflict, not with men, but with unseen spiritual enemies. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities” (Eph_6:12). The apostle brings out in bold relief the terrible foes they are summoned to encounter.

(1) As to their position. They are no subalterns, but foes of mighty rank, the nobility and chieftains of the spirit-world.

(2) Their office. Their domain is this darkness in which they exercise imperial sway.

(3) Their essence. They are not encumbered with an animal frame, but are spirits.

(4) Their character. They are evil—their appetite for evil only exceeds their capacity for producing it (Eadie). The Church is engaged in a double conflict—of the flesh and of the spirit. We are assailed with the temptations of the world of sense, and with seductions of error that attack us in the world of mind; and in both spheres we have to contend with the subtle influences set in motion by the rulers of the darkness of this world. Our foes invade “the high places” of our faith and hope, and would rob us of our heaven.

2. A conflict with unseen spiritual enemies led by an astute and subtle commander.—“That ye may be able to withstand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph_6:11). The New Testament assumes the personality of Satan. This belief runs counter to modern thought, governed as it is by the tendency to depersonalise existence. The conception of evil spirits given us in the Bible is treated as an obsolete superstition; and the name of the evil one with multitudes serves only to point a profane or careless jest. To Jesus Christ, Satan was no figure of speech, but a thinking and active being, of whose presence and influence He saw tokens everywhere in this evil world. Satan’s empire is ruled with a settled policy, and his warfare carried on with a system of strategy which takes advantage of every opening for attack. The manifold combinations of error, the various arts of seduction and temptation, the ten thousand forms of the deceit of unrighteousness constitute “the wiles of the devil.” Satan is no longer the God of this world since Christianity lose to its ascendant. The manifestations of demonism are, at least in Christian lands, vastly less conspicuous than in the first age of the Church. But they are more bold than wise who deny their existence, and who profess to explain all occult phenomena and phrenetic moral aberrations by physical causes (Findlay).

III. Is victorious only as the warrior is armed with the divine panoply.—“Put on the whole armour of God” (Eph_6:11). They who put on Christ are well clothed; they are armed from head to foot, and are proof against the darts of the devil. The Christless man is defenceless; his own understanding and gifts do not sufficiently arm him. The soldier comes into the field with no arms but what his general commands: it is not left to every one’s fancy to bring what weapons he pleases; this would breed confusion. So the Christian soldier must put on the armour God provides, and be completely clothed with it. To leave one part unguarded will bring disaster. In one of the famous battles between the English and French, that which lost France the day was a shower of English arrows which so galled the horses that they became unmanageable, put the whole army into disorder, and trod down their own men. So if there be the least loophole in our armour the wily adversary will quickly discover it and shoot through his fiery darts which will effect confusion and defeat.

Lessons.—

1. The Christian life is a conflict between good and evil.

2. God is always on the side of the good.

3. The Christian warrior must fight with weapons divinely provided.

GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES

Eph_6:10-12. A Call to Christian Fortitude.

I. Here is an exhortation to Christian fortitude.—“Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.” It is not bodily but mental strength which is here intended. True fortitude or courage is a temper of mind by which we steadily follow the calls of duty, without being deterred by danger or diverted by difficulty. It is a virtue founded in a regard to God and supported by faith in Him. It is cool and deliberate, not rash and impetuous; it is kind and compassionate, not cruel and revengeful; it is steady and patient, not fickle and inconstant; it continues in well-doing, persuaded that its labour is not in vain.

II. A warning against the enemies to be opposed.—The apostle mentions two sorts of enemies.

1. The first he calls flesh and blood.—The motions of our animal nature. The phrase may further intend those sensible objects which are suited to gratify fleshly desires; or it may intend mankind, who are partakers of flesh and blood.

2. The other kind of enemies with whom we are to contend are evil spirits.—These spirits are enemies to mankind. Their number is great, and the terms used denote a subordination among them. They are not divided against themselves, but act in concert under the direction of one leading spirit, who is called the devil and Satan. They have great power over such as submit to their dominion. Their chief influence is over the ignorant and superstitious. They most successfully carry on their designs in the dark. When the gospel began to shine, Satan began to fall. Among those who reject the gospel he recovers his full dominion.—Lathrop.

Eph_6:11-12. The Christian Warfare.

I. Consider the danger to which we are exposed.—As in other cases so it is in this: our greatest danger lies in not feeling our danger, and so not being prepared to meet it.

1. View the enemy we have to contend with.—He is one who bears an inveterate hatred against us, and seeks nothing less than our destruction or eternal overthrow.… He hates us as God’s creatures, but especially as those who have been rescued from his power and taken up arms against him; nothing now will satisfy him but our eternal ruin.… It is therefore a struggle of life for life; if we do not overcome him, he will overcome us. It is in vain to think of being neuter, or making peace with him.

2. He is mightier than we are; and unless we have help from above, we are no match for him.… We know but little of the power of wicked spirits, abstractly considered; but viewed as the god of this world, Satan has all its temptations in alliance with him.

3. He is an artful enemy.… We are told of the “wiles of the devil,” hiding his designs, and falling upon us when we least expect it. We are in his net before we are aware, and when Providence seems to smile upon us (Deu_8:12).… He studies our propensities, and suits his temptations to them (Eph_4:14).

4. He is invisible.… If he were “flesh and blood,” like ourselves, we might beware; but his influence is like the mighty pestilence, which walks in darkness.… When least suspected, danger is nigh.

5. He is near us, as it were, within our gates. The safety of a nation menaced by an enemy often depends on his being kept at a distance, by walls or seas, or fortresses of defence. But here it is supposed that the enemy has entered into our borders, and that we have no other resource left but to struggle as it were for life.…

6. What is still worse, he has a strong party within us.

7. On the issue of this warfare depend all our hopes.—If we “stand” not in this, our loss when defeated can never be retrieved.

II. The armour provided for us.—

1. In general, this armour is the grace of the gospel believed and trusted in. In common warfare it is usual for the commanders to persuade their enemies to think highly of their strength; but in this it is quite the reverse. We must go as Israel was always taught to do, as having no might of our own, but deriving all our strength from the Lord.

2. It is described as a whole or perfect armour.—Sufficient to defend us in every part.… “Truth” is the girdle to strengthen us; “righteousness” a breastplate; the “gospel” of peace as shoes, by which we shall be able to trample upon the lion and the adder, the young lion and the dragon; “faith” is a shield; “salvation,” or the hope of eternal life, a helmet.… All this armour is to be drawn from the truths of the everlasting gospel.

3. The use to be made of it is, that we may be able to “withstand,” and to face the enemy. There is no armour for the back; he that fleeth is wholly defenceless, and must inevitably fall.

III. The necessity of putting on this armour.—Armour is of no avail, unless it be used. The application of the gospel is that which proves our security.

IV. The inducement to put on this armour.—“That we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Eph_6:11). Many neglecting this armour have been foiled in the day of battle.—Theological Sketch Book.

Eph_6:11. The Wiles of the Devil.

I. Some of those artifices by which the devil entices men to sin.—

1. He often presents to man the pleasing advantages of sin, while its judicial consequences are kept in the background. Sin is often presented to man under the form of virtue or religion. The names of sins are changed in order that their natures may seem changed. Sin is thus recommended to the more tender conscience. The vileness and criminality of sin are often extenuated to man by plausible excuses. They need an apology—youth, old age, strong temptation, a desire to please, to prevent loss of place, provision for a family, etc. The inconsistencies of the acknowledged people of God are often pleaded as an apology for sin. The falls of God’s people have been recorded for good; but the record has been perverted to evil. A legitimate use of the record is to prevent despair on the part of God’s people who have fallen. But, by Satan, the beacon has been converted into a decoy.

2. The sinner is often freed from his difficulties in sinning by false views of God’s character and of the design of Christ’s work.—God is regarded as a Being of mere mercy. Christ is thought of as saving from sin’s consequences, rather than from sin itself. The individual is often persuaded to expose himself to temptation, under the impression that he will resist it.

II. Some of the artifices by which he entices men from the performance of positive duty.—

1. Many are restrained from duties by a consideration of their hardness in themselves (Mat_10:34-39).

2. Many are persuaded to let duty alone, on account of the sacrifices which a performance of it involves.

3. Argument against a full devotedness to the service of God may sometimes be drawn from the fewness and meanness of those who are engaged in it (Joh_7:48).

4. An argument against the necessity of duty is drawn from the doctrines of grace (Rom_6:2-3; Jas_2:17).

5. The worth and value of all performances are taken away by the trust in them for righteousness to which Satan prompts the heart.—Stewart.

Eph_6:12. The Invisible Enemies of Man.

I. Spiritual forces are much greater, much more efficient, much more formidable than any mere material forces.—A strong will is a more formidable thing than the most highly developed muscle. An idea which appeals to the intelligence and heart of the multitude is likely to do more work and to wield a greater sway in the end than any number of batteries and parks of artillery. It is in the encounter, not of brute force with conscience and with thought, but in the encounter of ideas with ideas, in the encounter of wills with wills, that the destiny of the world is ultimately decided. St. Paul knew that the Church had to contend with the thought and the reason of paganism much more truly than with its proconsuls and its legions; and as he wrote to the Ephesians, he did not mean merely human principalities and powers, since he contrasts the beings of whom he is speaking with mere flesh and blood.

II. Behind all that met the eye in daily life the apostle discovered another world that did not meet the eye.—He discerned other forms hovering, guiding, marshalling, arranging, inspiring that which met the eye. “Do not let us deceive ourselves,” he cries, “as if we had only to encounter so many social or political forces, so many human minds and wills, so many human errors, human prejudices, human traditions, human passions; our real enemies are not human, they lie in ambush behind the manifold activities of man; they are really supersensuous. Two great departments of moral life among men are watched over, each one of them beyond the sphere of human life, by beings of greater power, greater intelligence, greater intensity of purpose than man in the world of spirits. These spiritual beings, good and evil, act upon humanity as clearly, as certainly, and as constantly as man himself acts upon the lower creatures around. It is not any mere disposition, inseparable from the conditions of human thought, to personify, to externalise passion, which has peopled the imagination of Christendom with demons. It is within ourselves that we meet now, as the first Christians met, the onset of the principalities and powers. It is in resisting them, in driving from us in the name of Christ the spirits of untruthfulness, of sloth, of anger, and of impure desire, that we really contribute our little share to the issue of the great battle that rages still.”

III. To love truth and righteousness is to hate their contraries.—Hatred of evil is distinct from any hatred of those who do evil, and who are objects of sincere sorrow, and have claims on Christian charity. The easy tolerance of moral evil is one of the most alarming features of our day. Only when the struggle with evil is a matter of personal experience do we hate it, and enter even remotely into the apostle’s stern language about its agents and its champions.—H. P. Liddon.

The Enemies of Believers.

I. The enemies referred to are here described as numerous.—

1. They are here spoken of in the plural number, as they are also in other passages: “The angels which kept not their first estate,” “The devil and his angels.” The names here employed are collective, and imply numbers. We read of a single person being possessed with many devils.

2. Hence the whole world has been filled with their worship and studded with their temples.

3. Hence the strength of the temptations with which each one is tried.

4. Hence the intensity of human wickedness.

5. Hence the need of watchfulness.

II. The enemies here spoken of are represented as being in a kind of subordination the one to the other—there are “principalities.”—

1. There may be remains among them of that diversity of rank which originally existed.

2. It may be a submission called for by difference of intellectual and innate power.

3. It may be made conducive to the more successful waging of the war in which they are engaged—giving unity of aim, of plan, of co-operation. They leave no point neglected; turn all their strength to account. All unity is not of God.

III. The enemies here described are singly and as detached mighty for evil.—They are “powers.”

1. Power intellectual.

2. Power physical.

3. Power directed.

4. Collective power.

IV. The apostle characterises these adversaries as the rulers of the darkness of this world.—

1. Here a limitation of Satan’s dominion is expressed. “Rulers of the darkness of this world”—of the hiding and blinding errors which abound—of those deceived and misled.

2. It is as the prince of darkness that he contends, using falsehood and the wicked as his instruments.

V. The enemies are spiritual in their nature.—

1. They are intelligent and crafty.

2. Invisible.

3. Active and unwearied.

VI. They are wicked spirits.—

1. They are in themselves wicked.

2. They would make others wicked.

3. They employ the most wicked means.

Lessons.—

1. Watch. 2. Pray.

3. Resist.

4. Stand fast.—Stewart.

Evil Angels.

I. The nature and properties of evil angels.—

1. Their original properties were the same as those of the holy angels.

2. We do not know either the occasion of their apostasy or what effect it immediately produced upon them.

3. From the time they shook off their allegiance to God, they shook off all goodness, and contracted those tempers which are most hateful to Him and most opposite to His nature.

4. In the prosecution of their infernal designs they are diligent in the highest degree.

5. They do not wander at large, but are all united under one common head.

II. The employment of evil angels.—

1. They are, as far as God permits, the governors of the world.

2. Satan and all his angels are continually warring against us, and watching over every child of man.

3. By them the foolish hearts of those who know not God are darkened.

4. They hinder every good word and work.

5. There is no evil done, spoke, or thought without the assistance of the devil.

6. Such is the malice of the wicked one that he will torment whom he cannot destroy. In all these instances we say “the devil,” as if there was only one, because these spirits, innumerable as they are, all act in concert, and because we know not whether one or more are concerned in this or that work of darkness.—Wesley.

The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.

5. Concluding exhortation

Eph_6:10-20

10Finally, my brethren, be strong [Finally be strengthened]26 in the Lord, and in the power of his might [in the might of his strength]. 11Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12For we wrestle [our27 wrestling is] not against flesh and blood, but against [the] principalities, against [the] powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world [the world-rulers of this darkness],28 against spiritual wickedness [the spiritual hosts of wickedness]29 in high [heavenly] places. 13Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done [accomplished] all, to stand. 14Stand therefore, having your loins girt [girt your loins] about with truth, and having [put] on the breastplate of righteousness. 15And your feet shod [having shod your feet] with the preparation [preparedness] of the gospel 16of peace; Above [In addition to]30 all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall 17be able to quench all the fiery darts31 of the wicked [evil one]. And take32 [or receive] the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: 18Praying always with all prayer and supplication [With all prayer and supplication praying at all times] in the Spirit, and watching thereunto33 with [in] all perseverance and supplication for all [all the] saints; 19And for me [or on my behalf], that utterance may be given34 unto [to] me, that I may open my mouth boldly, [in the opening of my mouth, in boldness] to make known the mystery of 20the gospel,35 For [or In behalf of] which I am an ambassador in bonds [literally in a chain]; that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL

Summary: 1. Internal strengthening, Eph_6:10; Ephesians 2. Necessity of armor on account of the enemies, Eph_6:11-13; Ephesians 3. The armor itself, Eph_6:14-17 (a. the preparation, Eph_6:14-15; b. the defensive armor, Eph_6:16-17 a; c. the one offensive weapon, Eph_6:17 b); 4. The prayer and intercession, Eph_6:18-20 (a. prayer in general; b. intercession in general, Eph_6:18; c. intercession for the Apostle, Eph_6:19-20).

Eph_6:10. Finally, τὸ λο.ìπόν—Particula sive formula concludendi et ut ad rem magnam excitandi, 2Co_13:11, formula progrediendi (Bengel). Php_3:1; Php_4:8; 1Th_4:1; 2Th_2:1. Luther is good: finally. Τοῦ λοιποῦ [See Textual Note!] would mean: henceforth, in future (Gal_6:17); here it would be unintelligible.

Be strengthened in the Lord, ἐνδυναμουσθε ἐν κυρίω—What in the active form is ascribed to the Lord, who strengthens (Php_4:13; 1Ti_1:12; 2Ti_4:17), is expressed by the passive36 here, without further qualification, Act_9:22; more closely defined in 2Ti_2:1 : “in the grace;” Rom_4:20 : “in faith;” Heb_11:34 : “out of weakness” (ex morbo convalescere). It cannot be middle (Piscator), nor can κυρίω refer to God (B-Crusius). The general qualification: in the Lord is then more closely defined: and in the might of his strength, καὶ ἐν τῶκράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αύτοῦ.—Καί explicative here. [“This appended clause serves to explain and specify the principle in which our strength was to be sought for, and in which it dwelt” (Ellicott).—R.] On the whole phrase see Exeg. Notes, Eph_1:19. This gives prominence to what comes, to us from, Christ (1Co_12:9): Christ’s strength becomes our strength; only in Him are we strengthened.

The necessity of armor (panoply) on account of the enemies; Eph_6:11-13.

Eph_6:11. Put on the whole armour of God [ἐνδύσασθε τὴν πανοπλίαν τοῦ θεῦ].—To those being strengthened in the Lord it is said: “put on;” ἐνδύσασθε has something of a paronomasia between ἐνδυναμοῦσθε and δύνασθαι. The internal strengthening must appropriate the proffered means of assistance, in order to become powerful in conflict. For this the Christian requires τὴν πανοπλίαν37 τοῦ θεοῦ (here, Eph_6:13; Luk_11:22). The figure of a conflict is frequently used by the Apostle (2Co_10:4; 1Ti_6:12; 2Ti_4:7; Rom_6:13; Rom_6:23; 1Th_5:8; comp. Isa_59:16-19; Wis_5:17-23). The word πανοπλία refers to the entire equipment; it will not suffice to choose, or put on one or another piece of this military equipment; Ambrose: universitas armorum; Luther incorrectly limits it to: Harnesch [old English harness, defensive armor], both here and Eph_6:13. But it must also be “the panoply of God,” arma, quæ offeruntur, suppeditantur a Doc (Calvin, Calovius), therefore a Divine armament; the arms should be altogether of a Divine kind, in contrast to the arms of the opponent. The emphasis rests on the whole idea: God’s equipment, neither on πανοπλία alone (Meyer), nor on θεοῦ alone (Harless).38 It is not a detailed and playful imitation of 1Th_5:8 (De Wette), but rather an independent reference to Isa_59:16-19, which is used in a different way for the Judgment in (Wis_5:17-23). Whether a Roman or Jewish warrior was in Paul’s mind is in itself an unprofitable question; the former met him constantly, the latter not.

That ye may be able to stand, πρὸς τὸ δύνασθαι ὑμᾶς στῆαι. The first verb is repeated in Eph_6:13 (δυνηθῆτε) and Eph_6:16 (δυνήσεσθε). Στῆναι πρός τίνα is a military phrase, the opposite of φεύγειν, and denotes the acceptance of a conflict with him who attacks. [“To stand one’s ground;” Ellicott remarks on the sense ofπρός in this phrase, that it means adversus, with the implied notion of hostility (‘contra’), which is otherwise less usual unless it is involved in the verb. Comp. Winer, p. 378.—R.]

Against the wiles of the devil, πρὸς τὰς μεθοδείας τοῦ διαβόλου.—Luther very aptly renders it: “against the crafty assaults of the devil.” The plural marks both the multiplicity of the concrete cases, and the obstinacy of the repeated attack (Stier).39 Craft and strength are both present in the assault, but the latter is concealed under the former, thus becoming dangerous and destructive. “The devil” is mentioned as the precise enemy, even though it be sin that is to be immediately contended against (Heb_12:1; Heb_12:4). “The panoply of God” and “the wiles of the devil,” are thus opposed to each other. The power of the latter is by no means inconsiderable and the contest is difficult, hence the next statement.

Eph_6:12. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood [ὅτι οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη πρὸς αἱμα καὶ σάρκα.]—“For” (ὅτι) introduces a reason for the proposition: “to stand against the wiles of the devil” is in question. The form οὐκ ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη is remarkable; ἡμῖν includes with emphasis the Apostle; a proposition valid for all is treated of; ἔστἰν πάλη denotes the present conflict, while πάλη (πάλλειν, to throw, to swing), the wrestling-match, lucta (Erasmus), colluctatio (Augustine, Vulgate), is used in order to characterize the close, personal, struggle. Paul had in view the subject-matter and the readers, not mere rhetorical beauty. The article denotes the contest, which exists and which every one already knows. The Apostle denies the contest “against blood and flesh” because pone homines, qui nos infestant latent spiritus (Bengel). Underneath and behind what is human and sinful, Satan himself is active (Stier). Paul insists on the final ground, the deepest cause of the contest, the guiding principle, the commanding general; flesh and blood is to him only the division of the army which presses forward, occasioning special danger. Comp. Winer, p. 463. Augustine: Non est nobis colluctatio adversus carnem et sanguinem, i.e., homines, quos videtis sævire in nos. Vasa sunt, alius utitur; organa sunt, alius jungit. We have οὐκ—ἀλλά, hence not=non tam, non tantum—quam (Grotius, Stier and others). [Most commentators now oppose the softening down of the negation (following Winer and Meter). The word πάλη (only here) has been generally considered a change of metaphor or taken in a general sense. It undoubtedly marks the hand to hand conflict, and should therefore be taken literally. Meyer, who formerly accepted a change of metaphor, now maintains that this figure enters only in the negative clause, and that some general word is to be supplied after ἀλλά. This avoids a mixing of metaphors, but the learned author does not seem to notice that it weakens the sense just where it ought to be strongest, in the positive clause. He also takes the article as generic, but Alford suggests that ἡ πάλη refers to “the only conflict which can be described by such a word—our life and death struggle, there being but one such,” which is better.—R.]

The contest with flesh and blood is not, however, on this account excluded. The usual order is σὰρξ καὶ αἶμα (Mat_16:17; 1Co_15:50; Gal_1:16), in Heb_2:14 we find as a various reading [probably the correct reading, as it is supported by our best uncial authorities.—R.]: αἵματος καὶ σαρκός. Since the formation of the flesh proceeds from the blood (Wis_7:1-2), reference is made here to the origin of man and his corrupt nature denoted, according to the context. The position of the two words is not accidental (Meyer). Elsewhere the phrase means human nature in itself (1Co_15:50), including what is sinful, Mat_16:19; Gen_1:16. One’s own flesh and blood is also included here; it is not to be referred only to the human persons about one’s self (Bengel, Harless, Meyer, and others).

But, ἀλλά supply ἔστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη.—Against the principalities, πρὸς τὰς ἀρχάς.—The repetition of the preposition with each term gives prominence rhetorically to the several notions. Winer, p. 392. Ἀρχάς indicates the organization of the kingdom of the devil, denoting the chiefs and heads of the separate groups,—Against the powers, πρὸς τὰς ἐξουσίας marks the efficient, attacking powers, comp. Eph_1:21; Eph_3:10.—Against the world rulers of this darkness, πρὸς τοὺς κοσμοκράτορας του σκότους τούτου.—This term (also in the Hebrew [Rabbinical term] קוֹזְמוֹקרָטּוֹר) denotes the world-ruling power: for “the whole world lieth in darkness” (1Jn_5:19; 1Jn_2:14) and Satan is “the god of this world” (2Co_4:4), “the prince of this world” (Joh_16:11; Joh_14:30); his angels are under him world-rulers, whose sphere is designated by the genitive: “of this darkness.” Κόσμος more closely designates the local extension and region of the dominion, τοῦ σκότους its quality as to origin and corruptness, but it is limited by τούτου, which points to something transient and bounded. On this account we should neither weaken the meaning of κοσμοκράτορες into “rulers” (Harless), nor is it necessary (with Bengel, Stier [E. V. ] and others) to read τοῦ αἰῶνος after τοῦ σκότους. Bengel: Bene quod non sunt omnitenentes: magna tamen non solum ipsius diaboli, sed etiam eorum, quibus præest, potentia est. Videntur alia esse genera malorum spirituum, quæ magis domi in arce regni tenebrarum manent, imperia, potestates, aliud hoc tertium, quod foris mundanas quasi provincias obtinet munditenentes.40 The power is made prominent in the first two terms, and in the third the sphere; there follows next a designation which gives prominence to the character:

Against the spiritual hosts of wickedness.—Πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ (Vulgate: spiritualia) is an abstract term, the concluding antithesis of “flesh and blood,” comprising all the spiritualities, which, in contrast with the kingdom of the Holy Ghost, deserve the characteristic: τῆς πονηρίας, as the spirit of revolution; to such belong moral wickedness and malice, which is directed to the destruction of others. It is incorrect to take πνευματικώ=πνεύματα (Luther: with evil spirits), or collectively as Geisterschaft (Meyer), or to translate the phrase spirituales nequitias (Erasmus). [This view, supported by Braune, is that of Stier, but it is by no means so satisfactory as that of Meyer, accepted by Hodge, Eadie, Alford, Ellicott and others. This takes the term collectively (see Winer, p. 224, and Meyer), as implying something more than “spirits,” rather the bands, hosts, armies, confraternities of spirits, best expressed by the German term: Geisterschaft. See Ellicott against the altogether untenable rendering of the E. V., as well as against the abstract meaning in general.—R.]

