LIFE IN THE HEAVENLIES
(The Epistle to the Ephesians)
Harry Foster
7. CONFLICT IN THE HEAVENLIES (6:10-20)
OUR final study brings us to the end of Paul's Letter and confronts us with the sombre fact that life in the heavenlies involves a constant battle with the forces of evil. Death is the last enemy and when we leave this world there will be no more warfare. At the Coming of Christ -- and not till then -- this earth will see the fulfilment of the Bible promises of Christ's reign of peace. Then -- and not till then -- the nations will beat their swords into ploughshares, their spears into pruning hooks, and not train for war any more (Isaiah 2:4). Meanwhile wars will go on in the seen world. What we are concerned with, however, is the realm of the unseen and there we find ourselves, with Daniel, in a great warfare. "The thing is true" (Daniel 10:1).
Man's day is an evil day and in it the Christian must learn to stand and fight. The hosts of darkness will fight on till the last, even though for them final defeat is inevitable. Paul did not have to argue about the reality of evil spirits. There was no need for that where the Ephesians were concerned, for their experience in the heavenly places had brought them into violent clashes with spiritual hosts of wickedness. We do not need to concern ourselves with any detailed consideration of specific principalities and powers, though no doubt they are busily opposing us. Rather does the Word of God suggest that we concentrate our thoughts on the ruler of that dark kingdom, even while we readily accept that it is impossible for Satan to give each of us his personal attention. Paul draws our attention to the embodiment of all evil, "the prince of the power of the air" (2:2), the Devil (6:11), "the evil one" (6:16), reminding us that he is not only a cruel but also a cunning foe who must be reckoned with at all times. We will be well advised to think in these Scriptural terms rather than to be thinking and talking of demons, though these are, of course, very real. Satan, however, is the master-mind of all evil, though he has many agents.
As to his human agents, we are specifically advised that our real struggle is not with them. As to the unseen powers, they are being permitted to exercise their might and their cunning until Christ rises up to banish them for ever. This is not because He cannot deal with them now, but because He can make use of them to train His redeemed church for its eternal destiny of sharing in Christ's reign. The verses we are considering are not merely advising us how we can be preserved from evil, though they are that. The main thrust of the passage, however, concerns the Church's task to overcome the devil by the blood of the Lamb, by the word of their testimony and by not loving their lives even unto death (Revelation 12:11).
We are to be aware of Satan's scheming. If God's will for His people means blessings, enlightenment, power, purity, unity and humility, as the earlier chapters of this Letter declare, then Satan's purpose will focus itself on the negatives and opposites of these spiritual realities, minimising them and contradicting them whenever and wherever he can. When Paul claimed "not to be ignorant of his devices" (2 Corinthians 2:11) he was dealing with the matter of love among the brethren and the advantage which Satan seeks to gain over God's people by breakdowns in relationships. There have never lacked differences among all of God's true people, differences often caused by the over-stressing of some Scriptures to the detriment of others. In some local situations, it may appear to require the wisdom of a Solomon to resolve the problems, but many of them would be minimised or even disappear if God's people remained more aware of Satan's wily interest in provoking or sustaining them.
In the earlier part of this Letter we have been urged and encouraged to walk. Now we are told that we must stand. This does not mean that we are to lessen our activities, nor that we are now [17/18] to go over to the defensive, but rather that we must be resolute and unyielding in this battle for the will of God which is a further feature of life in the heavenlies. We are to be resolute. And above all we are to be resolute in the matter of prayer. We kneel to worship God in glad submission to Him, but we must stand in firm opposition to whatever contests His will. And so fierce is the assault that the command to stand is repeated four times over.
In our stand for God we are offered a double provision by our Lord; that of inward strength and that of adequate weaponry, "the whole armour of God". In this passage there are allusions to the need for constant watchfulness and also promises of certain victory in every phase of our Christian life and witness but, unless I am mistaken, the main thrust here concerns the warfare of prayer. I am not thinking just of using prayer as a weapon, though Bunyan described all prayer as the final article of God's weaponry. No. I feel that prayer is itself the battlefield, and that the passage under consideration is closely concerned with the truth that practical victories in the realm of the seen are decided by spiritual prevailing in the sphere of the unseen -- the heavenly places.