In heavenly places, ἐυτοῖς ἐπουρανίοις.—This is to be connected grammatically with τὰ πνευματικά (omnium doctorum opinio, Jerome), and, as in Eph_3:10; Eph_1:3; Eph_1:20; Eph_2:6; has a local signification, designating a region in antithesis to the earthly, to what is in any manner perceptible to the sense; here, where angels are spoken of, it means the region assigned to these beings who are purely spiritual over against men, and although there are angels who have not remained in their original fellowship with God, yet there still remains to them a region corresponding to their nature, of course not in nearness to God. It does not then mean in statu cœlesti as a moral notion, but only as a physical one, so that it may be taken as parallel to ἀήρ, Eph_2:1, though it is not exactly equivalent; ἀήρ is spoken of from the stand-point of man, τὰ ἐπουράνια from the nature of angels, marking the dangerous element of the contest with these spirits and their spiritualities. Hence before all we are to reject the explanation: “for heavenly possessions” (Greek Fathers, Calovius, Morus and others), since the position of the words will not permit this phrase to be joined with πάλη in the beginning of the sentence, passing over ἀλλά, nor is ἐν = ὑπέρ, δὶά, while the signification of the phrase is uniformly local. [Comp. Eph_1:3.] It does not designate the place of the conflict, the kingdom of heaven (Matthies),41 nor the place, but in a symbolical sense, out into the fathomless air, in order to show that the contest is unequal Marte iniquo (Rueckert), or in such a way that region and subject meet, as though a conflict was spoken of in our souls, but respecting calling and sanctification, our praying and preaching of God’s grace (Stier); nor yet are we to think of the spiritual world and its affairs (B-Crusius). Finally with the proper view of the connection we should neither interpolate a “formerly” (Semler), as though only the previous condition of the angels was denoted, nor does it suffice to accept the limitation to a locality excluded (Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, i. 455), nor is it admissible to treat the notion of heaven as an elastic one, so that these angels are still relatively in a heaven, the atmospheric one (Meyer). Nor does it at all mean a pretended stay, so that the expression is apt irony in view of the arrogation of equal dignity, power and glory with God. (Schenkel).

[The connection with the phrase immediately preceding is accepted by nearly all recent commentators, but there is necessarily difference of opinion about the exact force of the term. Ellicott objects to any precise specification of locality, though referring to Hofmann, whose view is properly rejected by Meyer. Schenkel’s view is a pure invention. Such irony was not befitting the earnestness of Paul’s discourse, and was scarcely so “apt” as Schenkel thinks, if no one else but himself has hitherto appreciated it. Ellicott aptly expresses the sense: “supernal spirits of evil.” The E. V. shows the reluctance to apply the word “heavenly” to evil spirits. See Meyer and Eadie for notice of other shifts.—R.]

Eph_6:13. Wherefore, διὰ τοῦτο, because we have to contend against such.—Take up the whole armour of God.—Comp. Eph_6:11. Ἀναλάβετε is a technical term for taking up the arms.—That ye may be able to withstand.—Instead of πρός (Eph_6:11) we here have ἵνα; the goal is denoted there, the purpose here; ἀντιστῆναι is somewhat livelier, indicating the attacks of the spirit, whom he in spirit sees making an assault.—In the evil day, ἐν τῇ ἡμέρα τῇ πονηρᾶ.—At all events this means a particular day, immediately impending, but quite as certainly is it not the same for every one, since a common contest is not implied, not a battle, but a πάλη, “wrestling,” in which the victory is decisive for “the day of redemption.” Therefore the decisive, imminent day of conflict for each one is marked. Bengel: bellum est perpetuum; pugna alio die minus fervet; dies malus vel ingruente morte, vel in vita; longior, brevior, in se ipso sæpe varius. [So Hodge, Eadie, Alford, Ellicott.] See Doctr. Notes. It is neither the day of death (Schmid), still less the day of Judgment (Jerome), nor in general every day of conflict with its calamity (Theodoret, Pelagius, Harless and others), [nor the present life with the accompanying thought of brevity, Chrysostom, Œcumenius, Theophylact,] nor the particular common day [of the last great Satanic outbreak] before the Second Advent (Koppe, Meyer, Stier and others), nor is it merely the evil hours (Luther.)

And having accomplished all, to stand [καὶ ἅπαντα κατεργασάμενοι στῆναι].—To ἀντιστῆναι, referring to the conflict, the Apostle appends (καί) στῆναι, which designates the victorious keeping the field on the place of contest; it is the opposite of fleeing, yielding, being thrown down. Ἅπαντα κατεργασάμενοι, placed first, denotes a performing, effecting, the object of which is more fully designated with ἅπαντα, more comprehensible than πάντα, omnia operati (Jerome), well executing all (Luther); comp. Rom_7:13; Php_2:12. The Apostle here treats of the doing of the Divine will in all directions and relations, the ethical activity and efficiency of the Christian, which outs its way through all assaults and conflicts from the side of the demons, without being led astray or weakened. It is neither=παράσκευασάμενοι, omnibus rebus probe comparatis ad pugnam (Bengel and others), nor=debellare, phrasis bellica (Greek Fathers, Grotius, Koppe, Harless and others), nor does it refer to the conflict itself (Meyer and others), nor yet is it: in omnibus perfect (Vulgate).

[The participle is never used by Paul in the sense of “having overcome;” it is therefore best to accept the usual meaning: “having accomplished,” especially as we might expect a masculine object instead of the neuter ἅπαντα, were the former sense intended. At the same time the view of Bengel is evidently too restricted for the extended meaning of both participle and object. There remains still another question respecting the scope of the clause. Braune follows Luther in referring the infinitive to keeping the field; in that case the participle necessarily refers to all the antecedent action. Eadie, Alford, and Ellicott however apply the term to standing firm until the end of the combat, which seems preferable in view of the continued reference in context to the conflict itself. The participle, with its object, then means: having done all that the exigencies of the conflict require, “being fully equipped and having bravely fought.”—R.]

The armor itself; Eph_6:14-17. a. The preparation; Eph_6:14-15. b. The defensive armor; Eph_6:16-17 a. c. The one offensive weapon; Eph_6:17 b.

Eph_6:14. Stand therefore, στῆτε οὐν, in the conflict, in order after the conflict to stand as victor. [Meyer, Ellicott: “stand ready for the fight;” Alford: “whether ‘ready for the fight’ or ‘in the fight’ matters very little: all the aoristic participles are in time antecedent to the στῆτε—and the fight ever at hand.”—R.]—Having girt your loins about with truth, περιζωσάμενοι τὴν ὀσφὺν ὑμῶν ἐν ἀληθεία.—Being girded about their loins, they have on the girdle, or waist-belt (ζωστήρ, ζώνη), which covers the groin and the stomach below the breastplate, the most vulnerable part of the body, the region of the hips and loins; this is the first and a very important piece (Isa_5:27; Isa_11:5; Luk_12:35; 1Pe_1:13). [Meyer: “An ungirded soldier would be a contradiction in terms.” The girdle kept the armor in place, formed in itself a part of the cuirass, and was also used to support the sword. The latter notion Alford regards as confusing here, but it hardly seems so, since the sword was objective truth.—R.]—Ἐν ἀληθείᾳ that with which the loins are enveloped, like καίειν ἐν πυρί, καλύπτειν ἐν ἱματίῳ (Winer, p. 36342); here it means the objective truth revealed in the word, which is appropriated. Veritas adstringit hominem, mendaciorum magna est laxitas (Grotius). On this account we should neither exclude the former (Harless, Meyer), nor understand merely the moral truth of willing (Harless) or the agreement of knowledge with the objective truth given in the gospel (Meyer), or sincerity (Calvin and others), or apply this to ornament (Harless). [“Truth” here is subjective truth, since the article is wanting and the objective truth is mentioned in Eph_6:17. Still it is based on the faith and standing of a Christian (Alford); “the assured conviction that you believe” (Eadie). It should be noticed that faith (by implication) enters here and in the mention of the sword, as well as explicitly in the figure of the shield.—R.]

And having put on the breastplate of righteousness [καὶ ἐνδυσάμενοι τὸν θώρακα τῆς δικαιοσύνης].—Here καί adjoins another piece. Ἑνδυσάμενοι43 means putting on like a part of the clothes. Τὸν θώρακα is added by the Apostle without a designation of the part of the body (στῆθος) which it covers because that is self-evident. The genitive (τῆς δικαιοσύνης) is appositional; here it means the righteousness of faith and of life, justification and sanctification before God and men (Rom_6:4; Rom_6:13). In pectore sedes est conscientiæ, quæ munitur justitia. Hostis per omnia ipsi contraria vincitur (Bengel). Meyer finds here the ethical rectitude, as in the previous clause the intellectual, which is only so far correct, that here we should find an ethical reference, there an intellectual one, as in Eph_5:9; Isa_11:5. Harless: The righteousness of faith, with which alone one does not stand on the place of conflict, which also passes over into the life. [So Alford: “The purity and uprightness of Christian character which is the result of the work of the Spirit of Christ; the inwrought righteousness, not merely the imputed righteousness.” The latter reference is defended by Eadie and Hodge; the former pressing the article in support of it, the latter urging that no moral virtue forms part of the armor and then saying that the subjective sense of righteousness was included already in the word “truth.” The wider reference is preferable, for the more restricted one belongs to a view of the word δικαιοσύνη, which is too forensic, sundering in twain an indivisible truth. For the correct meaning of the word, see Romans, pp. 74, 75, 78, etc.—R.]

Eph_6:15. Having shod your feet, καὶ ὑποδησάμενοι τοὺς πόδας.—This adds the third piece, and the terms are again significant. Here we must think of the war-sandals, προκνημῖδας, ocreœ militares,44 which give firm footing and gait.—With the preparedness of the gospel of peace [ἐν ἁτοιμασία τοῦ εὐαγγελίου τῆς εἰρήνης].—That in (ἐν) which the feet stand, is for the warrior of Christ ἑτοιμασία, readiness, promptitudo animi, internal and external, the ready courage and preparedness for conflict, firmitas et constantia, which the gospel gives; hence τοῦ εὐαγγελίου is auctoris, the contents and pledge of which is set forth by τῆς εἰρήνης chiefly with God, (Rom_5:1; Rom_8:31; Rom_8:38 f.), then in one’s self and peaceableness toward men as such.45 The Christian fights in peace for the sake of peace, viz. the eternal one. That is an oxymoron (Schenkel): the gospel of peace instils readiness for conflict. We should not then, because pedumsæpe (Rom_10:15; Rom_3:16 sqq.; Luk_1:79) conjuncta mentio cum evangelis et cum pace (Bengel), allow ourselves, contrary to the context to think of the proclamation of the gospel (Luther: ready to carry on the gospel, Harless and others). [So Chrysostom and now Conybeare, but the Apostle was addressing the whole church as engaged in an individual conflict, mainly defensive too.—R.] Notwithstanding the frequent use of ἑτοιμασία to translate the Hebrew מָכוֹך (LXX. Ezr_2:68; Ezr_3:3; Psa_89:15; Dan_9:20-21), it is not to be rendered as=fundamentum (Bengel and Bleek and others), although what is positive is not to be excluded. Εἰρήνη is neither to be limited to peace with God (Harless, Meyer and others), nor referred to peace between Gentile and Gentile (Michaelis). Erasmus is irrelevant: evangelium—non-tumulta, sed tolerantia tranquillitateque defenditur.

The defensive armor; Eph_6:16-17 a.

Eph_6:16. In addition to all, ἐπὶ πᾶσιν (Winer, p. 367), as in Luk_3:20 : “Added this above all;” Luk_16:28. Erasmus: super omnia, for a protection over all. Incorrect: before all things (Luther). [Meyer, Hodge, Alford, Ellicott agree with Braune (as does Eadie, who formerly defended the local sense) in taking the preposition as=in addition to rejecting the local (Bengel and others) and ethical references (E. V.). If ἐν be accepted as the correct reading (see Textual Note5) the meaning would be: in all things, i.e., on all occasions.—Having taken up, ἀναλαβόντες, aptly chosen here:46 the shield of faith.—Τον θυρεόν (from θῦρα, originally that which closes an entrance) is chosen by the Apostle because he has in mind the scutum, which was four feet long and two and a half broad, צִנָּה (Psa_35:2; Eze_23:24, LXX.) and not ἀσπίς, clypeus, מָגֵך, the smaller, round shield. The concern is that the whole person be covered, as indeed faith (τὴς πίστεως, genitive of apposition as in Eph_6:14; Eph_6:17) entirely covers and defends the Christian: as God’s gift effecting salvation (Eph_2:8) [Meyer: fides salvifica], bringing about forgiveness of sins in the past (Eph_1:7), affording for every moment access to God (Eph_3:12), assuring in advance of eternal life, by securing to us the gift of the Holy Ghost (Eph_1:13-14), rendering holy and without blame (Eph_1:4). Comp. Rom_8:14-16; Rom_8:31-39. Man’s own holiness is not a shield for him, as in Wis_5:20; God’s holiness is his shield; God Himself is our shield (Gen_15:1; Psa_18:31; Pro_30:5; 1Pe_5:9; 1Jn_5:4). It is faith, entirely and constantly giving itself up to God in Christ, on the part of a child and heir, hence not the faith of miracles, nor justifying faith alone (Schenkel).

Wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one.—Thus the Apostle describes the protection of faith against dangerous attacks. Ἐν ᾦ is on which, not with which (Luther and others). [It means either, lighting on it and being quenched in it, or “as protected by and under cover of which” (Ellicott). The former is perhaps preferable.—R.] The figure and the reality are here so much complicated in each other, that we should not think of a shield with wet hides (Olshausen), but of faith on which the destructive fire from Satan is extinguished, without causing damage. The future (δυνήσεσθε) refers to the impending conflict.47 In this are thrown τὰ βέλη τοῦ πονηποῦ τὰ πεπυρωμένα; these are malleoli (darts), falaricæ (javelins), tela ignita (made of reeds, with tow and pitch), which are ignited and then hurled (Psa_7:14; Livy, Psa_21:8). The evil one, i.e., Satan48 (Mat_5:37; Mat_13:19; Mat_13:38; Joh_17:15; 2Th_3:3) throws temptations of many kinds; hence πάντα comes first and τὰ πεπυρωμένοι is placed last for emphasis (Winer, p. 127)49. Certainly we are to understand in part dangerous and corrupting words and speeches which come to one’s ears, impart thoughts cast into the heart, the fire of passions, etc. In the σβῆσαι the figure is simply exceeded by the reality. Of course we need not think of poisoned darts (Rueckert and others), which are not burning, but inflict burning wounds. Yet it cannot be said that we should not think of burning desires (Chrysostom), because these are present within man (Schenkel); faith is an affair of the heart, and in the heart the conflict of redemption is fought and won; besides fire and iron could scarcely be two deadly elements, which aptly illustrate the attacks of Satan. [Schenkel].

Eph_6:17. And take [or receive] the helmet of salvation [καὶ τῆν περικεφαλαίαν τοῦ σωτηρίου δέξασθε].—This advance is natural. In accordance with the genius of the Greek language a translation is made to the finite construction; it is not simply Paul’s lively method (Meyer), but that of the language. The genitive, τοῦ σωτηρίου, is one of apposition, as in Eph_6:14; Eph_6:16.] The word is entirely general as in Luk_2:30; Luk_3:6; Act_28:28 (from Isa_59:17, LXX. with a reference to the name of Jesus, in which the battle is fought and won, whom faith appropriates) and is used for σωτηρία. The salvation of the Messianic kingdom is represented as a helmet, covering the head. For the warrior does not hide himself behind his shield, but looks over it into the face of his opponent.—Δέξασθε, accipite oblatam a domino. Salute erigitur caput et munitur. 1Th_5:8; Psa_3:3-4 (Bengel). Salvation is the subject of the faith, in which the salvation is apprehended (Harless). [Hodge: “That which adorns and protects the Christian, which enables him to hold up his head with confidence and joy, is the fact that he is saved.” The German has an alliteration here: Den Helm des Heils nehmt, which Wickliffe gives in the Old English of his version: “the helme of helthe.”—R.]

The one offensive weapon; Eph_6:17 b.

And the sword of the Spirit, καὶ τὴν μάχαιραν τοῦ πνεύματος.—There is no mention, in addition, as in 1Sa_17:47; of the “spear,” or of the “bow” (Gen_48:22; Jos_24:12; Psa_44:7). The Christian has only to contend cominus, personally, not eminus. The sword is “of the Spirit;” τοῦ πνεύματος is a genitive auctoris: He gives it, makes it. It cannot be appositional (Harless and others), as before, since the apposition follows in the relative clause.50

Which is the word of God.—Ὅ ἐστι which is neuter by attraction of ρῆμα θεοῦ, relates to μάχαιραν, and is not to be construed with πνεύματος (Olshausen), for the Holy Ghost is not the Word of God; the latter is the product, the former is the Producer of what is in the word of God. Concinne subsequitur mentio Spiritus, adeoque coll. Eph_6:13 habetur mentio s. trinitatis (Bengel). The Holy Ghost is meant, in antithesis, both to the letter and to the flesh, hence not the human spirit (Morus), which in itself is also σάρξ. “The Word of God” is not to be limited to commandments (Flatt), or threatening against the enemies of the kingdom (Koppe).

This completes the equipment. Two things are to be maintained: 1. The difference of the arms and the ethical or supersensuous realities set forth in them should not be arbitrarily weakened. It should not be said: universa potius armorum notio tenenda est. Nor can a proof of this be deduced from 1Th_5:8, where we read: “the breastplate of faith and love, and for an helmet the hope of salvation.” From a different stand-point there can be afforded a partially different point of view. 2. The figures are not to be pressed beyond measure and the lively objective metaphor of the Apostle to be dissected in arbitrary subjectivity to practical use.51

The prayer and the intercession; Eph_6:18-20. (a.) Prayer in general, Eph_6:18 a. (b.) Intercession in general, Eph_6:18 b. (c.) Intercession for the Apostle, Eph_6:19-20.

Eph_6:18. With all prayer and supplication praying.—[The connection of this verse is with στῆτε (Eph_6:15), not with δέξασθε, which is a subordinate thought referring to a definite act, hence inconsistent with the “all,” “always” of this verse (Meyer). Meyer is scarcely justifiable in disconnecting διὰ πάσης προσευχῆς καὶ δεήσεως from προσευχόμενοι on the ground of tautology and logical difficulty. Each phrase expresses a proper qualification of the participle, and to pray always with every form of prayer involves no contradiction. Hodge seems to have been led into Meyer’s view. Conybeare improperly takes the participle as an imperative and begins a new paragraph with this verse.—R.]

The participle (προσευχόμενοι) is closely connected with the summons to the conflict and the putting on of the armor. The summons to prayer did not appear independently. Prayer is rather to be regarded as attending the taking up of the weapons and the conflict, as the present strongly indicates. The phrase: διὰ πάσης προσευχῆς καὶ δεήσεως, placed first, only requires, that prayer should not be neglected and that constant prayer of every form be earnestly offered up. The first term means prayer in general, the second the special request. [So Harless, Meyer, Fritzsche, Trench (Syn. II., § 1), Ellicott, Alford and most recent commentators.—R.] The opinion [Grotius] is untenable, that the former refers to the bestowment of a blessing, the latter to the averting of an evil (Jam_5:16-17).

At all times in the Spirit.—Ἐν παντὶ καιρῷ gives prominence to the prayer as persevering, despite all change of relations and circumstances, at every opportunity, ἐν πνεύματι to prayer, as fervent and Christian occurring in the impulse of the Holy Ghost.52 Bengel: Quoties cunque oratis, orate in Spiritu, quippe qui nullo tempore excluditur.

Intercession in general. And watching there unto in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.—With reference to the already described prayer (εἰς αὐτό) there should also enter (καί), “watching” (ἀγρυπνοῦντες, from ἅϋπνος, Mar_13:33; Luk_21:36), which is elsewhere also joined with prayer (Mat_26:41; Mar_14:38; Col_4:2). [Alford: “continual habits of prayer cannot be kept up without watchfulness to that very end.”—R.] This should take place: “in all perseverance and supplication for all the saints.” The feeling of fellowship in the conflict finds its immediate expression in the supplication for all the fellow-combatants, whose standing fast is strength and assistance to their neighbor. The Christian should have a clear view about him, to the companions in conflict at other positions, in other places, and besides continue constant in such supplication. [“Perseverance and supplication” here amounts to “persevering supplication,” though it is not a grammatical Hendiadys, since the order would be inverted in that case. Ellicott says it is “a virtual or what might be termed a contextual ε͂ν διὰ δυοῖν.” Eadie: “In praying for themselves they were uniformly to blend petitions for all the saints.”—R.] How much depends on this is exemplified in what follows.

Intercession for the Apostle, Eph_6:19-20. Eph_6:19. And for me [or on my behalf], καὶ ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ.—[Καί brings into prominence a particular instance: Winer, p. 407.—R.] On the change of prepositions (see Exeg. Notes on Eph_5:2) it may be remarked: As regards the saints the figure of encirclement by attacking foes is the one, hence περί, but in the case of the Apostle in prison, that of a fallen combatant, hence ὑπὲρ. Or the former is=on account of, propter, the latter=for, pro (1Pe_3:18), making known a stronger personal interest.53

That utterance may be given to me.—Ἵνα μοι δοθῇ, that there may be given me from the Lord as His gift.54 Non nitebatur Paulus habitu suo (Bengel). But. what? Utterance, in the opening of my mouth, λόγος ἐν ἀνοίξει τοῦ στόματός μου.—This is one conception: λόγος without the article, indefinite, is more qualified by the prepositional phrase. Ἄνοιξις τοῦ στόματος is a pregnant expression (Mat_5:2; 2Co_6:11), signifying joyful courage, streaming fulness, as well as granted freedom and fit opportunity (Stier). It is an emphatic designation of the inworking of God upon him who should speak in His name (Harless). Comp. Exo_4:12; Psa_51:17; Isa. 51:66; Eze_3:27; Ezek 29:31; Eze_32:22; Mat_10:19; Luk_21:15. Chrysostom: ἡ ἅλυσις ἐπίκειται τήν παῤῥησίαν ἐπιστομίζουσα, ἀλλἡ εὑχὴ ἡ ὑμετέρα ἀνοίγει μου τὸ στόμα, ἵνα ἐν αὐτῶ παῤῥησιάσωμαι. Calovius: Petit sibi sermonem dari, non catenas solvi; petit apertionem oris, non vinculorum; petit sermonis παῤῥησίαν in ipsis vinculis, non liberationem ab iisdem. A word thus uttered in the opening of the mouth effected by God is God’s word. He therefore wishes a word, not for himself in his heart, but a word in his mouth for others, in furtherance of the conflict which tends to peace. This differs then from Col_4:2, where external opportunity is in question, while here the internal life of the Apostle is treated of. Accordingly it is incorrect to render: ut aperiam os meum (Beza [E. V.] and others); in that case εἰς would occur instead of ἐν. So too: when I speak or open my mouth (Meyer and others) [so substantially Eadie, Ellicott, Alford and Hodge]; it is not merely a graphic and solemn expression, that would be too flat. Nor is an improvisation referred to (Œcumenius), or an internal moral quality of Paul, the frankness=ἐν παῤῥησίᾳ (Calvin, Koppe [Bleek, Schenkel] and others), or occasione data (Grotius and others), nor is it to be joined with what follows. [The connection with what precedes (not, as in the E. V., with what follows) is now generally accepted. “The opening of the mouth” most naturally refers neither to the quality nor to the source of the discourse, but to the simple act or fact of speaking, so that the view of Meyer is on the whole preferable. As the phrase occurs here in the purport of a prayer, it may refer to an act of God in opening the mouth, as Braune claims, but in that case another form would have made the sense much clearer.—R.]

In boldness to make known the mystery of the gospel [“So that with boldness I may make known,” etc.].—This expresses that for which he wishes that to him “utterance may be given,” “in the opening of my mouth.” He would gladly “make known,” and this was permitted to him in Cesarea (Act_24:23) and in Rome (Act_28:30-31; 2Ti_1:16) in spite of his bonds. But he wishes to do it ἐν παῤῥσίᾳ (Eph_3:12), hence the phrase stands emphatically in advance. What he will gladly make known is the “mystery” (Eph_1:9; Eph_3:9), which is the substance “of the gospel.” [Ellicott takes it as a genitive subjecti, “the mystery which the gospel has, involves.”—R.]

Eph_6:20. For which [or in behalf of which (Ellicott: “in commodum cujus, to preach which”); see below on the exact reference.—R.]

I am an ambassador.—He thus expresses the reason why he would so gladly stand up and labor for the gospel [not merely why he was in bonds.—R.] As Christ’s ambassador he holds that office for all nations, and for the gospel; hence ὑπὲρ οὖ, not ὸὖ. Πρεβεύω is I am an ambassador (2Co_5:20) and that too in bonds, ἐν ἁλύσει.—What a contrast: to be an ambassador in a chain! Bengel: Paradoxon; mundus habet legatos splendidos. Wetstein: Alias legati jure gentium sancti et inviolabiles, in vinculis haberi non poterant. The verb does not however indicate that he was accredited to the Roman court (Michaelis), nor does the noun in the singular refer to the single chain with which he was bound to a soldier, to the custodia militaris (Baumgarten and others).55 Grotius is incorrect: nunc quoque non desino legationem, for we do not read: καὶ ἐν ἀλύσει πρεσβεύω. Nor is it=πρεσβεύων ἐν ἀλύσει εἰμί (Rueckert). Finally οὖ does not refer to μυστή ριον or to τὸ ἐν παῤῥησίᾳ γνωρίσαι. [Eadie refers it to the whole preceding clause, but this is indistinct; Meyer, Ellicott and Alford (apparently most correctly) refer it to “the mystery of the gospel,” since this was the object of γνωρίσαι, and what he should make known would naturally be that for which he was an ambassador in bonds. R—.]

That therein I may speak boldly, ἵνα ἐν αὐτῷ παῤῥησιάσωμαι.—Ἵνα introduces an end, and the final one: “that therein I may speak boldly.” [“His being thus a captive ambassador, was all the more reason why they should pray earnestly that he might have boldness” (Alford). On the grammatical connection see the concluding note.—R.] The gospel is the immediate task of the free discourse, in this, however, there is also a message of Divine power, is the source and ground of the boldness. When there is first vouchsafed to him “an utterance in the opening of his mouth,” then also does he obtain “boldness” in the gospel, and that too: as I ought to speak, ὡς δεῖ με λαλῆσαι.—The emphasis rests on the ὡς as in Luk_12:11 (Stier). Much depends on how it is done, hence “as I ought to speak.” He must indeed testify; that is his “necessity” (1Co_9:16); but to him belongs also, beyond the εὐαγγελίσασθαι, the manner worthy of the ambassador of Christ. This defines the fulfilling of his task, his duty. Comp. Col_4:4; 1Th_2:2. Accordingly ἵνα in this verse is not co-ordinate with the first ἵνα in Eph_6:19 (Meyer, Bleek and others), since this is the final end of the Church’s supplication, to be attained through the fulfilment of the first ἵνα; nor is it dependent on πρεσβεύω (Bengal), which is inconceivable.

[Eadie, Alford, Hodge and Ellicott, all agree with Meyer, in taking this ἵνα as co-ordinate with that in Eph_6:19, thus setting forth a second purpose of the watching and the supplication for the Apostle. This involves no tautology, as Harless supposes, since the reference here is to a conditioned boldness, and “therein” indicates not the source or ground, but the sphere of the boldness: “in the matter of, in dealing with the mystery of the gospel;” God is the source. Such a co-ordinate ἵνα occurs in Rom_7:13; Gal_3:14; 2Co_9:3. It is true as Braune suggests, that this design is accomplished only through the fulfilment of the previous purpose (Eph_6:19), but grammatically the clause must be either co-ordinate or subordinate (the view of Bengel being altogether untenable); if the latter, then it would express the purpose, not of the whole previous context, the supplication and consequent utterance, but simply of the gift of utterance, a view which Braune himself does not accept. We prefer therefore the other construction as more grammatical and not militating against the special point our author would bring out. For convenience a paraphrase of Eph_6:18-20 is appended: In this conflict therefore stand, not only armed thus, but with all (every form of) prayer and supplication, praying at all times (perseveringly and under all circumstances) in the (Holy) Spirit, and watching thereunto (in respect to this varied and constant prayer) in all perseverance and supplication (abiding even as you pray in persevering supplication) for all the saints; and (in particular) on behalf of me, that to me may be given (from God) utterance, in the opening of my mouth (when I am called upon to speak), so that with boldness I may make known the mystery of the gospel (whose contents are the gospel), in behalf of which (gospel mystery) I am an ambassador in bonds (a chained ambassador); (praying for me too in view of my office and condition) that therein (in the matter of the gospel mystery) I may speak boldly, as I ought (as becomes my office) to speak.—R.]

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL

1. The kingdom of Satan. There is an organized kingdom of evil (Hahn, Theologie des N. T., I., p. 347), opposing the kingdom and people of God. In this there is a head, διάβολος (Eph_6:11; Eph_2:2; Eph_4:27); there are different groups, ἀρχαί, ἐξουσίαι (Eph_6:12; Eph_3:10; comp. Eph_1:21), superior and inferior, with dominion over the world, κοσμοκράτορες. The nature of the prince and his dependents is pneumatic (Eph_6:12 : τὰ πνευματικά) and super-terrestrial, ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις (Eph_6:12); thus prominence is given to their might over against men; they are super-terrestrial, with angelic power. Their character, however, is marked by the terms “wickedness” (Eph_6:12 : τῆς πονηρίας), “darkness” (τοῦ σκότους, Eph_6:12) and “the evil one” (Eph_6:16); at his service are multifarious wiles (Eph_6:11 : αἱ μεθοδεῖαι), which perceive the necessities and weakness of the object to be assaulted in all relations, preparing the attacks accordingly. [Eadie: “To rouse up the Christian soldiery, the Apostle brings out into bold relief the terrible foes which they are summoned to encounter. As to their position, they are no subalterns, but foes of mighty rank, the nobility and chieftains of the spirit-world; as to their office, their domain is ‘this darkness’ in which they exercise imperial sway; as to their essence, they are not encumbered with an animal frame, but are ‘spirits;’ and as to their character, they are ‘evil’—their appetite for evil only exceeds their capacity for producing it.”—R.]

2. The contest in its essence is a single-handed struggle in wrestling (Eph_6:12 : α̇λλα, sc. ἕστιν ἡμῖν ἡ πάλη), in which each for himself is attacked. The danger lies in the power and character of the enemy and of his wiles (see 1), in which he does not himself openly appear; he casts βέλη, many (πάντα) and fiery ones (Eph_6:16), as also in the end of the vanquished one, who belongs to “darkness” (Eph_6:12) as a result of the “deceit” (Eph_4:14). The means for assault and conflict are afforded to the Evil one by the world, which is at his disposal, and by “flesh and blood” (Eph_6:12), which war against the soul and become allies in the service of Satan, against whom the contest really is waged, standing behind these as he does with his stratagems and artifices. What is natural and created is not the precise antagonist against whom we must contend. The Apostle sketches the conflict as a present one (ἔστιν, Eph_6:12), concerning every member of the church, the Apostle and every Christian, having however its history, its various stages up to the day of decision (“in the evil day,” Eph_6:13) for which we must be prepared by opposition from the very start, being practiced in the turns and twists of the contest. Hence we are to understand the temptations and antagonisms, which meet every Christian in this world, which are spared to no period of the Church. They appear as contests with flesh and blood, with the world and its influence through its possessions, pleasures and honors, but back of this there stands really and in truth the kingdom of darkness.56 At certain times and hours they are intensified into specially decisive conflict. The evil day may be either the most fierce persecution and bitter sorrow, or quite as readily prosperity and undisturbed earthly happiness, in which some may fall even deeper and the Church itself be corrupted into unfaithfulness. This is true in particular for every Christian and his Christian life, and also in general for the Christian Church in its groups and its course of development. As the power of the Evil one is a cosmical one, and not merely a human one, humanly individualized, so the conflict itself is a cosmical one also, and not merely an individual one.

3. The panoply. In such a conflict the Christian needs an equipment, given by God and covering the whole man (ἡ πανοπλία τοῦ θεοῦ, Eph_6:11; Eph_6:13). Man of himself, in his own power and strength, is unable to withstand the attacks; he has assailable and vulnerable points, which he must protect against the assaults of the Evil One, but which he alone cannot protect; only with the Lord Christ and in His power can he do it, even though he stands isolated; without God in Christ never!—The separate pieces of this armor (Eph_6:14-17) are: truth, righteousness, zealous but not passionate witness, faith, which concerns the whole personality, hope, which exalts, and God’s Word. The first three pieces betoken the garments, the next two the defensive armor, the last the one only weapon of offence and attack adapted only for single-handed and close combat, which belongs to the Christian warrior, to the Christian assailed by the Evil One and yet courageous and assured of victory. No one piece can be undervalued or neglected: each one requires the other; they together form one whole.—The putting on of this armor presupposes a being strengthened, points to an internal and vital appropriation, and requires faithful fulfilment of duty (ἅπαντα κατεργασάμενοι, Eph_6:13). Neither a knowledge which is a matter either of the memory merely or of the reflecting understanding, nor an external mechanical skill in the handling of these spiritual pieces of armor, will suffice for the conflict and the victory. Even the standing ready for the combat is not enough; there must be a solicitous regard as to what is to be done, and performance of the immediate task in peaceable walk. But above all must we cling to the Lord, in order to become inwardly strengthened by Him.—Hence Paul adjoins to the lively sketch of the panoply in close connection soberly without a figure.

4. Praying and watching (Eph_6:18), just as the Lord enjoined it and practiced it in the struggle in the garden of Gethsemane (Mat_26:36-46); God’s Word to and for us teaches and leads us to open our hearts before Him in our word to Him. There must be at length intercourse between Him and our souls, in order to strengthen us more and more and enable us to do our duty. In prayerful intercourse, that grows ever more fervent, free, joyous and constant, we obtain God’s power. But we must with true open look see about and within ourselves, so that our weakness, the motions of the flesh, the surrounding agitation, the state of the times, the assaults of the enemy, God’s will and word, do not escape us.

5. We must advance to intercession for all saints and for the special warriors of the present. The Christian stands in single-handed combat, but is not isolated; the fall of one may involve the fall of another, perhaps of many. The victory of one preserves many from a fall. The conflict of the Christian is a common concern, the cause of the Church. That is an evidence of watching, when in the supplication for all special thought is given to those who are fighting in the van and most of all exposed to assaults. That is watchfulness, when one sees that the matter is not that the external condition of the assailed one is altered and improved, that the prison should be opened for the prisoner, but rather that he continues internally in joy and boldness to be an unhampered witness of the gospel, especially of the marrow of the gospel, full of life, of the profoundest contents of revelation, thus enabled amid all outward disgrace before the world to preserve the inward dignity of a child and servant of God, of His ambassador.

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL

About nothing does man have such indistinct views as about his own strength. Every one, be he never so weak, thinks himself strong: this is proved by his resolutions, his plans, which have been mostly frustrated and shattered. It is with strength as with beauty, which no one even the ugliest thinks is far off. Indeed man is often afraid for himself just where there is nothing to fear, as the miser of unnecessary expense, the ambitious man of renouncing something, not knowing their own weakness. That in the Lord alone, the strong and mighty One, strength is to be sought and found, all those do not consider who are unwilling to ground true freedom in the service of God; only the children of God are strong, and he who stands fast on the soil of Divine precepts, eternal principles, has unconquerable might. He who is overcome by God and holds to Him, overcomes himself and the enemies without him.—The conflict is stirred by a powerful enemy without us, who is the more dangerous, the more allies he finds within us in our flesh and blood, in our natural man. Were there no false friends in us, the enemy, Satan, without us would not have so great power.—The Christian alone is assailed; he who is not assailed is no Christian, either no longer, or not yet. Satan does not attack his own, but rather uses them only in assaulting believers.—In the panoply of God all temptations of the devil turn out to be trials from God, in which we become stronger and more invincible.—The girdle of the Christian warrior is a chain of eternal truths, his breastplate is righteousness which avails before God, his war-shoes are skill in Gospel testimony in word and deed without precipitancy in peaceableness; his shield is that faith of the heart which hangs on Christ, securing against seven darts, those of sin, virtue, the world, the cross, despair, calumny and death (H. Mueller); the helmet is the hope of everlasting salvation, and the short sword is the apprehended word from God, which has the edge and point to parry as drawn by the Lord Himself. Only learn how to choose and use such texts as Mat_4:4; Mat_4:7; Mat_4:10! See thou hast the sword of the Spirit! 1. The sword which is of the Spirit is a word, God’s word, but this word is a sword. 2. The Spirit, whose the sword is, is the Holy Spirit, not theology, not polity, nor confession, neither letter nor man’s reason.—Without God’s word reason and strength were a leaden banner, a lance without a head, a sword without an edge.—To handle the sword Of the Spirit thou needest the strength of God. Hamann says aptly, the breastplate is no bodice but a breast-plate, to which a champion is as much accustomed as patrons to their loose clothes. From supplication we first learn how to pray for ourselves rightly.—More depends on internal than on external freedom. To be free in chains and bonds, to be full of pure joy hr tribulation, to be oppressed and yet freehearted, is the Apostle’s wish and precept.

Starke: Do you suppose that Christianity comes off without a conflict or that you will receive a crown of glory without having contended? You deceive yourself. Daily must you be in the combat and show good knighthood in faith. Do you ask: who then are my enemies? look into your own breast and there you will find sinful lusts, warring against you; sloth and sleepiness, clouding thy spirit, unbelief and doubt, wounds of conscience, disturbing you, etc. Without you are Satan and the world, setting their nets. If you are not properly armed in faith against these enemies, you will go to ruin.—Since artifice is so much more dangerous than force, we must specially protect ourselves against this.—He who is well armed can composedly look the devil in the face and stand up to him foot to foot; he will assuredly conquer.—A good conscience is the Christian’s breastwork.—The less sin, the less the power of the devil.—Let a believing Christian take especial care that he guards his heart.—When the enemy is there it is too late to begin to arm; prepare yourself beforehand and be always ready.—Where there is no faith, there is no armor that avails against Satan; all is lost.—The word of God is necessary for all men, even for the overcoming of spiritual adversaries. How can the Romish Church answer for this, that they have refused this to their poor people?—Prating is not praying. He who has not the spirit of prayer, cannot pray aright.—Strong, well-fortified and blessed souls need our intercessions also.—Ye hearers, why is it that your teacher is so dull and that he cannot speak with power to your conscience! The answer is: you do not pray for him! Oh, as often as he enters the pulpit, so often should your mind and your whole heart rise to the Lord, praying earnestly that he may with boldness and great impression speak to your souls.—Oh how much useless stuff is often brought out from the pulpit! Let him who appears before the Lord, see to it that he speaks nothing else than God’s word.

Rieger: A good warrior needs inward courage and then outward armor.—The devil has a great advantage when his power is denied or deemed trifling. For there is then the less arming against him.—The magnificent names which the Apostle applies to these powers arranged in the kingdom of darkness, we must never look at in themselves, for then they might appear to be expressed only to increase the fear of our hearts; but when we consider in addition the destruction of all these works which is announced in the Gospel, they serve rather to exalt the name of Christ.—In the entire period of life, during which we find ourselves placed on the field of conflict, there still occurs some one occasion which constitutes the evil day, and upon which it depends whether the purpose of the enemy be repelled, our will for good, taken from God’s word and Spirit, become strengthened and thus God’s will toward us be accomplished.—It is really a principal part of the honorable condition of the children of God, that they cannot only present their own concerns in prayer to Him, but also assume those of others in supplication.—There is here however no approval of an indolent leaning upon the intercessions of others, such as Simon sought with a heart “not right” (Acts 6:24), or of a self-interested application of intercession, such as our Saviour rebuked in the Pharisee (Mat_13:14), but we are to understand a common contest and mutual help in prayer.

Heubner: Weapons of human prudence, the straw-armor of our reason, as Luther says, are not sufficient against the evil, spiritual powers. If God is not with us, with His counsel and His strength, all is in vain.—The Christian must ever stand, ever be armed, because there is always a conflict. A fool does not know what kind of a contest there is going to be! He calls the evil powers the fancies of benighted ones.—As among the Spartans the saying was: “either with this or on this,” so the Christian should either preserve his shield of faith or die on it.—No one is so strong that he can do without the intercession of others. Even a Paul still needed strengthening and stimulus. The word to be preached is given by the Lord; the Lord opens the mouth. From Him must come the impulse to speak; he who preaches according to his own fancies and pleasure accomplishes nothing. The Gospel is to the perverted heart always a mystery.

Passavant: Paul was a man of God and as such of varied and great experience in all these conflicts.—The more earnestly Paul contended, the more earnestly did his love for the Christians, the brethren, the churches of the Lord, fear and tremble.—Paul is the ambassador on behalf of the Gospel and on account of the preaching of it in bonds.—This office has its sorrows and dangers; it has heights and also abysses, a destruction, a condemnation, a death.

Stier: As certainly as you can count upon God’s help, so necessary is your own activity in the use of means, which God proffers that you may offer resistance.—To withstand the enemy and to stand is already the entire, difficult triumph.—We are not however once for all done with girding, putting on, grasping our arms and armor; in the midst of the conflict we must constantly look after them and keep them in order.—The contest, the enemies, the field of battle, the equipment,—that is all; but the arms, which the Spirit gives, can be managed only with the prayer of our spirit, can be attained, put on and grasped only through prayer.—An ambassador in bonds! But although bound, he can still proclaim unhindered and conduct properly his embassy.—Gerlach: Bound with a chain to a soldier, Paul preached the Gospel and dictated this Epistle, from which the Christian Church in all ages has received so much love and pleasure.

On the Epistle for the 21st Sunday after Trinity [Eph_6:10-17].—Herberger: The hand-book (Enchiridion) of a Christian knight. 1. What kind of heart and courage such an one must have to appear in the place of review. 2. Who is his chief Captain, to whom he must have regard. 3. What kind of equipment he must have, what is the best armory, the best arsenal. 4. Who are his worst enemies. 5. How he ought and must accustom himself to his armor. 6. What a severe regimen he must carry out. 7. Finally what he has to expect, if he conduct himself in a knightly manner.—Lisco; The sacred combat of the Christian: 1. The cause for which he contends (Eph_6:10-11); 2. The enemies against which he contends (Eph_6:12-13); 3. The weapons with which he contends (Eph_6:14-17).—Rautenberg: Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might! How the equipment with the whole armor of God Isaiah 1) so indispensable, 2) so accessible, 3) so glorious.—Harless: The bond of Christian fellowship consists: 1) in the assurance of the same contest for all; 2) in the possession of the same arms; 3) in the command to accordant love.—Gesetz und Zeugniss [a German periodical]: The secret conflict of the Christian. 1) The secret of his danger, 2) of his strength, 3) of his victory.—Muenkel: The Apostle’s war sermon shows 1) the enemy against whom, 2) the armor in which, 3) the kingdom for which we contend.—Pröhle: The Christian warrior. 1. The host of foes against him (Eph_6:12); 2. The heroic spirit in which he goes forth (Eph_6:10-11); 3. The armor he bears (Eph_6:13-17).

[Hodge: Eph_6:10-13. As a conflict is inevitable, the believer should: 1. Muster strength for the struggle. 2. He should seek that strength from Christ. 3. Since his enemies are not human, but superhuman, he needs not only more than human strength, but also Divine armor.

Eph_6:10. He who rushes into this conflict without Christ has not strength even to reach the field. When most empty of self, we are most full of God.

Eph_6:14. With the flowing garments of the East, the first thing to be done in preparing for any active work was to gird the loins. To enter on this spiritual conflict ignorant or doubting, would be to enter battle blind or lame.—A warrior without his breast-plate was naked, exposed to every thrust of his enemy, and even to every casual dart. In such a state flight or death is inevitable.

Eph_6:15. In ancient warfare swiftness of foot was one of the most important qualifications for a good soldier. As the Gospel secures our peace with God, and gives assurance of His favor, it produces that joyful alacrity of mind which is essential to success in the spiritual conflict.

Eph_6:16. It is a common experience of the people of God, that at times horrible thoughts, unholy, blasphemous, sceptical, malignant crowd upon the mind, which cannot be accounted for on any ordinary law of mental action, and which cannot be dislodged. There are others which enkindle passion, inflame ambition, excite cupidity, pride, discontent, or vanity. Against these most dangerous weapons of the evil one, the only protection is faith.

Eph_6:17. This sword puts to flight all the powers of darkness; it is true in the individual experience of the Christian, and in the experience of the church collective. All her triumphs over sin and error have been effected by the Word of God. When anything else takes its place, the Church, or the Christian, is at the mercy of the adversary.

Eph_6:18. To obtain strength to use this armor aright, and to secure victory, we should pray. These prayers should be: 1. Of all kinds; 2. On every occasion; 3. Importunate and persevering; 4. By the aid of the Holy Spirit; 5. For all saints.—R.]

[Eadie:

Eph_6:10. The valor is as spiritual as the armor.

Eph_6:11. The great enemy of man, a veteran fierce and malignant has a method of warfare peculiar to himself, for it consists of “wiles.” His battles are the rush of a sudden ambuscade.

Eph_6:12. It is no vulgar herd of fiends we encounter, but such of them as are darkly eminent in place and dignity.

Eph_6:16. The biography of Luther and Bunyan affords apposite examples of these fiery darts.

Eph_6:17. The Captain of salvation set the example, and once and again, and a third time, did He repel the assault of the prince of darkness by three brief and simple citations from Scripture.

Eph_6:18. “ ‘Praying always’—what does it mean? Being always on our knees? always engaged in the act of prayer? This I believe to be one of the grossest glosses that Satan casts on that text. He has often given it that gloss; monkery, nunnery, abstraction from the world in order to give up one’s self to prayer, are but the effects of that false gloss” (Evans).—“All the saints” pray for us, and in a spirit of reciprocity it becomes us to pray for them.

Eph_6:19. “The mystery of the Gospel.” It is a system which lay hidden till God’s time came for revealing it. To know it there must be a Divine initiator, for its truths are beyond the orbit of human anticipations. The God-man, a vicarious death, gratuitous pardon, the influence of the Spirit—are doctrines which man never could have discovered. This Gospel, without mutilation, in its fulness and majesty, and with all its characteristic elements, the Apostle wishes to proclaim with plain and unfaltering freedom.

Eph_6:20. The Apostle’s earnest wish was, that he might expound his message in a manner that became him and his high commission, that his imprisonment might have no dispiriting effect upon him, and that he might not in his addresses compromise the name and dignity of an ambassador for Christ.—R.]

Footnotes:

[26] Eph_6:10.—[The Rec. reads: τὸ λοιπὸν ἀδελφοὶ μου, but μοῦ λοιποῦ occurs in א1. A. B.,2cursives, and some fathers; it is accepted by Lachmann, Rückert and Alford, but the other form is retained by Tischendorf, Meyer, Ellicott on the authority of א.3D. F. K. L., most cursives and fathers. Most editors, however, reject ἀδελφοί μου, which is found only in א.3 K. L. (though in others with the omission of μου, and in a different position) most cursives and fathers; besides the good external authority for the omission (א.¹ B. D. E., good versions), the phrase is open to double suspicion: first, as usually following τὸ λοιπόν and hence likely to be inserted second, as not used in direct address in this Epistle (Olshausen). Meyer holds that the reading τοῦ λοιποῦ is a mechanical repetition from Gal_6:17, urging the insertion of the added phrase in favor of τὸ λοιπόν (see his critical note).—R.]

[27]Eph_6:12.—[Lachmann and Rückert accept ὑμῖν on the authority of B. D.1 F. G., a few cursives, a number of versions and fathers; but ἡμῖν is very well supported (א. A. D. 3 K. L., most cursives, versions and fathers), while the change to the second person is an apparent correction on account of the individualizing, hortatory character of the passage as a whole.—R.]

[28]Eph_6:12.—[The Rec. reads: τοῦ σκότους τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, but the words τοῦ αἰῶνος are rejected by all recent editors as an explanatory gloss. They are found in א3 (but rubbed out) D.3 K. L., most cursives, a number of fathers (with an asterisk in Syriac-Phil.), but omitted in א.2 A. B. D.3 F., good versions, most fathers.—R.]

[29]Eph_6:12.—[The emendations in the latter part of this verse are required by the exegetical views adopted in the additional notes. The only variation from the rendering required by Dr. Braune’s opinions is in the insertion of hosts. See Exeg. Notes.—R.]

[30]Eph_6:16.—[Instead of the well-Supported reading of the Rec. (ἐπί) א B., 10 cursives, a few fathers reads, ἐν, which is adopted by Lachmann, but rejected by nearly all more recent editors as a correction for the ambiguous ἐπί. Alford is in doubt.—The force of ἐπί is correctly given in the above emendation; comp. Exeg. Notes.—R.]