This is a principle which was laid down at the time of the first conflict of God's redeemed people, when the issue was decided by the uplifted hands of Moses as he stood on a mountain. I doubt very much whether Joshua, in the heat of the battle, had much leisure to check on what Moses was doing. He did not need to do so, for those hands were uplifted not for his encouragement, but were reaching towards the throne in heaven in the sustained faith that power belongs to God (Exodus 17:8-16). Joshua led the fighting, but the activities of Moses became the effective cause of total victory.
This incident provides a partial reference to the exalted Christ in His great work as Intercessor, but the mountain-top figure in Exodus can only be a partial type for, unlike Moses, our ascended Lord does not tire and certainly does not depend upon the assistance of an Aaron or a Hur. We therefore cannot press the typology beyond its main emphasis, and that is precisely what Ephesians 6:12 has to say to us, that is, that the earthly activities of the Church depend for their success on the work of intercession. In this case, the Ephesians were to intercede for the front-line soldier Paul, that he might be made and kept bold by their prayer support.
Prayer has various features. Worship is supreme; petition is reasonably common among Christians; the intercessory prayer which releases divine power and resists evil in a given situation, is all too rare. A friend of his once told me that Dr. F. B. Meyer, towards the end of his long life, had confided to him that the greatest need among God's people is the re-discovery of the importance of united intercessory prayer. Dr. Campbell Morgan pointed out that Christ's declaration that the gates of Hades would not prevail against His Church was not a promise of sure defence so much as a promise of offensive breakthroughs by the Church into the entrenched fortifications of evil for the release of captive souls.
In the book of the Acts we have only a few direct instances of victory in the spiritual conflict as a result of the Church's prayer, but these few are quite significant. The signs and wonders done by individual apostles are outshone by these proofs of the power of prayer. The first occurrence, described in 4:23-41 is notable for its amazing unity, its Scriptural basis and for its remarkable effectiveness. Later on we have the story, based on the well-known verse: "But prayer was made earnestly of the Church unto God for him" (12:5). When chains fall off and great irons gates open of their own accord, when tyrants are struck down in disgrace and the Word of God grows and is multiplied (vv.23-24), then we can gauge the significance of this wrestling with principalities and powers in the heavenlies.
It is surely legitimate to suggest that the same truth is confirmed by what happened in the Philippian prison (16:26). We know that in the dungeon Paul and Silas were praying, but we must presume that their prayers were complemented -- and perhaps even provoked -- by earnest intercessory prayer on the part of Luke and others in Lydia's house. The two apostles were hardly in a position to note that the time of their release was at midnight, but Luke was well able to record that fact if the earthquake came while he was praying. [18/19]
Later on in Caesarea we know that this same Luke and the local believers, though they disagreed with Paul's proposed visit to Jerusalem, sent him off with their united prayer, "The will of the Lord be done" (21:14). This was no shrugging of the shoulders in pious resignation. It was, I believe, the opening movement of a sustained appeal to heaven which cooperated with God as He preserved His servant in the terrific hazards in Jerusalem and finally resulted in Paul's safe return to Caesarea as a protected prisoner.
What a strenuous task all prayer is! This is particularly the case when we have to battle through. Most of us know what it is to be ready to clutch at any excuse for avoiding prayer times, and often the only saving factor is that our church prayer meeting is on a fixed day at a fixed time, and this helps to keep us up to it. However even when we have met for that very purpose, we not infrequently find it hard to open our mouths and verbalise our petitions. Furthermore, it is all too easy to set out to pray for others and then to turn in upon ourselves so that those praying begin to ask that 'we' may be this or 'we' may do that, instead of persevering in our intended task. This kind of self-centred praying may sound pious; it may be well-intentioned; but it may also mean that we have been tricked into being deflected from the real task in hand. What we need to do is to pray, not to ask that we may be able to pray, or even more worthy to pray.
The truth is that we are no match for the Evil One in our own strength and wisdom. That is why God's first provision for the spiritual warrior is the inward strength of the Holy Spirit. The call to be strong does not suggest that we are to try to feel strong but rather to move forward counting on the Spirit's aid as we do so. In any case when we try to handle matters in some imagined strength that we think we have, we usually fail. This conflict is not a matter of flesh and blood, whether from one side or the other. Spiritual foes must be met by spiritual energy.