[31]Eph_6:16.—[In B. D.1 F., τά his omitted, rejected by Lachmann, bracketted by Alford, but “it seems more probable that the article was omitted by an oversight, than that the transcriber felt any grammatical difficulty, and sought to remedy it by insertion” (Ellicott). So Meyer, and most, with the support of א. A. D.2 K. L., and most minor authorities. On the effect of the omission on the grammatical construction, see Exeg. Notes.—R.]

[32]Eph_6:17.—[In D.1 F. G., some minor authorities the verb is omitted; in A. D.3 K., a number of cursives, it is changed into δέξασθαι (Matthies), but the reading of the Rec. (δέξασθε) is well supported, and generally accepted. The internal grounds are strongly in favor of it; had the verb been originally wanting the corrector would probably have supplied ἀναλάβετε, while the infinitive form may be ascribed either to itacism or to the presence of an infinitive in the clause immediately preceding (so Meyer.)—R.]

[33]Eph_6:18.—[The Rec. inserts τοῦτο after αὐτό with D.3 K. L., some cursives and fathers, but it is rejected as an explanatory addition by recent editors on good uncial authority, confirmed by variations which are best accounted for on the theory of its spuriousness.—In is more literal than with, indicating also the variation in prepositions.—R.]

[34]Eph_6:19.—The Rec. reads δοθείη, but it has no uncial support, found only in a few cursives.—The emendations in this verse are necessary, as the E. V. gives a wrong connection and interpretation.—R.]

[35]Eph_6:19.—[The words τοῦ εὐαγγελίου are omitted in B. F. G., and bracketted by Lachmann, but accepted by more recent editors (Tischendorf, Alford, Wordsworth, Ellicott) on the evidence of א. A. D. E. K. L., good cursives and versions.—R.]

[36][“Be strong” does not bring out this passive force; hence “be strengthened” is generally substituted by English commentators and revisers.—R.]

[37][The E. V.: “whole armour,” is the only possible translation of this word; “panoply” is simply the Greek word with an English termination, and is less readily understood by the ordinary reader. That both offensive weapons and defensive armor are included will appear at first glance from Eph_6:17.—R.]

[38][Eadie, Alford and Ellicott follow Meter, urging that the emphasis on τοῦ θεοῦ would imply some other spiritual armor, but Braune’s view avoids this objection, and is preferable on account of the double antithesis: “the wiles of the devil.”—R.]

[39][The word is generally used in a bad sense, though Diodorus Siculus uses the verb of geometrical investigations (Alford). Eadie renders it: “stratagems;” Alford: “schemes.” The form μεθοδίας is found in א. A. B.1 D.1 F. K. L., many cursives, but not generally received, as the variation is supposed to be due to itacism (comp. Eph_4:14).—R.]

[40][Ellicott: “The dogmatical meaning is correctly explained by the Greek commentators: the evil spirits exercise dominion over the κόσμος, not in its mere material nature, but in its ethical and perhaps intellectual character and relations, the depravation of which is expressed by τοῦ σκότους τούτου.” Meyer’s note (mainly adopted by Ellicott) in loco is interesting and valuable.—R.]

[41][Eadie adopts this view: “The celestial spots occupied by the Church; on them this combat is to be maintained. Those evil spirits have invaded the Church—and therefore believers must encounter and fight them ‘in the heavenly places.’ ” To this view nothing in the context points, while it seems a too remote connection to join this phrase with πάλη.—R.]

[42][Meyer, Ellicott and others take the preposition as instrumental, but Alford is more exact: “not instrumental, but local; the girt person is within, surrounded by the girdle; but this is necessarily expressed in English by ‘with.’ ”—R.]

[43][The aorist participles are not used for presents (Holzhausen), but with propriety; “the different acts specified by the participles were all completed before the soldier took up his position” (Ellicott).—R.]

[44][The Roman caligæ were probably in the Apostle’s mind; sandals with soles thickly studded with nails.—R.]

[45][This view of the passage is now generally accepted (Meyer, Alford and many others). On the word ἑτοιμασία, used principally in the LXX. and ecclesiastical writers (the classical form was ἑτοιμότης), see Meyer and Alford in loco.—R.]

[46][Eadie: “The pieces of armor already mentioned being fitted on to the body and fastened to it, each by appropriate mechanism, have each its characteristic verb—but shield, helmet and sword need no such special fastening, for they are simply taken up or assumed, and therefore they are joined to the one general participle, ἀναλαβόντες, and the verb δέξασθε.”—R.]

[47][Not, however, as Meyer thinks, to the last great future fight. Alford thinks the future implies the certainty that the shield of faith will thus quench. Ellicott regards it as only “a conditioned present.”—R.]

[48][Should the article be omitted (see Textual Note6) the participle would be a tertiary predicate; “fire-tipt as they are” (Ellicott), “when inflamed, even in their utmost malice and fiery power” (Alford).—R.]

[49][Ellicott: “Not ‘evil,’ τὸ πονηρόν, but in accordance with the individualizing and personal nature of the conflict which the context so forcibly depicts—the Devil.” Alford: “The conflict being personal, the adversary must be, not an abstract principle, but a concrete person.”—R.]

[50][“Still less probably is it a genitive of quality, ἡ μάχαιρα πνευματικά (Chrysostom), or a simple genitive of possession in reference to the τιμωρητικὴ ἐνέργεια (Lever. ap. Cram. Cat.) of the Spirit, both of which seem to be at variance with the general tenor of the passage, which represents the ‘armatura’ as furnished to us by God. Thus then it is from the Spirit that we receive the sword, that sword being the Word of God, the Gospel (Eph_6:15), which is the δύναμις θεοῦ (Rom_1:18; 1Co_1:18) to every one who believeth; comp. Heb_4:12” (Ellicott).—R.]

[51][Eadie mentions among the works which are open to this objection: Gurnall, Christian in complete armour, Glasgow, 1763; Ainsworth, Tactica Sacra, 1657; Lydius, Syntagma de re militari. ed Van Til, 1698, Dort.—The best practical commentary on this section is undoubtedly to be found in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, especially the armory in the “Interpreter’s house,” and the combat with Apollyon in “the valley of humiliation.”—On the arms, comp. Smith’s Bible Dictionary, Arms.—R.]

[52][“The Holy Spirit in whose blessed and indwelling influence, and by whose merciful aid, we are enabled to pray (Rom_8:15; Gal_4:6), yea, and who Himself intercedes for us (Rom_8:26).’ So Ellicott, who analyzes the clause thus: “With all prayer and supplication” denotes the earnest, because varied character of the prayer; “at all times” the constancy of it, thus showing that there is no tautology as Meyer asserts and Hodge implies.—R.]

[53][Meyer, Ellicott and others attach little or no importance to the change of preposition here, but Harless, Eadie, Alford and others are not satisfied with the explanation that the change was occasioned by mere desire for variety. That is unlike Paul. To mark the variation in English, Alford renders: “concerning all the saints and for me.” The Revision by Four Anglican clergymen gives: “for all the saints and on my behalf.” Ellicott in his translation gives: and in particular for me, but this is a paraphrase of the specializing καί.—R.]

[54][The reading of the Rec. (δοθείη), on which see Textual Note 9, would give the purpose a more subjective reference, and represent the feeling of a more dependent reality (Ellicott).—R.]

[55][The allusion is probable, but as the singular is frequently used in a collective sense, and this word is employed by Paul only in the singular, we cannot certainly infer that there is such an allusion here.—R.]

[56][Hodge remarks respecting the conflict: “It is one also in which great mistakes are often committed and serious loss incurred from ignorance of its nature, and of the appropriate means for carrying it on. Men are apt to regard it as a mere moral conflict between reason and conscience on the one side, and evil passions on the other. They therefore rely on their own strength and upon the resources of nature for success. Against these mistakes the Apostle warns his readers. He teaches that everything pertaining to it is supernatural. The source of strength is not in nature. The conflict is not between the good and bad principles of our nature. He shows that we belong to a spiritual as well as to a natural world, and are engaged in a combat in which the higher powers of the universe are involved; and that this conflict, on the issue of which our salvation depends, is not to be carried on with straws picked up by the wayside. As we have superhuman enemies to contend with, we need not only superhuman strength, but Divine armor and arms. The weapons of our warfare are not natural, but Divine.”—R.]

Lange's Commentary on the Holy Scriptures (Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical), ed. John Peter Lange, English translation edited by Philip Schaff (1864–1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

6. The Warfare and the Panoply of God

CHAPTER 6:10-20

1. The warfare (Eph 6:10-12)

2. The panoply of God (Eph 6:13-20)

Christian warfare or conflict is with the devil and his wiles, with the principalities, the powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, and with the spiritual armies of wickedness in the heavenly places (literal translation).

This revelation given here concerning the powers of darkness, the principalities, the rulers of the darkness of this world and the wicked spirits in the heavenly places, is important and demands a closer attention. The Scriptures clearly teach that there is a vast dominion of darkness over which Satan is the head and that, as the god of this present age, he has rulers over this world and a large army of wicked spirits in the heavenlies. He is the prince of the power in the air. The sphere above the earth, the aerial heavens and beyond are tenanted by these wicked spirits, which under the headship of Satan form with principalities and powers, his kingdom. How mighty this being is, what powers are at his disposal, how vast his dominion, how numerous the fallen angels, the wicked spirits which possess the heavenly places, no Saint has ever fully realized, nor can it be all known, till the day comes in which the God of peace shall bruise Satan completely under our feet. Satan has even access into heaven itself The first two chapters of the book of Job acquaint us with this fact. See also 1Ki 22:19-23.

But a day is coming when the old serpent, called the devil and Satan, will be cast out into the earth and his angels with him. This will happen according to the Apocalypse (Rev 12:1-17), when the saints of God are taken into glory and Michael begins his great war against Satan. Then the heavenlies will be cleared of their wicked and unlawful occupants. They will be forced to the earth, where Satan for a brief period will exhibit his great wrath and institute the great tribulation. The devil and his angels will finally be cast into the lake of fire prepared for them (Mat 25:41). All this we know from God’s revelation, and it is a solemn revelation.

In our days the masses of professing Christendom are wholly indifferent to these truths. Others openly oppose them, sneer at them and reject them as superstitions. Well has it been said, “No one but an unbeliever can overlook and despise them.” Behind all these denials and sneers, coming from the camps of higher criticism and the new theology stands the dark shadow of Satan. The rulers of darkness of this world, the wicked spirits, do all in their power to keep a lost world, with its supposed progress and scientific discoveries, in ignorance and darkness about themselves. And occultism, known by the names of spiritualism and Psychical research, tries to establish communion with departed spirits. In reality it is communion with the wicked spirits in the heavenlies, who use this unlawful intrusion to delude their victims and make them doubly secure for the impending doom.

And these wicked spirits are against the masterpiece of God. Those who are in Christ and lay hold in the power of His Spirit of the great and ever blessed truths revealed in this epistle, who know the hope of His calling, who rejoice in God and the glory to come, who walk worthy of the calling, come face to face with these powers of darkness. They hate us as they hate Christ.

The wiles of the devil, not his power, we are exhorted to stand against. His wiles are all aimed at getting us away from the enjoyment of the fellowship into which God has called us, the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord. If he succeeds in that he has dislodged us from our stronghold and then is able to attack us. The world over which he rules is at his disposal and he uses it to accomplish his sinister purpose. Many pages could be written on his tactics and not the half would be told. It is not so much by the gross things of the flesh and the world he works, though he also uses them; errors of all descriptions becoming more subtle and more cunning, are the chiefest wiles of this great being and the wicked spirits under his control. And how well he succeeds in our present time!

And we must put on the whole armor of God, the panoply of God. It is the only way that we can get the victory and stand and withstand. First, the loins are to be girt about with truth. Even so our Lord exhorted, “Let your loins be girded about” (Luk 12:35).

It is the girdle around the loins, which holds all things together. The girdle is the truth. What truth? The truth of heavenly things, heavenly blessings, acceptance in Christ, oneness with Him, the truth so fully revealed in this Epistle. This we need as a girdle to hold up our garments, our habits, so that in the warfare and conflict we may not be entangled with the affairs of this life (2Ti 2:4). The truth is to govern our conduct, our affections.

The breastplate of righteousness. This covers the heart. It means having a good conscience. Not merely knowing that we are the righteousness of God in Christ, that we are righteous because we believe on Him, but it means a consistent walk with our position in Christ and the relationship into which the grace of God has brought us. It is again the walk, worthy of our vocation, obedience to the exhortations of the preceding chapters. Covered by this the devil cannot touch us. Such practical righteousness “love out of a pure heart and of a good conscience and of faith unfeigned” keeps us in the realization and enjoyment of our relationship to God, in the fellowship with the Father and the Son. How often we fail in having on the breastplate of righteousness. Then we must seek restoration by confessing our sins (1Jn 1:9).

The feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. This does not mean the preaching of the gospel to others, Christian service or soul winning. We have through the gospel perfect peace with God. We know that God is for us, who then can be against us? This perfect peace we have, in which we stand is our preparation. And we have the peace of God as well, yea, the legacy our Lord left unto us, “My peace I give unto you.” Therefore we are not terrified by our adversaries (Php 1:28). Israel wandered over the desert rocks and desert sands for forty years with shoes, which did not wear out. We too wander through the wilderness, the feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, a peace which will last as long as God Himself. Knowing this Peace, knowing we are in God’s hands, knowing that we are Christ’s and Christ is God’s, knowing that all things are ours, we can stand and withstand the wiles of the devil. He cannot touch one who rests in the peace of God and who trusts in the God of peace.

The shield of faith. This is to be “over all” (not above all” as in the Authorized Version). Faith in God, faith in His promises, faith in His Word, simple child-like faith is to cover the head and the body like a great shield. It is the exercise of an unwavering confidence in God. The fiery darts will thus be quenched. These “fiery darts” are indeed terrible weapons. The fire speaks of the wrath of God, of judgment, at least, from Him, and it is with this that the enemy would assail us. He is, we must remember, the accuser. His aim, as already said, is to bring distance in some sense between our souls and God. How great a necessity, therefore, to maintain this happy confidence in Him, which, while it does not excuse failure in the least, yet, in utter weakness, finds all its confidence in Him who has undertaken for us. “All the fiery darts of the wicked one” can thus be “quenched” by the “shield of faith” (F. W. Grant).

The helmet of salvation. The helmet rests upon the head. it covers the head, the seat of intelligence. Assurance of salvation past, present and future is this helmet. As we wear it and as it governs our mind and heart as well, the wiles of the devil cannot fall upon us. We are in possession of a salvation which is secure. No power in earth or heaven, the devil with all his demon powers, cannot spoil us of it. This gives not alone confidence, but boldness in the conflict. Sad it is to see the thousands of believers without the helmet of salvation, destitute of the assurance of salvation and therefore the easy prey of the devil’s wiles, driven about by every wind of doctrine. Well has it been said: “Girded by the truth applies to the judgment of the inner man. Practical righteousness guards the conscience from the assaults of the enemy; the power of peace gives a character to our walk; confidence in the love of God quenches the poisoned arrows of doubt; the assurance of salvation gives us boldness to go onward.”

The sword of the Spirit. It is the word of God, the only offensive weapon mentioned in the armor of God. It is to meet the devil and to make him flee from us. How our blessed Lord wielded this sword in the wilderness, how He met the devil by a “It is written” is well known to every Christian. Was there ever a time when God’s people had greater need of laying hold with a firm grasp of the sword of the Spirit? Satan has succeeded by his wiles to dull the edge of that sword. The enemy also perverts and counterfeits the Word. What need then that as never before we go “to the law and to the testimonies.” We must search the Word and have the Word search us. We must have the Word in our hearts and our hearts in the Word, and thus alone can we meet the enemy.

Praying always. We do not detach this from the armor of God. It belongs to it. Prayer always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, is next to the sword of the Spirit the most powerful weapon against the devil and his wicked hosts. We must read the Word and pray. Prayer and the Word cannot be separated. The searching of the Word must be done with prayer and prayer will be effectual through knowing the Word. Prayer is dependence on God; we lean on Him. And as we pray in the Spirit (not for the Spirit) we are to watch also and remember all the saints of God, the blessed members of the body of Christ, the masterpiece of God.

Arno C. Gaebelein, The Annotated Bible (1913–1922) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Division 6. (Eph 6:10-24.)

Conflict and the way of victory.

We have now, in closing, a look at the hindrances that there will surely be to the filling just such a position as the epistle gives us. The highest position is that which will be most strongly contested. That in which we are most distinctly Christian, the enemy will oppose with all his power. The conflict in Ephesians is not conflict with the flesh. There is no question that Satan must work upon the flesh if he is to succeed in it. That is true, but we are never exactly called to conflict with the flesh. The lusts of the flesh war against the soul. We are not to war with them, but to abstain from them. If we are "dead to sin" and to reckon ourselves dead, that is not fighting. If there be conflict, it is the result of not having reckoned ourselves dead. Here, however, it is an enemy who is contemplated, and we must not think that the height of our position and the blessedness of the things which are set before us here will bring us upon ground unassailable to the enemy. When Israel got to Canaan, it was just there that they had to fight, and fight for the possession of that which God made their own. We have to remember what is the great point of the conflict here therefore, a conflict which we shall little feel if we are not bent upon possessing ourselves of what is our own. On the other hand, if to lay hold of these heavenly things is the earnest desire of our souls, we shall find, nevertheless, that we need all the strength which is ours and all the resources of God for us, in order to prevail in the conflict. The very first point here is that strength is to be "in the Lord." We are to fight "in the power of His might." How comforting is that title which is given to Christ here! He is, in fact, the Lord of all, and though Satan may seem to have things here entirely under his sway, yet after all, he is a beaten foe, and only part of the "all things" that "work together for good to those that love God."

That does not mean that we can afford to be careless in the least with regard to it. On the contrary, we must "put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to stand." It will not do to have part of it firmly on and some other part wanting. Satan will be keen to observe the deficiency, and we cannot be rightly for God if we are not for Him in every way. It is, in fact, -as we shall see directly, -this being for Him in every respect, that is our armor to withstand the enemy. Let us notice that it is "against the wiles of the devil" that we have to stand, not against his power, for he has none in the presence of God, but his "wiles" are things that test us. We must have the wisdom of God to meet them with. We must be able to discern "things that differ;" error in its nicest shades and its closest approximation to the truth. It is the devil we are meeting, and that gives character to his assaults. He is the accuser, the accuser of the brethren, the accuser of God, surely, to the brethren. His whole aim is to put distance between the soul and God. If he cannot do that, we are safe. But the struggle then is not against flesh and blood; it is not such a struggle, after all, as Israel under Joshua had. Kings seemed to swarm in Canaan. There were abundance of principalities with which they had to deal, all of which have a correspondence in our case. Against us are principalities and powers, "the rulers of the darkness of this world." Here is a hint, -more than that, -of the method of attack. The darkness is the "darkness of this world." It is the world which Satan knows how to use and which he will bring in to cloud our perception as Christians, our realization of the things that are our own.

Thus, in the book of Joshua, we find that while the Canaanite leaders answer to these evil spirits in the heavenly places, yet, in fact, as soon as ever Israel got into the land, Jericho had to fall, and Jericho is the world itself. Yet, that same world judged in the mass, may in detail spring up again, and thus Ai, in opposition against which they failed, reminds us at once of Jericho, even in its ashes.

Then follows the deceit of Gibeon, and all through, it is the power of the world in some shape that is pictured in what they have to meet. In fact, Satan’s aim will be surely, with the heavenly man, to bring in the things of earth through which he has of necessity to pass, to cloud the brightness of that heavenly blessing. Here, of necessity, is a strife for us from which we cannot escape, for one’s sphere of duty is in the world, in which we have to serve God. Our occupation is in it, and thus we are brought face to face with that in which the power of Satan easily displays itself. Sight and sense will seek to prevail against faith, not so much by what is open attack as by simply the crowding out of that which is the joy and power of the soul. We need, therefore, to take "the whole armor of God," in order to be "able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." There are special evil days, that we shall all recognize. There are times when the power of the enemy is gathered against us in a very unmistakable way, -after all, perhaps, not the times in which we are in the greatest danger. After success has been obtained in some sore strife, and we are in the joy of victory, then there may be, on the other hand, a carelessness brought in by the very victory itself, which may allow us to fall, as it might seem, without a battle. Gideon defeats the hosts of the Midianites and Amalekites, a host without number. When he has gained the victory, he falls without a battle at all, as we realize in the ephod which he makes, which is, in fact, a thing bred of the very place which God has given him. He has offered sacrifices before at God’s command. This entitles him, as it seems to him, to intrude upon the functions of the regular priesthood, and this connects, no doubt, with the further and worse failure in his family afterwards. When he has refused the kingship in Israel for himself, his son Abimelech grasps it in a more open manner. Thus, when we have done all, we have to stand. Nothing but humility, the constant sense of our dependence upon Another, the watchfulness which comes from this consciousness of inherent weakness, will enable us to find constant success.

The details of the armor are now presented to us. First of all, our loins are to be "girt about with truth." "Truth," notice, comes here first, -the action of the Word; and what does it do for us? It girds the loins. It prevents our garments, our habits, as we may interpret it, hindering us. The power of heavenly truth upon our souls will make us, in our whole character here, simply as those who are passing through and not settling down. Our garments in that way will never be loose about us. The strife is constant. As far as it goes, we must not expect rest. We have a rest, indeed, in Christ at all times, but that is another thing. The time of rest has not come. We are to be as soldiers of Christ, who, as the apostle says, are not to entangle themselves with the things of this world. When the enemy is meeting us with the darkness of this world, how important for us, first of all, this girdle about the loins! Next comes the "breastplate of righteousness." The breastplate covers a vital part. If indeed there is not righteousness with us, the accuser has a fair means of attack. He is Adonizedek, the lord of righteousness. Righteousness is his constant plea before God when he would sift us, as he sifted Job or as he sifted. Peter. If we are God’s wheat, we must expect such sifting, which accomplishes, after all, as we know already, both in Job’s case and in Peter’s, that which is blessing for us; but at the same time it puts us to the test. Righteousness, let us remember, is practical consistency with our position and relationships, and thus if we are indeed heavenly men, this righteousness will be a very different thing from what the world would call such. The only righteous thing for us is to be practically what we are professedly in every thing, and even the showing of mercy is only righteousness for those who have had mercy shown them, nor can righteousness exist apart from the love which we owe men at all times. Thus, the "breastplate of righteousness" is indeed important, and we see how the truth must have gone before it, to put us in the place which defines for us what practical righteousness must be with us.

Next, we have the feet shod for the way. We remember, as to Israel, how perfectly their feet were shod, how their shoes never wore out, spite of the flinty desert they were traversing all the forty years of their journey through. Our feet are shod differently, but, of course, in a higher way. Our "preparation" is that which is wrought by the effect of "the gospel of peace." It is not a question of carrying the gospel to others. It is our feet that are shod with this "preparation;" it is a peace which God has preached to us in it, the peace with Himself, which gives peace, therefore, as to all things: "For, if God be for us, who can be against us?" It is this peace that arms the feet, then, for all the difficulties of the way. What circumstances are there which are not in His hand? What difficulties can be too much for Him? The wilderness is still the wilderness. The trials and difficulties are there. They are best met in the consciousness of our being unable to meet them, but they must be met also with the faith that the God of peace Himself is with us and that He will give us peace always, by all means. That is the Lord’s word for His people. "In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me ye shall have peace." Here are shoes that never wear out. How blessed the experience of the way in which God has furnished us thus!

The body is thus perfectly provided for, but still we have need of the shield of faith "over all," as we should read. This is that practical confidence in God which should never fail us at all times, even in the midst of the sense of failure and the need of self-judgment. Let the armor be fitted to us as it may, there is always room for some apprehension, if we simply think about ourselves, that after all, somewhere we may have left opportunity for the enemy; but the shield of faith covers all the armor. Whatever we may imagine with regard to this, and with the consciousness of our feebleness at all times, the confidence in God, which should never slacken with us, is our security and rest; only we must remember that the putting on of the armor comes first. There must be honest endeavor to have all right in this way. We must not try to shield a body evidently exposed, with a cover of this kind, but when we have all apparently right, we have need still of that practical confidence which, let us notice here, has for its object specially to "quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." These "fiery darts" are indeed terrible weapons. The fire speaks of the wrath of God, of judgment, at least, from Him, and it is with this that the enemy would assail us. He is, we must remember, the accuser. His aim, as already said, is to bring distance in some sense between our souls and God. How great a necessity, therefore, to maintain this happy confidence in Him, which, while it does not excuse failure in the least, yet, in utter weakness, finds all its confidence in Him who has undertaken for us. "All the fiery darts of the wicked one" can thus be "quenched" by the "shield of faith." Besides this, we are to have the "helmet of salvation," not, as in Thessalonians, the "hope of salvation." There it is the world with which we are in conflict. Here it is the consciousness of a salvation already attained, which sustains us against the enemy. This is not a hope. It is a realized certainty. This may well give us complete possession of ourselves in the peril of conflict. The helmet covers the head. We are preserved by it from blows which would rob us of what we rightly call "presence of mind." It is this presence of mind in the midst of perils which is the best kind of courage, and the salvation of God is that which may well secure it for us.