And this is precisely what we are exhorted to make use of. The force of the command is that we should be 'made powerful' (RV margin) and it is based on Paul's prayer "that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man" (3:16). It has been pointed out that the three words used for power in verse 10 are the same three which the apostle had used in 1:19, when describing the power, strength and might of Christ's resurrection. Before or when we take up the divine armour, we must be sure to appropriate the Spirit's energy. After all human weakness need be no handicap; the Holy Spirit is always eager to give us His help. Human strength, however, can be a handicap if it robs us of simple dependence on the Lord. I never cease to marvel at Paul's confession that he did not know how to pray as he should (Romans 8:26). If such a spiritual giant felt like that, what hope is there for little people like us? Happily Paul's confession is followed by one of his great 'buts' -- "But the Spirit ...". How grateful we must be that in this matter of prayer, as also in many other activities, the Holy Spirit gives personal and timely assistance to us in our weaknesses.
So we come to the second of the two provisions made for us, namely, the whole armour of God. I do not propose to comment here on the individual pieces of equipment specified. So much has been written about these that I cannot presume to add any more, only pointing out that the imagery makes reference not just to the various parts of the soldiers' body, but also to such spiritual realities as truth, righteousness, peace, faith and salvation. These matter very much when we pray. But not only then. It is not that we must begin to think with concern about such matters only when we pray, as if putting on special gear to make us more efficient in prayer. We need them all the time, for effective prayer must have the backing of holy living. It may be, though, that drawing near to God in this way, we are made aware of our failures and lacks, so we must deal with ourselves before we can work with God. And please note that while we are told to put on this armour, we are never told that we may take it off.
The form of our prayers does not matter. Phraseology is nothing. To talk of 'pleading the blood' and any such specialised praying technique is beside the point. What is of supreme importance is that every part of our beings, body, heart, feet and head should be right with God, functioning according to the gospel of salvation and covered by active faith. The sword which comes out of the mouth must consist not of merely [19/20] natural ideas or emotions but must be in tune with the Word of God as prompted by the Holy Spirit.
We are to pray in the Spirit. Wrongly interpreted this rule could paralyse our prayer life, for we could be overwhelmed by a sense of personal weakness or unworthiness. The whole point of the armour, however, is to deliver us from such fears, for it assures us that Christ atones for all our faults and answers for all our deficiencies. The help of the Spirit has nothing to do with our feelings, nor does it permit us to abdicate our personal responsibility; it simply encourages us to get going in faith and simple reliance on Him, living in the good of Christ's redeeming work.
Our final word must be on the matter of love, for that is how the Letter concludes: "Grace with all who love our Lord Jesus Christ with an undying love." If this Letter was really addressed to the church at Ephesus, then we are justified in comparing it with the later Letter to that same church which the risen Christ sent through His servant John. The sad complaint of this second Letter is that the Ephesians had forsaken their first love (Revelation 2:4). Clearly this was no trivial matter, for the Lord threatened to remove the church altogether if it were not rectified. What had happened? Well might we ask. It seems that after all they had failed to withstand the 'wiles' of the Devil. Was it because they failed in the matter of prayer? With all the armour on they were told to pray "for all saints" (6:18). To neglect to pray at all is unthinkable and mercifully rare. To limit one's prayers to the selective, limited sphere of our own interests is quite usual. But it is not enough! We must pray for all. That does not mean vague, general prayers which have no special focus, but includes earnest prayer for those whom we do not feel deserve to be prayed for.
The Ephesians were originally commended for their love "toward all the saints" (1:15). Their destiny was to comprehend the love of Christ "with all the saints" (3:18). That was a feature of their first love. It was to be expressed in persevering prayer "for all the saints". Love is not just a matter of words. Nevertheless, the sure way of proving the reality of our love is by constructive prayer. There are saints with whom we cannot agree. There are saints of whom we disapprove and might even wish to disown. Let us do a minimum of discussing and a maximum of praying where they are concerned.
Those in the heavenly places are in a battle. And a feature of the battle -- so I find -- is to persevere in prayer, not only for our friends but also for those who are true Christians and yet disappoint or even offend us. That is part of our first love and that will contribute to spiritual victory.
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