Then we have one and only one offensive weapon, "the sword of the Spirit," the word of God, as that which enables us to penetrate all the wiles of the enemy, to expose and baffle him. How impossible it will be to oppose that of which we are not positively sure whether it be his voice or the voice of God Himself! If there is any confusion as to this, -and the great work of the enemy is to promote this confusion, -of necessity we have no right to dismiss from our mind the very thing which may be, nevertheless, merely his temptation. How much we want to be armed, therefore, by "the sword of the Spirit"! How we must have God’s word furnishing us at all points if we are to be ready for every form of assault! But let us notice here that it is not exactly "the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God." It is "the saying" rather than the "Word;" that is to say, if we think of the Word of God, it is the whole book which He has put into our hands. What we want, in fact, for the conflict, is the special word, the text which suits the occasion, and that is what "the sword of the Spirit" really is. It is the word of God as applied by the Spirit of God, used therefore, with the wisdom of God, as with our Lord in the wilderness, where always the special text is brought forward which decides what is before Him. So it must be for us; but for this, let us remind ourselves again, we must be in the energy of the Spirit. The use of the sword requires practice and to be on the alert and watchful.

All this is closed with what John Bunyan numbers amongst the weapons. It is the weapon "all prayer," and it is very striking as coming in here, after all the high and blessed truth into which the apostle has been leading us through all the epistle. There is no text, perhaps, which insists so fully upon the necessity of prayer as that which we have here. "Praying at all times, with all prayer," and not mere prayer, but "supplication," that is, earnest beseeching, the soul thoroughly conscious of its need and that in the Spirit, guided by the Spirit in that which we seek. How much prayer is there which is merely the contention of our own wills with God, which, however earnestly we may pour it out, leaves us rather exhausted with the contention than at rest in having made known our wants to Him!

But this is not enough. We are to "watch unto prayer." We are to watch with all perseverance" and not merely as burdened with our own individual needs. Our needs, surely, must remind us of the needs of others. Our needs are the needs of others, and God, in making us realize the one, would make us realize the other. Therefore the apostle adds: "And supplication for all saints." If we think of Israel in the land, we can realize the common cause which united them, and for ourselves there is the same common cause that unites us, and how much the defeat of others by the power of the enemy, the entanglement of others with his wiles, must add to the strife for ourselves also; yet it will not do, of course, to pray for others as realizing simply our need of others. Others too, need us, and the heart of a saint, if he be a saint at all, must respond to such an appeal for others as the consciousness of his own need makes to him. The apostle puts himself here along with the rest, as one who is in need of the prayers of the saints, and his cause is indeed the cause of all. It is Christ for whom he labors. It is the saints, therefore, whom he is serving, and the desire of his heart is that utterance may be given him to open his mouth that he may make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel for which he is an ambassador in bonds, that he may have that boldness with regard to it that he ought to have. How thoroughly he himself had the consciousness of his weakness, so that he not only seeks God for himself, but would unite others in seeking God for him. We think of such a man as the apostle as almost beyond the need of this; but, in fact, there is no one beyond it, and the success of that for which he stood is indeed the common concern of all. How our hearts should at all times be engaged with it!

This ends in substance the epistle. A few words simply are added with regard to himself, his own affairs which he counts upon the saints being interested in. Tychicus therefore, a beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord, will make all things of this sort known to them, while, on his part, he has sent him, not simply that they might know of his affairs, but that their own hearts might be encouraged. He concludes with the salutation: "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ," and widens this according to the character of the epistle here, which is scarcely a local one; "Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption."

F. W. Grant, The Numerical Bible (4th ed., 1903) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Chapter 28

ON THE APPROACHING CONFLICT

Eph_6:10-20.

THE FOES OF THE CHURCH

Eph_6:10-12

We follow the Revised reading of the opening word of this paragraph, and the preferable rendering given by the Revisers in their margin. The adverb is the same that is found in Gal_6:17 ("Henceforth let no man trouble me"); not that used in Php_3:1 and elsewhere ("Finally, my brethren," etc.). The copyists have conformed our text, seemingly, to the latter passage. We are recalled to the circumstances and occasion of the epistle. High as St. Paul soars in meditation, he does not forget the situation of his readers. The words of Eph_4:14 showed us how well aware he is of the dangers looming before the Asian Churches.

The epistle to the Colossians is altogether a letter of conflict. {see Col_2:1 ff.} In writing that letter St. Paul was wrestling with spiritual powers, mighty for evil, which had commenced their attack upon this outlying post of the Ephesian province. He sees in the sky the cloud portending a desolating storm. The clash of hostile arms is heard approaching. This is no time for sloth or fear, for a faith half-hearted or half-equipped. "You have need of your best manhood and of all the weapons of the spiritual armoury, to hold your ground in the conflict that is coming upon you. Henceforth be strong in the Lord, and in the might of His strength."

It is the apostles call to arms!-"Be strengthened in the Lord," he says (to render the imperative literally: so in 2Ti_2:1). Make His strength your own. The strength he bids them assume is power, ability, strength adequate to its end. "The might of His strength" repeats the combination of terms we found in Eph_1:19. That sovereign power of the Almighty which raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, belongs to the Lord Christ Himself. From its resources He will clothe and arm His people. "In the Lord," says Israel evermore, "is righteousness and strength. The rock of my salvation and my refuge is in God." The Churchs strength lies in the almightiness of her risen Lord, the Captain of her warfare.

"The panoply of God" (Eph_6:2) reminds us of the saying of Jesus in reference to His casting out of demons, recorded in Luk_11:21-22 -the only other instance in the New Testament of this somewhat rare Greek word. The Lord Jesus describes Himself in conflict with Satan, who as "the strong one armed keeps his possessions in peace,"-until there "come upon him the stronger than he," who conquers him and takes away his panoply wherein he trusted, and divides his spoils. In this text the situation is reversed; and the "full armour" belongs to Christs servants, who are equipped to meet the counter-attack of Satan and the powers of evil. There is a Divine and a Satanic panoply-arms tempered in heaven and in hell, to be wielded by the sons of light and of darkness respectively. {comp. Rom_13:12} The weapons of warfare on the two sides are even as the two leaders that furnish them-"the strong one armed" and the "Stronger than he." Mightier are faith and love than unbelief and hate; "greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world." Let us review the forces marshalled against us, -their nature, their mode of assault, and the arena of the contest.

I. The Asian Christians had to "stand against the wiles [schemes, or methods] of the devil." Unquestionably, the New Testament assumes the personality of Satan. This belief runs counter to modern thought, governed as it is by the tendency to depersonalise existence. The conception of evil spirits given us in the Bible is treated as an obsolete superstition; and the name of the Evil One, with multitudes serves only to point a profane or careless jest. To Jesus Christ, it is very certain, Satan was no figure of speech; but a thinking and active being, of whose presence and influence He saw tokens everywhere in this evil world. {comp. Eph_2:2} If the Lord Jesus speaks what He knows, and testifies what He has seen concerning the mysteries of the other world, there can be no question of the existence of a personal devil. If in any matter He was bound, as a teacher of spiritual truth, to disavow Jewish superstition, surely Christ was so bound in this matter. Yet instead of repudiating the current belief in Satan and the demons, He earnestly accepts it; and it entered into His own deepest experiences. In the visible forms of sin Jesus saw the shadow of His great antagonist. "From the Evil One" He taught His disciples to pray that they might be delivered. The victims of disease and madness whom He healed, were so many captives rescued from the malignant power of Satan. And when Jesus went to meet His death, He viewed it as the supreme conflict with the usurper and oppressor who claimed to be "the prince of this world."

Satan is the consummate form of depraved and untruthful intellect. We read of his "thoughts," his "schemes," his subtlety and deceit and impostures; of his slanders against God and man, from which, indeed, the name devil (diabolus) is given him. Falsehood and hatred are his chief qualities. Hence Jesus called him "the manslayer" and "the father of falsehood". {Joh_8:44} He was the first sinner, and the fountain of sin. {1Jn_3:8} All who do unrighteousness or hate their brethren are, so far, his offspring. {1Jn_3:10} With a realm so wide, Satan might well be called not only "the prince," but very "god of this world". {2Co_4:4} Plausibly he said to Jesus, in showing Him the kingdoms of the world, at the time when Tiberius Caesar occupied the imperial throne: "All this authority and glory are delivered unto me. To whomsoever I will, I give it." His power is exercised with an intelligence perhaps as great as any can be that is morally corrupt; but it is limited on all sides. In dealing with Jesus Christ he showed conspicuous ignorance. Chief amongst the wiles of the devil at this time was the "scheme of error," the cunningly woven net of the Gnostical delusion, in which the apostle feared that the Asian Churches would be entangled. Satans empire is ruled with a settled policy, and his warfare carried on with a system of strategy which takes advantage of every opening for attack. The manifold combinations of error, the various arts of seduction and temptation, the ten thousand forms of the deceit of unrighteousness constitute "the wiles of the devil."

Such is the gigantic opponent with whom Christ and the Church have been in conflict through all ages. But Satan does not stand alone. In Eph_6:12 there is called up before us an imposing array of spiritual powers. They are "the angels of the devil," whom Jesus set in contrast with the angels of God that surround and serve the Son of man. {Mat_25:41} These unhappy beings are, again, identified with the "demons," or "unclean spirits," having Satan for their "prince," whom our Lord expelled wherever He found them infesting the bodies of men. They are represented in the New Testament as fallen beings, expelled from a "principality" and "habitation of their own" {Jud_1:6} which they once enjoyed, and reserved for the dreadful punishment which Christ calls "the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels." They are here entitled principalities and powers- (or dominions), after the same style as the angels of God, to whose ranks, as we are almost compelled to suppose, these apostates once belonged.

In contrast with the "angels of light" {2Co_11:14} and "ministering spirits" of the kingdom of God, {Heb_1:14} the angels of Satan have constituted themselves the world-rulers of this darkness. We find the compound expression cosmo-krator (world-ruler) in later rabbinical usage, borrowed from the Greek and applied to "the angel of death," before whom all mortal things must bow. Possibly, St. Paul brought the term with him from the school of Gamaliel. Satan being the god of this world and swaying "the dominion of darkness," according to the same vocabulary his angels are "the rulers of the worlds darkness"; and the provinces of the empire of evil fall under their direction.

The darkness surrounding the apostle in Rome and the Churches in Asia-"this darkness," he says -was dense and foul. With Nero and his satellites the masters of empire, the world seemed to be ruled by demons rather than by men. The frightful wish of one of the Psalmists was fulfilled for the heathen world: "Set the wicked man over him, and let Satan stand at his right hand." The last of St. Pauls synonyms for the satanic forces, "the spiritual [powers] of wickedness," may have served to warn the Church against reading a political sense into the passage and regarding the civil constitution of society and the visible world-rulers as objects for their hatred. Pilate was a specimen, by no means amongst the worst, of the men in power. Jesus regarded him with pity. His real antagonist lurked behind these human instruments. The above phrase, "spirituals of wickedness," is Hebraistic, like "judge" and "steward of unrighteousness," and is equivalent to "wicked spirits." The adjective "spiritual," which does duty for a substantive-"the spiritual [forces, or elements] of wickedness"-brings out the collective character of these hostile powers.

St. Pauls demonology is identical with that of Jesus Christ. The two doctrines stand or fall together. The advent of Christ appears to have stirred to extraordinary activity the satanic powers. They asserted themselves in Palestine at this particular time in the most open and terrifying manner. In an age of scepticism and science like our own, it belongs to "the wiles of the devil" to work obscurely. This is dictated by obvious policy. Moreover, his power is greatly reduced. Satan is no longer the god of this world, since Christianity rose to its ascendant. The manifestations of demonism are, at least in Christian lands, vastly less conspicuous than in the first age of the Church. But those are more bold than wise who deny their existence, and who profess to explain all occult phenomena and phrenetic moral aberrations by physical causes. The popular idolatries of his own day, with their horrible rites and inhuman orgies, St. Paul ascribed to devilry. He declared that those who sat at the feast of the idol and gave sanction to its worship, were partaking of "the cup and the table of demons". {1Co_10:20-21} Heathen idolatries at the present time are, in many instances, equally diabolical; and those who witness them cannot easily doubt the truth of the representations of Scripture upon this subject.

II. The conflict against these spiritual enemies is essentially a spiritual conflict. "Our struggle is not against blood and flesh."

They are not human antagonists whom the Church has to fear, -mortal men whom we can look in the face and meet with equal courage, in the contest where hot blood and straining muscle do their part. The fight needs mettle of another kind. The foes of our faith are untouched by carnal weapons. They come upon us without sound or footfall. They assail the will and conscience; they follow us into the regions of spiritual thought, of prayer and meditation. Hence the weapons of our warfare, like those which the apostle wielded, {2Co_10:2-5} "are not carnal, but spiritual and mighty toward God."

It is true that the Asian Churches had visible enemies arrayed against them. There were the "wild beasts" with whom St. Paul "fought at Ephesus," the heathen mob of the city, sworn foes of every despiser of their great goddess Artemis. There was Alexander the coppersmith, ready to do the apostle evil, and "the Jews from Asia," a party of whom all but murdered him in Jerusalem; {Act_21:27-36} there was Demetrius the silversmith, instigator of the tumult which drove him from Ephesus, and "the craftsmen of like occupation," whose trade was damaged by the progress of the new religion. These were formidable opponents, strong in everything that brings terror to flesh and blood. But after all, these were of small account in St. Pauls view; and the Church need never dread material antagonism. The centre of the struggle lies elsewhere. The apostle looks beyond the ranks of his earthly foes to the power of Satan by which they are animated and directed, -"impotent pieces of the game he plays." From this hidden region he sees impending an attack more perilous than all the violence of persecution, a conflict urged with weapons of finer proof than the sharp steel of sword and axe, and with darts tipped with a fiercer fire than that which burns the flesh or devours the goods.

Even in outward struggles against worldly power, our wrestling is not simply against blood and flesh. Calvin makes a bold application of the passage when he says: "This sentence we should remember so often as we are tempted to revengefulness, under the smart of injuries from men. For when nature prompts us to fling ourselves upon them with all our might, this unreasonable passion will be checked and reined in suddenly, when we consider that these men who trouble us are nothing more than darts cast by the hand of Satan; and that while we stoop to pick up these, we shall expose ourselves to the full force of his blows." Vasa sunt, says Augustine of human troublers, alius utitur; organa sunt, alius tangit.

The crucial assaults of evil, in many instances, come in no outward and palpable guise. There are sinister influences that affect the spirit more directly, fires that search its inmost fibres, a darkness that sweeps down upon the very light that is in us, threatening its extinction. "Doubts, the spectres of the mind," haunt it; clouds brood over the interior sky and fierce storms sweep down on the soul, that rise from beyond the seen horizon. "Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil." Away from the tracks of men and the seductions of flesh and blood the choicest spirits have been tested and schooled. So they are tempered in the spiritual furnace to a fineness which turns the edge of the sharpest weapons the world may use against them.

Some men are constitutionally more exposed than others to these interior assaults. There are conditions of the brain and nerves, tendencies lying deep in the organism, that give points of vantage to the enemy of souls. These are the opportunities of the tempter; they do not constitute the temptation itself, which comes from a hidden and objective source. Similarly in the trials of the Church, in the great assaults made upon her vital truths, historical conditions and the external movements of the age furnish the material for the conflicts through which it has to pass; but the spring and moving agent, the master will that dominates these hostile forces is that of Satan. The Church was engaged in a double conflict-of the flesh and of the spirit. On the one hand, it was assailed by the material seductions of heathenism and the terrors of ruthless persecution. On the other hand, it underwent a severe intellectual conflict with the systems of error that were rooted in the mind of the age. These forces opposed the Christian truth from without; but they became much more dangerous when they found their way within the Church, vitiating her teaching and practice, and growing like tares among the wheat. It is of heresy more than persecution that the apostle is thinking, when he writes these ominous words. Not blood and flesh, but the mind and spirit of the Asian believers will bear the brunt of the attack that the craft of the devil is preparing for the apostolic Church.

III. The last clause of Eph_6:12, in the heavenly places, refuses to combine with the above description of the powers hostile to the Church. The heavenly places are the abode of God and the blessed angels. This is the region where the Father has blessed us in Christ; {Eph_1:3} where He seated the Christ at His own right hand, {Eph_1:20} and has in some sense seated us with Christ; {Eph_2:6} and where the angelic princedoms dwell who follow with keen and studious sympathy the Churchs fortunes. {Eph_3:10} To locate the devil and his angels there seems to us highly incongruous; the juxtaposition is out of the question with St. Paul. Eph_2:2 gives no real support to this view: supposing "the air" to be literally intended in that passage, it belongs to earth and not to heaven. Nor do the parallels from other Scriptures adduced supply any but the most precarious basis for an interpretation against which the use of the exalted phrase in our epistle revolts.

No; Satan and his hosts do not dwell with Christ and the holy angels "in the heavenly places." But the Church dwells there already, by her faith; and it is in the heavenly places of her faith and hope that she is assailed by the powers of hell. This final prepositional clause should be separated by a comma from the words immediately foregoing; it forms a distinct predicate to the sentence contained in Eph_6:12. It specifies the locality of the struggle; it marks out the battlefield. "Our wrestling is in the heavenly places." So we construe the sentence, following the ancient Greek commentators.

The life of the Church "is hid with Christ in God"; her treasure is laid up in heaven. She is assailed by a philosophy and vain deceit that perverts her highest doctrines, that clouds her vision of Christ and limits His glory, and threatens to drag her down from the high places where she sits with her ascended Lord. Such was, in effect, the aim of the Colossian heresy, and of the great Gnostical movement to which this speculation was a prelude, that for a century and more entangled Christian faith in its metaphysical subtleties and false mysticism. The epistles to the Colossians and Ephesians strike the leading note of the controversies of the Church in this region during its first ages. Their character was thoroughly transcendental. "The heavenly things" were the subject-matter of the great conflicts of this epoch.

The questions of religious controversy characteristic of our own times, though not identical with those of Colossae or Ephesus, concern matters equally high and vital. It is not this or that doctrine that is now at stake-the nature or extent of the atonement, the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son with the Father, the verbal or plenary inspiration of Scripture; but the personal being of God, the historical truth of Christianity, the reality of the supernatural, -these and the like questions, which formed the accepted basis and the common assumptions of former theological discussions, are now brought into dispute. Religion has to justify its very existence. Christianity must answer for its life, as at the beginning. God is denied. Worship is openly renounced. Our treasures in heaven are proclaimed to be worthless and illusive. The entire spiritual and celestial order of things is relegated to the region of obsolete fable and fairy tales. The difficulties of modern religious thought lie at the foundation of things, and touch the core of the spiritual life. Unbelief appears, in some quarters, to be more serious and earnest than faith. While we quarrel over rubrics and ritual, thoughtful men are despairing of God and immortality. The Churches are engaged in trivial contentions with each other, while the enemy pushes his way through our broken ranks to seize the citadel.

"The apostle incites the readers," says Chrysostom, "by the thought of the prize at stake. When he has said that our enemies are powerful, he adds thereto that these are great possessions which they seek to wrest from us. When he says in the heavenly places, this implies for the heavenly things. How it must rouse and sober us to know that the hazard is for great things, and great will be the prize of victory. Our foe strives to take heaven from us." Let the Church be stripped of all her temporalities, and driven naked as at first into the wilderness. She carries with her the crown jewels; and her treasure is unimpaired, so long as faith in Christ and the hope of heaven remain firm in her heart. But let these be lost; let heaven and the Father in heaven fade with our childhoods dreams; let Christ go back to His grave-then we are utterly undone. We have lost our all in all!

William Robertson Nicoll, ed., The Expositor's Bible (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1887–1910) — public domain. 65 of 66 books (1 Corinthians is not separately keyed, as that volume carries no machine-parseable verse references); section-level commentary keyed to the opening verse. Introductory and overview sections not keyed to a specific passage are excluded.

6:10-20 Paul’s final word is to remind the believers of the devil’s opposition and urge them to protect themselves with all of God’s armor.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Eph 6:10. Τὸ λοιπὸν, finally) The particle or form of concluding, and of rousing the attention, as it were, to an important subject; 2Co 13:11.—ἀδελφοὶ,[98] brethren) He thus addresses them in this one passage of the epistle. Nowhere do soldiers use to one another the title brethren more than in the field of battle.—ἐνδυναμοῦσθε, be strong) Those, and those only, who are strong in themselves, are fitted for putting on the whole armour [the panoply].—καὶ) a Hendiadys.—κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος, by the power of His might) This is said of Christ, as Eph 1:19 of the Father.

[98] By some accident or other, the pronoun μου, the omission of which is countenanced by both Ed., has crept into the Germ. Vers.—E. B.

Gg Vulg., later Syr., read ἀδελφοὶ, but omit μου, which Rec. Text adds. BD(Δ) Lucif. omit both words. A adds ἀδελφοὶ after ἐνδυναμοῦσθε, instead of before it. The fact of this being the only place where the ἀδελφοὶ is read, and also this being an encyclical letter, make it probable, ἀδελφοὶ is an interpolation.—ED.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_6:10.[296] After this special table of domestic duties laid down since v. 21, now follows, in a full energetic effusion down to Eph_6:20, a general final exhortation, winding up the whole paraenetic portion of the Epistle (Eph_4:1 ff.).

τὸ λοιπόν] as concerns the rest, namely, what you have still to do in addition to what has been hitherto mentioned. Comp. 2Co_13:11; Php_3:1; Php_4:8; 1Th_4:1; 2Th_3:1.

ἐνδυναμοῦσθε ἐν κυρίῳ] denotes the Christian strengthening, which cannot subsist outside of Christ, but only in Him as the life-element of the Christian (Php_4:13). As to ἐνδυναμοῦσθαι, to become strong, gain strength, which is not a middle (corroborate vos, Piscator), see on Rom_4:20.

καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ] and by means of the might of His strength, which might, namely, must produce the strengthening in you. As to the respective notions, see on Eph_1:19. The καί is not explicative, but annexes to the element, in which the strengthening is to take place, the effective principle of it (2Co_12:9). Domini virtus nostra est, Bengel.

[296] On vv. 1017, see Winzer, Leipz. Pfingstprogramm, 1840.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph 6:10-20 . General concluding exhortation, following up the injunctions bearing on the particular, domestic duties. This comprehensive charge, which is expressed in terms of the Christian’s spiritual warfare, the powers of evil with which he has to contend, and the weapons with which he is to arm himself, brings the Epistle worthily to its close.

Eph 6:10 . τὸ λοιπόν [ ἀδελφοί ] μου , ἐνδυναμοῦσθε [ δυναμοῦσθε ] ἐν Κυρίῳ : finally (or, henceforth ) [ my brethren ], be strengthened in the Lord . For τὸ λοιπόν , the reading of TR with [781] [782] [783] [784] [785] 3 , etc., τοῦ λοιποῦ , is to be preferred (with LTTrWHRV) as sustained by [786] [787] [788] [789] , 17, etc. The form τὸ λοιπόν (also the simple λοιπόν ) is used in classical Greek both as = “as for the rest,” quod superest , “finally” and with the temporal sense of henceforth . In the NT it has both these applications ( e.g. , Phi 3:2 ; Phi 4:8 ; 2Th 3:1 , etc., for the former, and Mar 14:41 ; 1Co 7:29 ; Heb 10:13 for the latter). It occurs also once in the sense of “at last,” or “already” (Act 27:20 ). The form τοῦ λοιποῦ , properly a temporal gen., both in classical Greek (Herod., ii., 2; Xen., Cyr. , iv., 4, 10, etc.) and in the NT (Gal 6:17 ), has the sense of “henceforth”. τὸ λοιπόν can be used for τοῦ λοιποῦ , but it does not appear that τοῦ λοιποῦ is equally interchangeable with τὸ λοιπόν . Here τὸ λοιπόν might mean either “as for what you have still to do in addition to what has been said” (Mey.), or “henceforth”. τοῦ λοιποῦ is = “ in the future,” “henceforth” ( cf. Blass, Gram. of N. T. Greek , pp. 94, 109; Ell. on Gal 6:17 ; Thayer-Grimm, Lex. , p. 382). The TR inserts ἀδελφοί μου , with [790] 3 [791] [792] [793] , most cursives, and Syr., Boh., etc. ἀδελφοί , without μου , is read by [794] [795] [796] , Vulg., Theodor., etc. But the best accredited text ( [797] [798] [799] [800] , 17, Eth., Arm., Cyr., Luc., Jer., etc.) omits the phrase (so LTTrWHRV). The ἐνδυναμοῦσθε of the TR is supported by the mass of authorities, but is displaced by the simple δυναμοῦσθε (which occurs in Col 1:11 ) in B 17; which latter is given a place in the margin by WH. ἐνδυναμοῦσθαι is a proper passive = “to be strengthened,” as in Act 9:22 ; Rom 4:10 ; 2Ti 2:1 ; Heb 11:34 . The ἐν Κυρίῳ ( ἐν τῷ Κυρίῳ in [801] [802] ) defines the strengthening as Christian strengthening, such as can take effect only in union with Christ. καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ : and in the power of his might . On the distinction between the various words for strength , etc., cf. on chap. Eph 1:19 above. The phrase is not to be reduced to “in his mighty power,” but has the full force of “in the active efficacy of the might that is inherent in him”. Meyer takes the ἐν as instrumental = “by means of the might of his strength”. But it has its proper force of “in,” the efficient, energetic power of the Lord’s inherent might being the principle or element in which the increase of strength which is possible only where there is union with Christ is to realise itself. By the καί , therefore, this clause adds something to the preceding and does more than merely explain it. In 2Co 12:9 , ἵνα ἐπισκηνώσῃ ἐπʼ ἐμὲ ἡ δύναμις τοῦ Χριστοῦ , the idea is that of the strength of Christ descending to rest on one.

[781] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[782] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[783] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[784] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[785] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[786] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[787] Autograph of the original scribe of א .

[788] Autograph of the original scribe of א .

[789] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[790] Codex Sinaiticus (sæc. iv.), now at St. Petersburg, published in facsimile type by its discoverer, Tischendorf, in 1862.

[791] Codex Mosquensis (sæc. ix.), edited by Matthæi in 1782.

[792] Codex Angelicus (sæc. ix.), at Rome, collated by Tischendorf and others.

[793] Codex Porphyrianus (sæc. ix.), at St. Petersburg, collated by Tischendorf. Its text is deficient for chap. Eph 2:13-16 .

[794] Codex Alexandrinus (sæc. v.), at the British Museum, published in photographic facsimile by Sir E. M. Thompson (1879).

[795] Codex Augiensis (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Trinity College, Cambridge, edited by Scrivener in 1859. Its Greek text is almost identical with that of G, and it is therefore not cited save where it differs from that MS. Its Latin version, f, presents the Vulgate text with some modifications.

[796] Codex Boernerianus (sæc. ix.), a Græco-Latin MS., at Dresden, edited by Matthæi in 1791. Written by an Irish scribe, it once formed part of the same volume as Codex Sangallensis ( δ ) of the Gospels. The Latin text, g, is based on the O.L. translation.

[797] Codex Vaticanus (sæc. iv.), published in photographic facsimile in 1889 under the care of the Abbate Cozza-Luzi.

[798] Autograph of the original scribe of א .

[799] Autograph of the original scribe of א .

[800] Codex Claromontanus (sæc. vi.), a Græco-Latin MS. at Paris, edited by Tischendorf in 1852.

[801] Autograph of the original scribe of א .

[802] Autograph of the original scribe of א .

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Eph_6:10-24

Analysis

Directions in reference to the spiritual conflict. As such a conflict is inevitable, the believer should

1. Muster strength for the struggle.

2. He should seek that strength from Christ.

3. Since his enemies are not human but superhuman, Satan and all the powers of darkness, the believer needs not only more than human strength, but also divine armor. He should, therefore, take the panoply of God, that he may be able to stand in the evil day. That panoply consists

1. In the knowledge and reception of the truth.

2. In the righteousness of Christ.

3. In the alacrity which flows from the peace of the Gospel.

4. In the consciousness of salvation.

5. In faith.

6. In the word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit.

To obtain strength to use this armor aright, and to secure victory for ourselves and for the army of which we are a part, we should pray. These prayers should be

l. Of all kinds.

2. On every occasion.

3. Importunate and persevering.

4. By the aid of the Holy Spirit.

5. For all saints.

Believing in the efficacy of such prayers, the apostle begs the Ephesian believers to pray for him, that God would enable him to preach the Gospel in a suitable manner.

To relieve their anxiety he had sent Tychicus to inform them of his circumstances and of his health.

He invokes the Father and Son to bestow upon the brethren the blessings of divine peace and love united with faith; and implores the special favor of God for all who love the Lord Jesus Christ with a love that cannot die.

Commentary

Eph_6:10

Though the redemption purchased by Christ, as described in this epistle, is so complete and so free, yet between the beginning and the consummation of the work there is a protracted conflict. This is not a figure of speech. It is something real and arduous. Salvation, however gratuitous, is not to be obtained without great effort. The Christian conflict is not only real, it is difficult and dangerous. It is one in which true believers are often grievously wounded; and multitudes of reputed believers entirely succumb. It is one also in which great mistakes are often committed and serious loss incurred from ignorance of its nature, and of the appropriate means for carrying it on. Men are apt to regard it as a mere moral conflict between reason and conscience on the one side, and evil passions on the other. They therefore rely on their own strength, and upon the resources of nature for success. Against these mistakes the apostle warns his readers. He teaches that everything pertaining to it is supernatural. The source of strength is not in nature. The conflict is not between the good and bad principles of our nature. He shows that we belong to a spiritual, as well as to a natural world, and are engaged in a combat in which the higher powers of the universe are involved; and that this conflict, on the issue of which our salvation depends, is not to be carried on with straws picked up by the wayside. As we have superhuman enemies to contend with, we need not only superhuman strength, but divine armor and arms. The weapons of our warfare are not natural, but divine.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, τὸ λοιπὸν, ἀδελφοί μου, ἐνδυναμοῦσθε ἐν Κυρίῳ. He concludes his epistle so full of elevated views, and so rich in disclosures of the mysteries of redemption, with directions as to the struggle necessary to secure salvation. His first exhortation is to muster strength for the inevitable conflict, and to seek that strength from the right source. We are to be strong in the Lord. As a branch separated from the vine, or as a limb severed from the body, so is a Christian separated from Christ. He, therefore, who rushes into this conflict without thinking of Christ, without putting his trust in him, and without continually looking to him for strength and regarding himself as a member of his body, deriving all life and vigor from him, is demented. He knows not what he is doing. He has not strength even to reach the field. With him the whole conflict is a sham. The words καί ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ mean, in the vigor derived from his strength. The vigor of a mans arm is derived from the strength of his body. It is only as members of Christs body that we have either life or power. It is not we that live, but Christ that liveth in us; and the strength which we have is not our own but his. When we are weak, then are we strong. When most empty of self, we are most full of God.

Charles Hodge — Commentary on Romans (1835), First Corinthians (1857), and Ephesians (1856) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

He concludeth the other part of this Epistle with a grave exhortation, that all be ready, and fight constantly, trusting to spiritual weapons, until their enemies be clean put to flight. And first of all, he warneth us to take the armor of God, whereby only our enemy may be dispatched.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

my brethren--Some of the oldest manuscripts omit these words. Some with Vulgate retain them. The phrase occurs nowhere else in the Epistle (see, however, Eph 6:23); if genuine, it is appropriate here in the close of the Epistle, where he is urging his fellow soldiers to the good fight in the Christian armor. Most of the oldest manuscripts for "finally," read, "henceforward," or "from henceforth" (Gal 6:17).

be strong--Greek, "be strengthened."

in the power of his might--Christ's might: as in Eph 1:19, it is the Father's might.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 10. Finally] Having laid before you, your great and high calling, and all the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel, it is necessary that I should show you the enemies that will oppose you, and the strength which is requisite to enable you to repel them.

Be strong in the Lord] You must have strength, and strength of a spiritual kind, and such strength too as the Lord himself can furnish; and you must have this strength through an indwelling God, the power of his might working in you.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

10. Finally. Resuming his general exhortations, he again enjoins them to be strong, — to summon up courage and vigor; for there is always much to enfeeble us, and we are ill fitted to resist. But when our weakness is considered, an exhortation like this would have no effect, unless the Lord were present, and stretched out his hand to render assistance, or rather, unless he supplied us with all the power. Paul therefore adds, in the Lord. As if he had said, “‘You have no right to reply, that you have not the ability; for all that I require of you is, be strong in the Lord.” To explain his meaning more fully, he adds, in the power of his might, which tends greatly to increase our confidence, particularly as it shews the remarkable assistance which God usually bestows upon believers. If the Lord aids us by his mighty power, we have no reason to shrink from the combat. But it will be asked, What purpose did it serve to enjoin the Ephesians to be strong in the Lord’s mighty power, which they could not of themselves accomplish? I answer, there are two clauses here which must be considered. He exhorts them to be courageous, but at the same time reminds them to ask from God a supply of their own deficiencies, and promises that, in answer to their prayers, the power of God will be displayed.

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

10. Finally] Lit., “for the rest;” “for what remains.” This may possibly mean “for the future,” “from henceforth” (R. V. marg.). But the more probable reference is to “what remains of thought and precept.” Had the Epistle dwelt on spiritual weakness as a previous characteristic of Ephesian Christian life, the other alternative might have been preferable; but it has not. For the Gr. phrase (identically, or nearly so), cp. Mat_26:45 (A. V. “now”); 1Co_7:29; 2Co_13:11; Php_3:1; Php_4:8; 1Th_4:1; 2Th_3:1; 2Ti_4:8; Heb_10:13.—“Wisely does the Apostle, after the special injunctions to husbands and wives, &c., now in general enjoin it on all together to be strong in the Lord” (St Jerome). And observe that the deep secrets of spiritual victory now to be spoken of are necessary to the spiritual performance of the common duties just enjoined.

my brethren] These words are probably to be omitted; a possible insertion by transcribers from Php_3:1; Php_4:8.—The documentary evidence is scarcely decisive, but the absence elsewhere in the Epistle of the address “Brethren” is in favour of omission.

be strong] The Lat. versions have confortamini; a reminder of the true idea of “comfort,” “comforter,” in older English usage. See on Eph_6:22 below. For the same Gr. verb, in the (same) middle voice, cp. Act_9:22; Rom_4:20; 2Ti_2:1; and in the active voice, Php_4:13; 1Ti_1:12; 2Ti_4:17. The tense here is present, not aorist, and suggests rather the maintenance than the attainment of strength. Their “Strength” (see e.g. Psa_59:17) was already and permanently theirs; let it be continuously used.—Cp. 1Co_16:13 (where, however, “be strong” represents another Gr. word), and 1Pe_5:8-11, for close parallels to the thought and precept here.

in the Lord] This phrase, or its strict equivalents, occurs about 35 times in the Epistle.—The whole secret of spiritual strength resides in union with “the Lord.” “In Him,” and there alone, is there “no condemnation” (Rom_8:1); “in Him” is the fountain of spiritual vitality, to be made our own, in practical efficacy, only as we “abide in Him” (Joh_15:4-7). And these two aspects of benefit “in Christ” constitute together the believer’s cause of strength; a strength the only alternative to which is spiritual impotence (Joh_15:5).

and in the power &c.] See Eph_1:19 (and note there) for the same Gr. The Gr. rendered “might” tends to denote strength rather as substratum or resource; the Gr. rendered “power”, rather as outcome or exercise. We may paraphrase, “in the energy of Him the Strong.”—The phrase defines, so to speak, that aspect of the Lord in Whom they were which was to be specially used in the great conflict. Elsewhere (1Jn_5:20) the prominent thought is, “We are in Him that is True,” Veritable, Real. Here it is, “Ye are in Him that is Able.”

10–20. The Spiritual Combat: the Secret of Strength; the Antagonists; the Armour; Intercessory Prayer

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Finally, my brethren,.... This is the conclusion of the apostle's exhortations, in which he addresses the saints as his brethren; which appellation he uses, not merely as a familiar way of speaking among the Jews, but in regard to them as regenerate persons, and of the same family and household of God with himself; and he calls them so, to show his humility, and as a proof of his affection to them, and with a design to encourage them to their duty, as follows:

be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might; which is directed to, partly on account of the things before exhorted to, which could not be performed in their own strength; and partly with respect to their many and potent enemies hereafter mentioned, against whom they had no might nor power of their own; and therefore the apostle points out the Lord Jesus Christ unto them, in whom are strength, power, and might, even everlasting strength, to enable them to perform their duty, and to fight against every enemy, sin, Satan, and the world; for though they are weak, and strength in themselves, and can do nothing of themselves, and without Christ; yet since there is strength in him, which is communicable to them, they may expect it from him, and depend upon it; and they may come at, or strengthen themselves in it, and by it, by meditation on it, by prayer for it, by waiting on Christ in his own ways, by exercising faith upon him, and through the Spirit, who strengthens them from him with might in the inward man.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

Ver. 10. Be strong in the Lord] For by his own strength shall no man prevail, 1Sa 2:9. Get God’s arm, wherewith to wield his armour, and then you may do anything.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord - Paul had now stated to the Ephesians the duties which they were to perform. He had considered the various relations of life which they sustained, and the obligations resulting from them. He was not unaware that in the discharge of their duties they would need strength from above. He knew that they had great and mighty foes, and that to meet them, they needed to be clothed in the panoply of the Christian soldier. He closes, therefore, by exhorting them to put on all the strength which they could to meet the enemies with which they had to contend; and in the commencement of his exhortation he reminds them that it was only by the strength of the Lord that they could hope for victory. To be “strong in the Lord,” is:

(1)To be strong or courageous in his cause;

(2)To feel that he is our strength, and to rely on him and his promises.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Be strong; or, strengthen yourselves; i.e. be courageous, and constant in the practice of your duty, against the devil and all his assaults.

In the Lord: not in yourselves, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom your strength lies, and from whom by faith you may obtain it: see Phi 4:13; 2Ti 2:1.

And in the power of his might; or mighty power, see Eph 1:19; q.d. Though your own strength be but weakness, yet Christ’s power is mighty, and he can communicate enough to you.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Vers. 10-20. THE CHRISTIAN WARFARE.

Finally. The apostle has now reached his last passage, and by this word quickens the attention of his readers and prepares them for a counsel eminently weighty in itself, and gathering up the pith and marrow, as it were, of what goes before. "My brethren," A.V, is rejected by R.V, and most modern commentators, for lack of external evidence. We note, however, that, whereas in the preceding verses he had distributed the Ephesians into groups, giving an appropriate counsel to each, he now brings them again together, and has a concluding counsel for them all. Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Compare with Eph_3:16, where the heavenly provision for obtaining strength is specified, and with Eph_4:30, where we are cautioned against a course that will fritter away that provision. The ever-recurring formula, "in the Lord," indicates the relation to Christ in which alone the strength can be experienced. (comp. 2Co_12:9) The might is Christ"s, but by faith it becomes our strength. As the steam-engine genders the dynamic force, which belts and wheels communicate to the inert machinery of the factory, so Christ is the source of that spiritual strength which through faith is communicated to all his people. To be strong is our duty; to be weak is our sin. Strong trust, strong courage, strong endurance, strong hope. strong love, may all be had from him, if only our fellowship with him be maintained in uninterrupted vigor.

Vers. 10-20.

The Christian warfare.

Even in common parlance we speak of "the battle of life." Even for ordinary purposes we have to fight against indolence, evil lusts, dishonest tendencies, and many other things in ourselves; and against opposition, ill treatment, temptation on the part of others, and the depressing effects of trial and disappointment. All hard work -is a fight; we have to fight against the sense of monotony, against the feeling of weariness, against the longing for ease; and when we are sick, or feeble, or depressed, it is often hard to hold on the straight path of hard duty and turn away from the allurements of pleasure. The ring of the hammer, the blow of the shuttle, the housewife"s active step from dawn to dewy eve, often tell of battles and victories in quiet spheres, that without the eclat have much more real glory than ordinary wars. But much more is the Christian life a battle. The chief enemies here are unseen. It is impossible to pursue an aimless, careless life and be a Christian. "If any man will come after me," said Christ, let him deny himself, and take up his cross and follow me." Not only to be a Christian, but such a Christian as this Epistle delineates; to walk worthy of the vocation with which we are called; to be ever reaching forth toward the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; to be growing up into Christ toward that condition in which we shall be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing; to be advancing thus in spite of hosts of spiritual foes, working-unseen, sapping and mining, our Christian life, trying to entangle and enslave us in every way; this can be no easy task; it is a veritable battle, demanding constant vigilance and incessant care. It may seem strange that we should be exposed to such enemies. Is not our blessed Lord exalted far above all principality and power and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come? Has he not spoiled principalities and powers, making a show of them openly? Is he not Head overall things to his Church? Why, then, does he not crush all her foes? Doubtless because he has purposes of discipline to carry out in connection with these enemies, because, while he is willing to fight in and through his people, he does not see it right to crush his foes without their instrumentality; in this way habits of vigilance and prayer and activity must be kept up by them; but all the greater will be their joy when at last the victory is gained, and they get the reward of "him that overcometh." In the Middle Ages, certain coarse means were employed to arrest attention to the formidable foes that beset the Christian soldier. Frescoes were painted on the walls of churches and other ecclesiastical buildings, representing souls which were sometimes seen coming out of dying bodies, while angels on the one side, and devils on the other, were striving to get them. The devils were grotesque, hideous, revolting monsters, more absurd than terrible. It was the way of that age to embody truths which in our material age are apt to be thought as ridiculous as the demons of the Italian frescoes. But there are spirits of evil hovering about us, trying to obscure and pervert the truth, to blind us to the fruits of sin, to dazzle our eyes with the glory of earth, to entangle us in subtle temptations, to fill our minds with doubts and fears and evil forebodings, luring us to the edge of the precipice, and ready, if they should get their way, to burst into their bitter scornful laugh, as they behold us, through their wiles, weltering in the gulf of despair. Let us observe:

1. The true Source of strength: In the Lord" (ver. 10).

2. The true amour to seek. "The whole amour of God" (ver. 11).

3. The true enemies to be overcome. (Vers. 11, 12.) "The wiles of the devil," and other unseen spiritual foes.

4. The true employment and attitude of the Christian warrior: "Withstand... and stand" (ver. 13).

5. The various pieces of the amour, and their use. (Vers. 14-18.) "Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners?" An army consists of men who not only have amour, but have been trained to use it. An unarmed army can only be food for the enemy"s artillery, material for a dreadful massacre. Let professing Christians see that they are armed, and that they are making a good use of their amour. Nature cries out for an easy lithe, for a truce with the world, the devil, and the flesh. In this sense our motto must be war, not peace; for in this sense Christ came, not to send peace on earth, but a sword.

The secret of spiritual strength.

This strength is needed under all the burdens, in all the conflicts and temptations of life, beneath its sorrows and its cares strength of heart, strength of purpose, strength of will.

I "BE STRONG." This is a strange command, just as strange as it would be for a physician to say to a weak man, "Be strong." It is like the command, "Rejoice in the Lord;" but it seems more difficult by any volition of our own to add to our strength than to add to our joy. Yet, as we can do much to regulate our emotions by determining what set of thoughts shall engage us, we can equally provide for an increase in our strength by a direct recourse to the secret and source of it. Our obedience to this command stands on the same footing as our obedience to God"s other commandments; and if we continue to be weak, it is more than our misfortune, it is our fault. But there is nothing strange when we consider the secret of the origin of this strength. We are conscious of a sense of feebleness, of heartlessness, of hopelessness, which of itself goes far to disqualify us for duty, and gives us up an easy prey to the adversary of souls. It is to meet this want that God reveals himself to us as the great Giver of strength.

II "BE STRONG IN THE LORD, AND IN THE POWER OF HIS MIGHT." The strength poured into us is strength in Christ, sprinting out of a realizing apprehension of the continued presence, love, and help of the Redeemer. "My strength shall be made perfect in weakness." A fly is able to walk upon the ceiling of a room. The cause is to be found in the vacuum in its webbed foot caused by its very weight, and it is thus enabled to hold on by the smooth surface of the ceiling. So our safety lies likewise in our emptiness. The soldier fights with greater confidence when he is led by a general who has been always successful. Wellington calculated the presence of Bonaparte at the head of an army as equal to a hundred thousand additional bayonets. Thus we understand the invincibility of the French army under his leadership. Thus the Christian fights with greater resolution because Christ is the Captain of his salvation.

III THE COMMAND IMPLIES A CONTINUOUS DEPENDENCE UPON THE LORD. The strength is not given at once and in full measure, but according to the desire, the capacity, the faith, the need, the duty, the trial. Our lowest powers, those of the body, we get by growth, and they grow by exercise. Such is the law of our physical childhood, and no other is the law of our spiritual being. The sense of weakness obliges us to repair every day afresh to him for fresh supplies. "He giveth power to the faint; to them that have no might he increaseth strength. T.C.

Vers. 10-24.

The Christian panoply.

After having treated Christian morals so carefully and shown how Christianity elevates the individual, the family, and the slave, Paul proceeds, in the close of this remarkable Epistle, to speak of the enemies and the arms of a Christian. Life is seen to be a battle, The enemies are manifold. It is not flesh and blood against which we fight. We leave the carnal warfare to the world. We contend against "the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (Revised Version). These foes are of a spiritual character-false principles and their advocates, whether men in flesh and blood or demons in their invisible might. So that the Christian finds himself confronted by a most serious host, perhaps not in very strict order of battle, yet mobbed together into perplexing power. How is one to withstand the assault of so many? There is but one way, by becoming "strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might" (Revised Version). And, blessed be his Name, he has furnished us with a complete panoply. We must put on the whole armor, that we may withstand all the devil"s wiles. Let us translate the figures into their simplicities.

I THE CHRISTIAN IS TO BE COMPACTED BY TRUTH.

(Ver. 14.) In Oriental as well Occidental warfare, the girdle or belt is all-important. It binds the soldier into a unity and makes him feel compact and firm. Now, truth, by which is meant God"s truth in the man, not the man"s veracity, is what gives compactness to our whole being. When Jesus is realized as the embodied "truth" (alhqeia, the same word as here, (Joh_14:6) when he is felt to be dwelling within us, then we become a unity and strength which we could not otherwise be. Our straggled powers are united in the fear of God. (Psa_86:11)

II THE CHRISTIAN IS PROTECTED BY ENTERTAINING A SPIRIT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.

(Ver. 14.) Here again it is the Divine "justice" coming into us and permeating our being. Now, there is no such protection for us in our contact with others as this spirit of fairness, the desire to do what is right as between man and man. If we are able to let righteousness reign in all our relations, the hostility of men and devils will but little avail. It is to be "God-like" in all our attitudes, and nothing then can harm us.

III THE CHRISTIAN WILL MAKE PROGRESS ONLY THROUGH ENTERTAINING AN EVANGELISTIC SPIRIT.

(Ver. 15.) Here we have the public spirit coming to secure progress. The Christian has ceased to be self-centered. He cannot live the selfish life. He must be a missionary. The gospel of peace is to be sent round the world. In doing so he must have some share. He makes progress by giving the evangelistic centrifugal force free play. We are never so safe as when the safety of others has become our great concern.

IV THE CHRISTIAN QUENCHES ALL ASSAULTS OF SATAN BY THE POWER OF FAITH.

(Ver. 16.) Now, Satan"s fiery darts belong to the region of sense. He appeals to passion. He assaults us through the appetites. But faith vanquishes him, and nothing else can do so. What are we to understand by "faith"? Not assent to propositions; not a mere realizing, faculty, assuring us of things unseen; but a trust extended to the personal and Divine Savior who rules over all things. This loyalty to an unseen Sovereign enables us to see through the wiles of the arch enemy, enables us to see how narrow are Satan"s limits, and how wide the order and interests of our Savior"s kingdom. We are thus transported to the wider relations of the spiritual world, and the temptations through sense and passion fall extinguished at our feet. As we live by faith in him who rules the universe and dwells within us, Satan finds himself defeated.

V THE CHRISTIAN"S HEAD IS COVERED BY THE ASSURANCE OF SALVATION.

(Ver. 17.) It has been supposed that a victorious spirit will make men careless in the battle-field. But is it so? If soldiers believe themselves destined to be victorious, they will strain every nerve to make themselves so. The flush of victory in their heart gives power in the contest. Now, it is when we have got assurance of victory through our indwelling, Lord that we can do valiant things for him. Suppose that a soldier goes to battle with head exposed, and no helmet protecting it, his anxiety about self will destroy his fighting power. But give him his piekelhaube, and he passes into the fight free from self-care and with the one idea of doing his very best to win the battle. So is it with the assurance to which faith is meant to lead us.

VI THE CHRISTIAN WIELDS, AS HIS ONLY OFFENSIVE WEAPON, THE WORD OF GOD.

(Ver. 17.) This is the sword with which he is to lay around him. The Bible is a wonderful weapon. It cuts men and devils to the heart. It enters into the very joints and marrow. There is no such discerner of the thoughts and intents of men"s hearts. Now, when we consider that force is only the preliminary to reason individuals or nations fight first and then make up peace upon some pretence of principle we see that what Christianity does is to keep strictly to the sphere of reason, and to refuse all seduction into the field of brute force. The doctrine of non-resistance is the highest of all tributes to the reasonableness of Christianity. The Christian, then, who masters most thoroughly the Word of God will be the most powerful among his fellows. For after all, this inspired Word is ahead of all human wisdom. It is the crown and anticipation of human genius. If we have mastered it in the spirit, we are ahead of our time and shall understand what we can best do for our generation.

VII THE CHRISTIAN IS ALWAYS PRAYERFUL, AND ESPECIALLY FOR HIS FELLOWS.

(Vers. 18-24.) The fight in which a Christian is engaged is not for his own hand. It is a fight for a common cause, and in the struggle we are never alone. It is a fight for the most part upon our knees. But as we wrestle, it is not for personal blessings only or chiefly, but for blessings to be conferred on others too. Our own garden is best kept when we can think of other gardens too. Hence Paul claims an interest in the Ephesians" prayers, believing that they will fight their battle best if they remember him. And thus as the Epistle closes we see how Christianity emancipates us from self, and makes us pray with a large public spirit and with our eye on the common weal. R.M.E.

Vers. 10-20.

Panoply of God. Conclusion of Epistle

be strong in the Lord, and in the strength of his might. In drawing the Epistle to a close, the apostle falls back on a form of expression he had used in the first chapter. There he showed that he had a high admiration of the strength of his the Father"s might which he wrought in Christ," and which was proved by Christ being raised from the state of the dead far above all rule, and authority, and power, and dominion." Here his admiration is (with little variation) of the strength of his (the Lord"s) might He views that as being at the command of all who are in Christ, and his injunction is that, as it is at their command, it should actually be communicated to them to make them strong, and indeed invulnerable, as the Lord"s servants should be. He now puts his exhortation under the special aspect of the panoply for the Christian conflict which is presented at length. "Put on the whole armor of God.

I NEED FOR THE PANOPLY OF GOD. "That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." "The wiles of the devil" points to the fact that our adversary does not work by open methods. He does not rest his cause on its absolute reasonableness. Rather is he conscious of its indefensibleness in reason, conscious too of his being conquered by Christ; and hence he has recourse to ways of making men believe that they have reason on their side, when they are really under the delusion of error. We do not have things put before us in their true character. There are illusory views of life which are presented to us. There are fallacies with which we are plied, in our reading, in our intercourse with men, or from our own hearts, the danger of which is that they chime in with our natural inclinations. What are these but the wiles of the devil? And there lies the need for our being armed as warriors, at every point, with the armor of God.

II PARENTHETICAL CONFIRMATION OF THE NEED.

1. Negatively. "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood." Wrestling serves to call up the idea of close personal encounter, but otherwise, in accordance with the context, we are to think, not of the mere wrestler, but of armed warrior against armed warrior. "When Greek meets Greek, then comes the tug of war." In the contests, from which the apostolic language is taken, there was a certain equality between the combatants. It was man confronted with his own flesh and blood, and he might hope, in the life-and-death struggle in which he engaged, to come off victorious. But such equal conditions do not exist in the spiritual warfare in which we engage. We are not confronted with beings like ourselves; it is not our own flesh and blood that we are pitted against.

2. Positively. "But against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." To show the need for being properly armed, the apostle gives a bold description of the foes with which we have to contend. As to their rank, they are powerful chieftains (principalities and powers). As to their domain, it is "this darkness," which is world-wide. As to their essence, they are not encumbered with clay, but are spirits. As to their number, they are hosts, vast multitudes. As to their character, they are wicked, their inveterate disposition is to seek to work our ruin. As to their haunt, as it was before hinted at (rather than dogmatically taught) as the air, so here it is the heavenly or super-terrestrial places. The general effect of the description is that, men ourselves, we are unequally matched in having to fight against superhuman powers.

III FURTHER RECOMMENDATION OF THE PANOPLY. "Wherefore take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand." The evil day is not to be viewed as a special season of temptation. It may be more or less so, but it is always the day of temptation with us. We are assaulted even when we are engaged with holy things. We are assaulted by those formidable enemies of ours who are ever busy. We must, therefore, take up the whole armor of God, that we may be able to withstand the assaults made on us, and, having done all things pertaining to the conflict, to stand (and not to be left prostrate on the field).

IV THE PARTS OF THE PANOPLY.

1. The girdle. "Stand therefore, having girded your loins with truth." In preparing for the conflict the first thing the warrior had to do was to gird up his loose flowing robe, that his energies might not be scattered, but collected into a unity. The girdle which binds the energies of the Christian combatant is truth. About the end of the eleventh century, great multitudes, known as Crusaders, girded themselves to go and deliver the holy sepulcher from the possession of the Saracens. It was not the girdle of truth which bound them; for God never meant them to spend their energies in that form. And it was not an object which kept them from flagrant irregularities in the pursuit of it. The object which the Christian combatant is to have before him is not to have mere romance, but truth, binding truth, in it. That truth may be said to be connected with Christ"s tomb, but not in a mere realistic way. It is imperatively demanded, now that Christ has conquered on the cross, and that conquest has been attested by an empty tomb, that in his Name souls everywhere should be delivered. And the Christian combatant does not gird himself to get possession of some sacred place or of some sacred relic, but to help men who are in the present guilt and thraldom of sin toward their deliverance.

2. The breastplate. "And having put on the breastplate of righteousness." The idea in righteousness is that of a right relation to the Law of God. Righteousness worn as a plate over the heart is to be understood rather as the mind conscious of right. The Christian combatant is to be jealous over himself with a godly jealousy. He is to have nothing to do with insincerity, but is to study reality. He is not to have selfish motives, but is to be thoroughly disinterested. He is not to have feelings of grudging malice, but is to be just and compassionate. He is to be especially fired with a desire to glorify God. The man who is conscious of this may be said to have righteousness as a breastplate.

1. The sandals. "And having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace" The Christian combatant, having girded himself in the cause of truth, and being conscious of no unworthy feeling, is next to put on the gospel sandals. It is that by which he is enabled to carry the good message. For that also belongs to the work of the battle-field. He puts on his shoes for the holy war. But in that war he is not always closing with his adversary. There are times when he has to follow up an advantage. Nay, his great business may be said to be to get his message delivered, to cry aloud so that Satan"s captives may hear. The message which he has to deliver is a message of peace. He fights, not for fighting"s sake, but that the times of peace may be ushered in. And as he thinks of his message, and enters into the spirit of it, his sandals become promptitude, alacrity (according to the idea here); he becomes swift-footed and speeds on with his message.

2. The shield. "Withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil one." As the Christian warrior runs swift-footed with his message of peace, there are fiery darts thrown at him. When any one is eminent in the Christian conflict, Satan is likely to raise up against him traducers. Those who do not believe in disinterestedness are sure to make out that he is serving himself. Those who do not believe in earnestness in religion are sure to circulate evil reports of him. It is worse when, in the very intensity of his spiritual feeling, he is laid open to temptations from his lusts. Or it may be that his very success lays him open to the temptation of spiritual pride. So it was when he who had been victorious in many a spiritual conflict was tempted (it is said that Satan provoked him) to number the people. And the dart thrown at him took effect, and was fiery enough in its consequences. What the Christian combatant is to do, when he is thus assailed, is not certainly to under-estimate the force that is brought against him, but it is also by faith rightly to estimate the force that is placed at his service. What can he do against the principalities and powers and the fiery darts they send out for his destruction? If he look to himself, he can do nothing. But he looks away to the power which placed Christ above all the principalities and powers, and he places it as a shield between him and the fiery darts, and in it their fire is quenched, their force is lost.

3. The helmet. "And take the helmet of salvation." The helmet is not, as in 1Th_5:8, the hope of salvation, but salvation itself, i.e. salvation enjoyed. The Christian has an important piece of defensive armor in the assurance of salvation. The Lord rebuked Satan, and encouraged Joshua the high priest, (Zec_3:2) by pointing to him as one of his saved ones. When one can think of grace going out toward him in the changing of his position to all eternity, he can feel triumphant; he has salvation as a helmet on his head.

4. The sword. "And the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God." The Bible is the sword of the Spirit. Furnished it is by the Spirit; for it was under the inspiration of the Spirit that the Word was written. And, as the Spirit inspired men to write it, so it is only he who can enable men to make a right use of it. To this we may apply the words of the hymn

God is his own interpreter, And he will make it plain.

In the temptation of our Lord, what Satan did was to misrepresent the character of the Father, to put a gloss upon Scripture. And what our Lord, in meeting the temptation, did was to confront him with the pure truth, and the truth opposed to his deceptions. And he was so skilful in the use of this sword that he could fix upon the particular Scripture that suited the occasion. And the Christian combatant, too, must not only see the truth, but the truth for the occasion, the truth that slays his doubts, that exposes the fallacies with which Satan would compass his destruction. And he must be able to do this in connection with some sure, incisive word of Scripture. That is the offensive weapon, the weapon which carries the war against the adversary. This Christian combatant who has been described is what every Christian is bound to be. The Church militant is to have, in every one of its members, a combatant. And the apostle lays stress upon every one taking the whole armor (and not merely some of its parts). No one, for instance, is a worthy combatant who feels no responsibility in the carrying of the gospel message. If we would have the strength our Captain would see in us, we must use all the pieces of the Christian armor.

V THAT WHICH ACCOMPANIES THE USE OF THE CHRISTIAN ARMOR.

1. Prayer. "With all prayer and supplication, praying at all seasons in the Spirit." We are not to think of "all prayer" as a separate weapon. We are rather to think of it as that which conditions the right use of the whole armor. Without prayer we cannot gird ourselves for the conflict, but are cumbered as with loose robes. Without prayer we cannot have that purification of motives, that rectification of life, which the conflict demands. Without prayer we cannot have swift-footedness in carrying the gospel. Without prayer we shall not have faith to ward off the enemy"s darts. Without prayer we shall not be able to lift our head in the assurance of our salvation. Without prayer we shall be unskillful in the use of the Word. Constant use and prayer, then that will keep the helmet from being dulled, the sword from being rusty. But:

(1) Prayer must not be mere repetition. "And in praying," says our Lord, "use not vain repetitions, as the Gentiles do." If we are bent on having our request from God, it will come up again and again, and under new aspects. Prayer is using arguments with God, and, as our mind works on our need, we shall ever be discovering new grounds on which to press our request. So, while we are to have prayer for ourselves and prayer for others (supplication), it is to be all prayer and supplication, i.e. to say, it is to have that variety which comes from an abundance of life, from active thought and feeling, and not that sameness which comes from lifelessness.

(2) Prayer must not be irregular. The apostle teaches that it is to be connected with all seasons (to vitalize them, to redeem them from unprofitableness). It is true that we are not always in a mood for praying; but let us keep the appointed season. Prayer is one of the means by which we are to get into the fight mood. And if we keep to our plan from a sense of duty (though our feelings are cold), and when the time comes round fall on our knees before God, then may we expect liberation from our unspiritual moods.

(3) Prayer must not be from self. "Praying in the Spirit," it is said here, and there is the same association in Jud_1:20. Prayer is dependence, and we have the influences of the Spirit on which to depend in prayer. We can only pray aright, under the impulse of the Spirit, when the Spirit indeed makes intercession for us. And, therefore, we should look to the Spirit to put the right desires within us and to give us right words.

2. With petitions.for ourselves we are to blend petitions for others. "And watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication." The apostle is here carrying forward his thought into a special channel. While we are to take heed to be persevering in praying for ourselves, we are to be especially persevering in praying for others. And the ground of that may be that our prayers are apt to be characterized by selfishness. We may go on praying for ourselves; but we too soon give over praying for others. We unwarrantably (and to our own detriment) contract the circle of prayer.

(1) Circle of supplication. "For all the saints." That is not the outmost circle; for it is said in 1Ti_2:1, "for all men." But the apostle is here presenting the matter under a special aspect. It is this that the combatant is to remember his fellow-combatants. Every combatant has his peculiar difficulties, his weak points. But, if he feels the struggle to be hard for himself, that should put him in sympathy with all others, to whom (in their own way) it is hard too. And he should manifest that sympathy by beseeching God to make their armor bright, to hold them up, to give them to win the day, wherever they are appointed to fight.

(2) Special member of that circle. "And on my behalf.

(a) Special prayer he wishes them to offer for him. That utterance may be given unto me in opening my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel." That is to say, boldness of utterance, whenever he was called upon to open his mouth in preaching the gospel. This was the great accomplishment of the apostle, that he could preach the gospel. And he here discovers the secret of it. He put it clearly before his own mind, and got others interested in his object, so that they helped him by their prayers.

(b) Special reason for the prayer. "For which I am an ambassador in chains; that in it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak." Reason of his office. He girded himself to save souls, He kept strict watch over his heart. He was swift-footed in proclaiming the message of peace. And as he sped from place to place, the fiery darts were thrown at him. Satan stirred up the Jews against him; men said that he was mad. But he interposed the shield of faith; he held up his head in the assurance of pardon. And he used the sword of the Spirit against many a heresy which threatened the peace and prosperity of the Church. It was of great consequence that there should be preserved to such an ambassador the courage of his office. Reason of his position, He was at the time in chains, He was in a condition, therefore, when his courage would be specially assailed. John the Baptist, in the gloom of his dungeon, gave way to doubts of Christ"s mission. The apostle"s liberty was not so much restricted. That the liberty he had might be well used by him, that he might speak boldly as he ought to speak, he would have them make that the subject of their prayers for him. R.F.

Vers. 10-20.

Soul-militancy.

my brethren, be strong in the Lord," etc. The subject of these words is soul-militancy, and they bring under our notice the souls foes, the souls strength, the souls weapons , and the souls religiousness.

I THE SOUL"S FOES. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood." The passage teaches the following things in relation to the antagonists of souls:

1. They are spiritual personalities. They are spiritual, not "flesh and blood." They exist apart from matter apart from all animal incarnations. They are personalities. We cannot accept the interpretation of those who regard Paul as speaking here only of evil principles. If language means anything, personal agents are here indicated. A priori reasoning renders the existence of such beings probable; human experience and the Bible place their existence beyond all reasonable doubt.

2. They are wicked personalities. "Spiritual wickedness," or, as the margin has it, "wicked spirits." They are out of sympathy with God; they are in bitter and practical hostility to all that is Divine, benevolent, and happy.

3. They are diverse personalities. They differ in their make and their rank; they are not all of the same nature and measure of faculty, nor of the same rank in the universe. There are "principalities," "rulers" and "powers" amongst them. Some, as compared to others, may be as wasps to vultures, as mosquitoes to dragons.

4. They are organized principalities. They are under one head, here called the "devil." "That ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." There is one gigantic intellect that manages and marshals the whole: he who seduced our first parents, he with whom Christ battled in the wilderness the Satan of God, the Apollyon of man. These heats of evil spirits are not left to themselves; they are welded together by one master intellect, "Devil with devil damned firm concord hold." They are managed by force and fraud, all of them. The passage suggests that under his control they act:

(1) Craftily. Hence the expression, the "wiles of the devil." All his movements are cunningly methodized, for such is the meaning of the word "wiles." These evil spirits attack us in ambush; they steal upon us slyly and stealthily.

(2) In darkness. "The rulers of the darkness of this world." Where do they reign? Where ignorance spreads her gloom: in the cold region of atheism where the mental energies are benumbed, and in the tropic realm of superstition where the soul is stirred into an agony of fear and scared with the horrid forms of its own creations. Amidst the gloomy recesses of ignorance they rear their throne; through the districts of intellectual darkness they prowl about in search of their prey. They reign where depravity beclouds the heart, where passion is stronger than principle, the senses than the soul, the love of the world than the love of God; whether that be amidst the districts of heathenism or civilized life, in the marts of business, the temples of devotion, or the flowery scenes of gaiety and pleasure. They enshrine themselves amidst the benighted chambers of an impure imagination, they haunt the atmosphere of pollution, impregnate it with their spirit, causing it to stimulate the unrighteous zeal of the selfish, to fire the passions of the carnal, and to swell the vanity of the ambitious and the proud. They reign where sorrow and suffering darken all. They delight in misery. The wretchedness of the indigent, the sighs of the distressed, the groans of the oppressed, and the agonies of the dying gratify their malignant natures.

II THE SOUL"S STRENGTH. "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." The soul requires tremendous strength to grapple successfully with these mighty spirits of evil. What is the strength required? It is nothing less than Divine. It is to be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. But what kind of Divine strength is required, for strength of all kind is from the Lord? Is it muscular? No. Samson, with his Herculean physical force, fell beneath these spirits; an evil genius touched him, and the giant fell as a child. Is it mental? No. Men of the greatest intellect and of the loftiest genius have not been able to stand for a moment before these spirits. It is not by this "might or this power" that souls can stand before these infernal hosts. It is moral strength.

1. The strength of faith in the Absolute. Faith in that which changes not, which is true to man as man, which is independent of times and circumstances faith in the Everlasting. With this faith men participate in the omnipotence of God, work wonders, and dare the universe. Men, through this faith, have "subdued kingdoms," etc.

2. The strength of love for the supremely good. Love, when it is fastened even upon the frail and the imperfect, gives strength to the soul strength to nerve a mother for the most trying services, strength to brace a patriot for the thunders of the battle. But when centered upon the eternally Good, its strength is increased a thousandfold; it gives the soul a power that "never faileth," a power that "endureth all things.

3. An invincible attachment to the right. To be strong in the Lord" is to be strong in sympathy with the right. It is to prefer the right with hell to the wrong with heaven. It is this moral strength alone that will enable us to stand against the wiles of the devil," and to battle successfully with the host of wickedness. This strength makes a man more than a conqueror, enables him to glory in tribulation and shout triumphantly in the agonies of death.

III THE SOUL"S WEAPONS. The panoply is here described. It consists of two parts the defensive and the offensive implements.

1. The defensive implements. What is the defensive? "Truth." This is the girdle which belts the loins with strength, and binds all the other parts of the panoply together so as to protect all the vital parts. "Righteousness." This is the" breastplate." The man who lacks integrity can offer no successful defense to the foe; the dishonest man is vulnerable at every point. "The gospel of peace." This, like the boot of the old Roman conqueror, makes the soldier firm in his step and terrible in the echo of his tread. "Faith." This is the "shield," protecting the whole body. Faith, not in creeds, but in Christ, is the true shield of moral soldiership. "Salvation that is, the hope of salvation. This is the helmet." As the helmet guarded the head of the Roman soldier, the hope of salvation protects the soul. Let despair come, and the head of the soul is wounded and the whole system endangered.

2. The offensive. What is the offensive? "The sword of the Spirit." The true soul has not only to stand its ground, to maintain its position, to keep its territory, but to advance, to extend its boundaries, to prosecute an invasion; it is to conquer all other souls to Christ, and the weapon is the "Word of God." This is the sword by which the Christian soldier has to cut his way from soul to soul through the whole world: "For the Word of God is quick and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword," etc. (Heb_4:12) God"s Word is the truth that slays error, the love that slays selfishness, the right that slays the wrong, the happiness that slays the misery of the world.

IV THE SOUL"S RELIGIOUSNESS. Religiousness, viz. a conscious dependence on God, lies at the foundation of all true soul-militancy. A man can do nothing rightly or successfully in spiritual soldiership who is not religious in the very spirit of his being. Religiousness is the only soil in which man"s spiritual faculties can grow into heroic vigor. In materialism they wither; in mere intellectualism they are only skeletonic at best; in religiousness they are like the tree planted by the rivers of water their roots are in the Everlasting, they drink into them the very life of God. Religiousness, in one word, is the source that supplies the muscle and the instinct that gives the skill in true moral warfare. It teaches our "hands to war and our fingers to fight." This religiousness is here described by the apostle in these words, "Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints," etc. These words are so true to the original and so obvious in their significance that they call for no minute examination. They show us how this religiousness in the soul of the true spiritual soldier is to express itself; and it is to do so:

1. In prayer. "Praying always with all prayer," or, as Ellicott has rendered it, with all prayer and supplication praying always in the Spirit." The words teach us:

(1) That the prayer is to be comprehensive. "With all prayer and supplication." All kinds of prayer, expressed and ejaculatory, private and social. Prayer is not so much a service as a spirit, not so much an act as a sentiment. Hence we are commanded to "pray without ceasing." Consciousness of dependence on God, which is the very essence of prayer, should run as a living current through the whole of our life. Our whole life should be an unbroken litany.

(2) That the prayer is to be Divine. "In the Spirit." That is, under the influence of the Divine Spirit, who is to make intercessions for us with groanings that cannot be uttered. There is no true prayer that is not dictated by this Spirit. Man"s great care should be to lay his soul open to the Divine. If a man would have his body crave healthily for food, he must drink in as much as possible the fresh air of God; and if he would have his soul crave for spiritual food, he must breathe into his spiritual nature the breath of the Divine.

(3) That the prayer is to be watchful. "And watching thereunto." The soul has its moral moods. It has seasons favorable for culture, weathers for launching out on the deep. Its duty is to watch for these moods watch the motions of the Divine Spirit upon the heart. Watch, as Elijah did on Carmel, for promising signs in the heavens.

(4) That the prayer should be persevering. "With all perseverance." We are to be instant in prayer. Our Savior taught the duty of importunate prayer in the parable of the "unjust judge." Importunity is needed, not to influence the Eternal to mercy, but to prepare our hearts rightly to receive his gifts.

1. In prayer for the good in general. "For all saints." The apostle would not have them merely to pray for themselves. He who prays exclusively for

2. himself never prays at all. His prayers are but the breath of selfishness. Paul required them to pray for "all saints saints of every intellectual grade, of every social position, of every ecclesiastical sect, of every theological school, of every kingdom and every tribe. Why for all saints? Because all saints are members of the grand army battling against the common foe against the "principalities of evil," etc. The more force, courage, skill, each member of an army possesses, the better for the cause, the more likely the victory in whose advantages all participate. The battle of Christianity is a common battle a battle against error, wrong, and depravity everywhere. All saints are engaged in it and they should be prayed for.

3. In prayer for gospel ministers in particular. "And for me, that utterance may be given unto me." Why does Paul wish them to pray for him? Is it that he might be liberated from prison? No. He was now, he tells us, an "ambassador in bonds." The clanking chains of the prison hung heavily on him, and one would not have wondered if his first request had been to the Ephesians to pray for his bodily deliverance. But this he does not. He is too absorbed in the cause of Christ and universal happiness for this. What he prayed for was that he might be enabled properly and successfully to preach the gospel. "That I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel," that is, the gospel that was once a mystery. The preaching of the gospel was God"s grand instrument for restoring the world to intelligence, dignity, and happiness, and because of that, he desired to do it in the most effective way. There are several remarkable things in these words.

(1) Paul was an ambassador from heaven God"s messenger sent to proclaim restoration to lost humanity. The grandest commission this.

(2) God"s ambassador from heaven in bonds. Wonderful that the great King, whose word could have shivered Rome into atoms, should have allowed his ambassador to have been in chains. But so it is; and we shall have an explanation ere long.

(3) God"s ambassador from heaven in bonds, losing all idea of his own personal sufferings, in the desire to help his race. Though a prisoner at Rome, he was permitted to preach. (Act_28:30, Act_28:31) And as a prisoner he wanted to discharge that high mission in the most effective way. For that he prays. A true gospel minister has a right to ask the prayers of Christians for him particularly. Like a general in the army, he has the most responsible position, the most arduous task. Failure in him may turn the tide of battle in favor of the foe. Prayer, then, is a necessary qualification of spiritual soldiership. The victory cannot be won without it.

Restraining prayer, we cease to fight; Prayer makes the Christian"s armor bright; And Satan trembles when he sees The weakest saint upon his knees.

Even the great Commander of all the legions of the good recognized the mighty power of prayer during his struggles on this earth. "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" As if he had said, "With one breath of prayer I could bring the mighty battalions of eternity to my aid. D.T.

Divine strength.

As the Epistle draws to a close, St. Paul gives emphasis to the requisition of Divine strength by singling it out for a final word of exhortation. The doctrinal principles of the earlier chapters lead up to the practical duties of the later, and these several duties to the need of Divine strength wherewith to discharge them in face of the assaults of evil.

I CHRISTIANS ARE EXHORTED TO BE STRONG. Spiritual strength is decision of character and force of will. Religion centers in our will and character. Unless there is strength, fixity, determination, and energy, then all our elaborate thinking and all our beautiful sentiments are worthless.

1. Clear belief in the gospel is not sufficient. We may believe intellectually, but if we are too weak to act according to our belief that counts for nothing.

2. Feelings of love to Christ are vain if they do not inspire us to faithful service and sacrifice.

3. Passive reliance on Christ will not avail us unless we have also the active faith that puts forth spiritual strength in obedience to his will. We are not only to flee to the refuge in Christ. We are to go forth to battle in the open field. And then we are not only to be endued with Divine armor, but first to be made strong ourselves. First comes the exhortation to be strong, and only second that to arm in the Divine panoply. It is only the strong man who can wear this armor.

4. It is our duty to be strong. Weakness is not merely a calamity to be bewailed. It is a sin to be repented of. It leads to our falling into temptation and our failing in duty.

II SPIRITUAL STRENGTH IS A DIVINE INSPIRATION. We cannot be strong by merely willing to be so. A wish will not convert the feeble body of the invalid into the robust frame of a healthy man, nor will a wish give to the weak soul fixity of character and energy of will. The body must gain strength through nourishing diet, bracing air, exercise, etc. So spiritual strength arises from feeding upon Christ in faith and prayer.

1. There is might in Christ. He is the Lion of the house of Judah.

2. Christ puts forth that might. The strength is the might in exercise. The oak is strong, but passive, and therefore it can do nothing for us. The horse, though less strong, puts forth his power in action, and so works for us. Christ"s great might is not a mere latent force. It flows out in energy.

3. This strength is ours by our union with Christ. "Be strong in the Lord." We must, therefore, be in Christ in order that we may have this strength, and the more close our union to Christ becomes the more vigorously shall we be supplied with his strength. W.F.A.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Brethren - This is the only place in this epistle where he uses this compellation. Soldiers frequently use it to each other in the field. Be strong - Nothing less will suffice for such a fight: to be weak, and remain so, is the way to perish. In the power of his might - A very uncommon expression, plainly denoting what great assistance we need as if his might would not do, it must be the powerful exertion of his might.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

The Christian’s spiritual Armor and Its Use.

The enemies:

v. 10. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

v. 11. Put on the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

v. 12. for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

v. 13. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.

This closing admonition of the letter to the Ephesians has rightly been called the Lord’s great call to arms. The apostle here summarizes and concentrates everything that he still would like to write to the brethren: Finally, as for the rest, be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of His strength. No matter what else may come to their attention and engage their consideration, his readers should be strengthened, should be given the ability, the power, to wage battle for the Lord. Such strengthening is possible only in the Lord, in fellowship with His mighty power and strength. It is true, of course, that a regenerate person has the new spiritual life in his heart; but it is equally true that this life, unless renewed and supported by Christ day by day, will soon be lost. It is necessary that the Christian remain in intimate communion with Christ in His Word and Sacrament, otherwise he will soon join the ranks of such as are unqualified for the great warfare which is the lot of the Christians. This consciousness the Christians must impress upon themselves unceasingly, lest they become guilty of the self-confidence of Peter and deny their Savior.

But it is not enough for soldiers to summon all their strength for the encounter and to remain in constant touch with their general, they must also have the right armor: Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The Christians must be careful to be supplied with the panoply, with the full armor, which is provided by God the complete battle equipment, which alone will enable us to meet the hosts of our spiritual foes. A Christian must be encased in the armor of God from his head to his feet, in order not to offer a single gap which may give the enemy an opening for successful attack. But as the warriors of God, provided with His full armor, we are able to withstand the crafty assaults of the devil. The old Evil Foe has many and various methods by which he hopes to overcome us, both stratagem and open at tack, false doctrine and sinful life; it is impossible to foretell from day to day just where and how he will make his next assault. Constant, untiring vigilance is demanded by our Christian calling.

How necessary this is the apostle shows in his description of the mass of the enemies: For not is our wrestling against blood and flesh, but against the principalities, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness. We Christians have no mere men to battle with, whom we might be able to overcome with external, physical weapons. But our wrestling, our hand-to-hand encounter, is with forces of evil that are present in all the enemies of the Word and the Church, powers of spirits. There are rulers, chiefs, and heads of the battalions of evil spirits; there are demonic authorities; there are the world-ruling powers of the evil angels with Satan, the prince of this world, at their head; there are entire hosts, large forces, bands, armies of spirits, all spirits of wickedness and malice. The devils are world rulers of darkness, they rule through the darkness of sin. In sin Satan has established his kingdom in this world, he has succeeded in leading men away from God, the Father of Light, into the rule of darkness and sin, where the knowledge of God cannot enlighten them. St. Paul calls all the enemies spirits of wickedness in high places, for they belong to the supernatural, transcendental world. For that very reason, because the evil spirits as spirits cannot be attacked with physical weapons, they are stronger and more dangerous than the visible creatures.

No wonder that the apostle repeats and amplifies his urgent call: Wherefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having overcome, to stand (as victors). To meet this mighty array of spiritual forces is beyond the power of any mere man, but with the full armor of God in our possession and every piece in its proper place, we can go forth into battle. This last world period is an evil day, an evil time; there is no peace, no armistice; only in yonder life will there be perfect peace and quietness for the children of God. But not for a moment dare we falter: we must overcome, we must conquer our enemies; in the power of the Lord we must remain victors on the field of battle. No matter how numerous and powerful our enemies, no matter how hard and hot the battle, "for us fights the Valiant One, whom God Himself elected"; we have the almighty God and His power on our side, and so the final victory must be ours.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Our apostle, calling us here forth to the Christian warfare, gives forth the first word of encouragement to battle: Be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power.

A Christian, above all men, needs resolution, and a daring courage: if he be possessed with fear, he is unfit to go into the field; if dispirited with strong impressions of danger, how unready for the encounter! Cowards win neither earth nor heaven. But where lies the Christian’s strength? Verily, on the Lord, and not in himself; the strength of the whole host of saints lies in the Lord of hosts, and accordingly it ought to be the Christian’s great care, in all difficulties and dangers, to strengthen his faith in the almighty power of God.

Observe, 2. A direction given how a saint may come to be strong in the Lord; namely, by putting on the whole armour of God; that is, by being clothed with the following graces, which are hereafter mentioned in this chapter; as, the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the sword of the Spirit, & c.

Now these are called armour of God, because they are of his appointment and institution; and of his make and constitution; and this armour must be put on, that is, our grace kept in continual exercise. It is one thing to have armour in the house, and another to have it buckled on in the field; it is not sufficient to have grace in the habit and principle, but it is grace in act and exercise that must conquer spiritual enemies.

Observe, 3. A reason assigned why the Christian is to be thus completely armed: That he may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil; intimating that the devil is one chief enemy we have to combat with in the Christian warfare, and that this enemy is a wily, subtle enemy, discovering his dangerous policy, first by tempting and alluring into sin, and them by vexing and tormenting for sin. But Satan, with all his wits and wiles, shall never finally vanquish (though he may, in a particular battle, overcome) a soul clad with spiritual armour; nay, he that hath this armour of God on, shall certainly vanquish and overcome him: Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against, & c.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

ARGUMENT 25

THE CHRISTIAN’S PANOPLY

10. “Finally, be filled up with dynamite.” Heaven is full of dynamite. We have but to tap the ocean by faith and we get full. When a teacher in college, I use to charge a galvanic battery with electricity, have a student stand on an insulating stool, put his hand on the pole, and get so full of electricity, that every hair on his head would stand out straight. If a person would come near him, a spark of fire would leap out of him, and burn him.

So we all ought to be full of God’s dynamite, transmitting the sin-consuming fire to all who come about us. This is the way we are to conquer the world for Christ.

11. “Put on the panoply of God, that you may stand against the methods of the devil.” When John and Charles Wesley, Thomas Maxfield, and John Fletcher organized the Holy Club at Oxford, in 1724, the Churches were so dead and the clergy so unspiritual, that they had 110 methods for the conversion of sinners and the sanctification of believers. So, when John Wesley organized the class-meeting for the conversion of penitents, the holiness bands for the sanctification of Christians, and the select societies for the edification of the sanctified, and they saw them working hard day and night to get sinners converted and Christians sanctified, the proud clergymen and carnal members raised a critical howl, “See how these fellows have methods of doing God’s work,” considering it a matter of ridicule that any one would presume to adopt methods for the salvation of souls, as that was God’s work, and he would attend to it in his own time and way. Hence, they called John Wesley and his comrades “Methodists,” simply because they had methods of saving souls. Here we see Paul alludes to the “methods of the devil;” therefore, the devil is a great “Methodist,” having an infinite diversity of methods for the damnation of souls. Hence, if we would compete with him, we must have methods, too. The fallen Churches are full of methods for money-raising and everything else except salvation, of which they are utterly destitute. Hence, Satan, with a gusto, dumps them into hell by wholesale, as he has an abundance of most successful methods for damnation, and they none for salvation.

12. “There is not to us fighting against blood and flesh, but against governments, against authorities, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against spirits of wickedness in the heavenlies.” Satan utilizes his paradoxical intelligence as an organizer of his diabolical forces in earth and hell for the damnation of each revolving generation. His war is not haphazardous, but wisely planned and cunningly executed. His strategic movements against humanity are marvelous, and infinitely beyond human conception. Could you see the tall peers of the pit, commanding the vast demoniacal battalions, and manipulating their adroit military evolutions through our populous cities, even drawing the chloroformed Churches into their cooperation to fight holiness and join the world, you would fall in line with the holiness movement, and stir us all up into a Balaklava charge against the combined armies of earth and hell. “High places” here is the same Greek as heavenly places in every preceding chapter. “Places” in the original should not occur; the proper reading, simply “the heavenlies” i.e., heavenly experiences — which we must have preparatory to our enjoyment of heaven.

Hence, we see that the big fight with the devil, in which he marshals all the hierarchies of hell, is pitched against the people “in the heavenlies.” Satan doesn’t waste his ammunition on sinners, as they are already secure in his black clutches. Neither does he expend much on unsanctified Christians, as the depravity in them is hell’s lasso around their necks, sure to drive out their religion, and drag them into the pit, if they don’t get it burnt off with sanctifying fire. But when you get truly sanctified, saved to the uttermost in the enjoyment of the heavenly state, and robed and ready for the bright upper world, Satan knows he is fighting in his last ditch; he must get you now, or give you up forever. Hence, he lays under contribution all the armies of earth and hell for your apostasy and damnation.

13. “Therefore take the panoply of God, that you may be able to stand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.” We awfully jeopardize our immortal interest, if we neglect a solitary item of the Christian’s panoply. We most imperatively need it all, and terribly imperil our souls if we take chances on the devil’s battlefield with inadequate armor. Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. When we have “done all,” and reached utter despair, God takes the work into hand; the sinner gets converted at the end of all human resources. In a similar manner must the Christian who would receive the sanctifying baptism of the Holy Ghost and fire leave John at the Jordan, and see Jesus only. It is equally true in all our Christian warfare, the victory comes when we have “done all.” On a ship in mid- ocean the alarm roars, “A man overboard!” “Who will save him?” A stalwart youth volunteers. All eyes are fixed on him, and all wonder that he does not leap in, for he stands like a statue gazing on the deep. The man appears amid the billows, struggling terrifically; all shout, “Now, now is your chance!” The volunteer heeds them not, but stands still. Two minutes have flown; the drowning man again rises to the surface, struggling for life, but not half so violently as before. Again all shout to the volunteer to leap to his rescue, who, to their surprise, looks on the scene with apparent indifference. Five minutes have flown, the drowning man again comes in sight. The struggle is over, for he is dead. Now the athlete leaps overboard, and soon brings him up by the hair of the head. Erelong he is recuperated and running like a racehorse all over the deck, so glad he is alive. They now ask the swimmer, “Why did you not save him the first time?” “Too strong; he would have drowned me as well as himself.” “Why did you not save him the second time?” “Still too strong; he would have drowned us both. I waited till his strength was gone.” So Jacob wrestled all night till his hip was out of joint, and his strength gone.

14. “Therefore stand girded about your loins with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness.” “Loins” symbolize strength, and the girdle the powerful auxiliary. Hence, we see that God’s revealed truth Is our power. A sermon may be eloquent and intellectually edifying, but it is potent for good only as it is freighted with the Word of God. This is the melancholy secret of the lamentable loss of power in the Churches. The Word of God is substituted by human learning, which is utterly powerless to save souls. Hence, the cultured, eloquent preacher just lets the people drop through his fingers into hell. In the breast are located the important vital organs of the physical organism; i.e., the heart, lungs, liver, stomach. If they are not protected you will soon die. Your own righteousness, arising from your good works, is “filthy rags” in the sight of God. It is the fond trick of the devil to so fool you as to get you to insult God by poking off on him your own righteousness, a pile of stenchy rags. This “breastplate of righteousness,” so indispensable to your fortification against Satan’s missiles of death, is none other than the righteousness of God in Christ, imputed unto you when in radical abandonment of all sin and eternal submission to the Divine Will in the profound realization of your fitness only for hell, by faith alone, you cast yourself on the mercy of God in Christ.

15. “Having your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace.” It is distressing to see the sore footed pilgrims limping around; and no wonder, for they are barefoot, and the road is both flinty and thorny. What a pity they do not all supply themselves with a pair of good, substantial gospel shoes! Then they would delight to run, like Sampson’s foxes, throughout the whole community, everywhere bankrupting the devil by burning down Philistines’ cornfields, and taking the land for King Jesus.

16. “In all things taking the shield of faith, by which you shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one.” The Stygian soldiers of Satan’s army are constantly shooting at the saints of God red-hot arrows, flaming with hellfire. “The shield of faith” is more than a match for all of the devil’s artillery, quenching or putting out all of the fire, so they are perfectly harmless falling at your feet. Thus you receive no damage. Meanwhile hell is robbed of her ammunition. This is not the faith by which a penitent sinner is justified. Neither is it the faith by which a consecrated Christian is sanctified. But it is the Christian ‘warrior’s faith. Hence, when you go out to fight the devil, be sure you wear your shield; i.e., have faith in Jesus to give you constant victory, and it will be according to your faith every time. When the soldier-boy left home for the field, the Grecian mother always delivered to him his shield, with the words, “My son, with this; or upon it.” When the soldier fled before the enemy, he always threw away his shield for expedition. When he was slain in battle, they carried home his dead body on his shield. Hence, the charge of the Grecian mother to her soldier boy to conquer or die on the battlefield.

17. “And receive the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.” The helmet protects the head, the location of the brain, the most important and vital organ. This “helmet of salvation” is the genuine salvation of the Lord, which is the infallible protection against all the assaults of Satan. When I was in the Tower of London, I saw the medieval knights mounted on their gallant war steeds, invested with a panoply of shining steel from the crown of the head to the soles of their feet, their war-horses also covered with the same impregnable armor. Amid all this stupendous panoply, so vividly described by Paul, every weapon is defensive, except the sword, which is the Word of God. Hence, you seethe Christian warrior goes forth to meet the foe so thoroughly fortified by his protective armor, as to be utterly invincible, simultaneously lifting high his glittering two-edged sword, by which he cuts down the enemy right and left, without distinction or mercy. During the conquest of Mexico by the Spaniards in the sixteenth century, amid an awful battle on the Heights of Chepultepec, two young Aztecs flew at General Cortez, like lions in desperation, to precipitate him from the heights, thus killing him and themselves to save their country; but the heroic Spaniard very adroitly met and slew them both with his sword. O how few Christians are experts in gladiatorial combat! This wonderful sword has two edges. If you receive the salvation edge, it will cut all sin out of you, sanctify you wholly, and save you forever. If you are too cowardly and mean to hug the salvation edge, you are destined to receive the damnation edge, which will cut out all your hopes of heaven, consigning you to an eternity of woe.

18. You can not always be in the meditation of prayer, but you can incessantly abide in the spirit of prayer, which is your needed fortification against demoniacal surprises, to which you are constantly liable, and in danger of disconcertment. When Bunyan’s Pilgrim met Apollyon in the Valley of Humiliation, and fought him six solid hours in a terrible hand to hand combat, the latter roaring like a lion and fighting with desperation, in the midst of the deadly conflict at one time Pilgrim lost his sword. Meanwhile it seemed that his doom was sealed. Bunyan says that he had another weapon called All-prayer, which he used with his utmost ability during this awful crisis. Suddenly, to his joyful surprise, his hand lights on the hilt of his sword, which he wields with unprecedented energy, stampeding his hellish foe from the field, and raising the mighty shout of victory.

19,20. Here Paul reminds the Ephesian saints fifteen hundred miles away, to incessantly pray for him, not that he may be released from bonds and imprisonment, but tat he may have the power and liberty of to Holy Ghost, “boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel.” Nearly all the preachers lack boldness and clearness. Indifferentism withers and chills all gospel effort. The remedy for all this is prayer. The preacher ought to have a score of red-hot public prayers before he opens his mouth to preach the living Word, as it is a mystery which none but the Holy Ghost can reveal.

21,22. Tychichus and Onesimus traveled together from Rome to Asia, carrying this epistle and that of Colossians and Philemon, all of which Paul wrote, occupying his rented mission-hall the first two years of his Roman imprisonment.

William B. Godbey, Commentary on the New Testament (1896–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10. Be strong in the Lord. He comes to his final admonition. They are engaged in a fearful warfare (verse 12). They need to be equipped for it. Let them be strong by using the armor, weapons and means which are named in the next section.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Paul gives instructions to make believers strong in this battle we live for God.

the strength of his might

"his great power." See how "the strength of his power" is translated near the end of Ephesians 1:21.

Put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the scheming plans of the devil

Christians should use all the resources God gives to stand firmly against the devil just as a soldier puts on armor to protect himself from enemy attacks. (See: Metaphor)

the scheming plans

"the tricky plans"

translationWords

lord

might

armor

God

Satan

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

10–20. THE CHRISTIAN ARMOUR

The closing section of the Ep. St Paul has described in Eph 2:2 the condition of the world out of which Christians had been taken, and in which (Eph 5:6-13) they have still to let their light shine in ‘evil days’ (Eph 5:16). He has shown positively how the key to the due fulfilment of all natural human relationships is found as they are seen on both sides ‘in the Lord.’ He comes now in conclusion to apply the same key to the solution of the problem presented by the relation of the Christian to the forces of evil by which he is beset during his path through the world. The right attitude is that of a soldier who is exposed to constant and insidious attacks on the part of spiritual foes, and who has to realize, appropriate, and never lay aside the armour which is his ‘in the Lord.’ In his earliest extant Epistle (1Th 5:8) St Paul had thrown out a hint that the imagery of Isa 59:17 had a Christian application. Again in Rom 13:12; Rom 13:14 a command to ‘put on the Lord Jesus Christ,’ picks up and interprets a command to put on ‘the armour of light.’ Now, as a prisoner continually in charge of a Roman soldier he elaborates the figure in detail. His main interest however is no doubt centred in the O.T. analogies from the figure of Jehovah coming forth as a Warrior to deliver and avenge His people (Isa 59:15 ff; cf. Isa 63:1 f.) into which features had already been taken up from the portrait of the Messiah (Isa 11:5). The O.T. picture had struck the imagination of the writer of Wis 5:18-20. It is doubtful however if Wis 5:18-20 has affected in any way St Paul’s treatment of the subject.

10. Τοῦ λοιποῦ. ‘For the time to come,’ Gal 6:17.

ἐνδυναμοῦσθε ἐν κυρίῳ. Cf. Php 4:13; 1Ti 1:12; 2Ti 2:1; 2Ti 4:17. ‘Be strengthened.’ Notice the passive ‘Lay yourself open to the invigorating forces that will fill your being as you realize your vital union with the Lord.’

καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ. Eph 1:19. ‘The triumphant power of His might.’ St Paul’s prayers for his correspondents in Eph 1:19, Eph 3:16 require this response on their side if they are to be effectual. The thought of the whole verse has a close parallel in Joh 16:33.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10-20.] General exhortation to the spiritual conflict and to prayer. Henceforward (cf. Gal 6:17, note: τὸ λοιπόν (see var. readd.) would be ‘finally.’ Olsh.’s remark, that the Apostle never addresses his readers as ἀδελφοί in this Epistle, is perfectly correct: the ἀδελφοῖς in ver. 23 does not contravene it (as Eadie), but rather establishes it. He there sends his apostolic blessing τοῖς ἀδελφοῖς, but does not directly address them) be strengthened (passive, not middle, see reff.—and Fritz. on Rom 4:20) in the Lord (Christ), and in the strength of his might (see on κράτος τῆς ἰσχύος, note, ch. 1:19). Put on the entire armour (emphatic: repeated again ver. 13: offensive, as well as defensive. It is probable that the Apostle was daily familiarized in his imprisonment with the Roman method of arming) of God (Harl. maintains that the stress is on τοῦ θεοῦ, to contrast with τοῦ διαβόλου below: but there is no distinction made between the armour of God and any other spiritual armour, which would be the case, were this so. τοῦ θεοῦ, as supplied, ministered, by God, who ἅπασι διανέμει τὴν βασιλικὴν παντευχίαν, Thdrt.), that ye may be able to stand against (so Jos. Antt. xi. 5. 7, θαῤῥεῖν μὲν οὖν τῷ θεῷ πρῶτον, ὡς καὶ πρὸς τὴν ἐκείνων ἀπέχθειαν στησομένῳ: see Kypke, ii. p. 301, and Ellicott’s note here) the schemes (the instances (concr.) of a quality (abstr.) of μεθόδεια. τίἐστι μεθόδεια; μεθοδεῦσαί ἐστι τὸ ἀπατῆσαι, κ. διὰ συντόμον ἑλεῖν, Chrys.:—the word is however sometimes used in a good sense, as Diod. Sic. i. 81, ταύτας δὲ οὐ ῥᾴδιον ἀκριβῶς ἐξελέγξαι, μὴ γεωμέτρου τὴν ἀλήθειαν ἐκ τῆς ἐμπειοίας μεθοδεύσαντος,—‘if the geometrician had not investigated, &c.’ The bad sense is found in Polyb. xxxviii. 4. 10, πολλὰ δή τινα πρὸς ταύτην τὴν ὑπόθεσιν ἐμπορεύων κ. μεθοδευόμενος, ἐκίνει κ. παρώξυνε τοὺς ὄχλους. See Ellic. on ch. 4:14) of the devil.

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

10-12. Exhortation to prepare for the spiritual combat by arming themselves with the panoply of God, remembering that they have to do with no mere mortal foes, but with spiritual powers

10. τοῦ λοιποῦ. So א* A B 17.

τὸ λοιπόν. אc D G K L P, Chrys., etc.

Meyer points out that B 17 have δυναμοῦσθε instead of ἐνδ., a variation which Meyer thinks may have arisen from a confusion of the N of λοιπόν with the N of ἐνδυν., thus pointing to the reading λοιπόν. Properly, τοῦ λοιπόῦ means “henceforth, for the future,” Gal 6:17, in which sense τὸ λοιπόν may also be used; but the latter alone is used in the sense “for the rest,” Php 3:1, Php 3:4:8, 2Th 3:1. As the latter is the meaning here, we should expect τὸ λοιπόν.

ἀδελφοί μου is added in Rec. before ἐνδυν., with אc K L P, most cursives, Syr. (both) Boh., but om. by א* B D 17, Arm., Aeth,. A G, Vulg., Theodoret have ἀδελφοί without μου. It has probably come in by assimilation to other passages in which τὸ λοιπόν occurs (see above). St. Paul does not address his readers thus in this Epistle.

ἐνδυναμοῦσθε. “Be strengthened.” Cf. Rom 4:20. Not middle but passive, as elsewhere in N.T. (Act 9:22; Rom 4:20; 2Ti 2:1; Heb 11:34). The active occurs Php 4:23; 1Ti 1:12; 2Ti 4:17. The simple verb δυναμόω, which B 17 have here, is used in Col 1:2, and according to א* A D* in Heb 11:34. ἐνδυναμοῦσθαι occurs once in the Sept. Psa_51 (52): 7 rather in a bad sense. There is no reason why a verb which occurs once in the Sept. and several times in the N.T. should be said to be “peculiar to the Alexandrian Greek.”

καὶ ἐν τῷ κράτει τῆς ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ. Not a hendiadys. Compare i. 19.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Finally [το λοιπον] . See on 2Co 13:11. Omit my brethren. Be strong [ενδυναμουουσθε] . Lit., be strengthened. Compare Rom 4:20, and Phi 4:13.

Power of His might. See on ch. Eph 1:19.

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.