Whole Armour of God
CITY PROFILE—EPHESUS
• Population estimated at 300,000.
• Capital city of the Roman province of Asia, in modern Turkey.
• A leading trade center in Roman Empire.
• Center of the worship of pagan goddess Diana. The temple of Diana was one of the wonders of the ancient world.
• A beautiful city, very sophisticated, wealthy, and pagan.
• Population estimated at 300,000.
• Capital city of the Roman province of Asia, in modern Turkey.
• A leading trade center in Roman Empire.
• Center of the worship of pagan goddess Diana. The temple of Diana was one of the wonders of the ancient world.
• A beautiful city, very sophisticated, wealthy, and pagan
Here in Ephesians Paul emphasizes the heavenly dimension more than in any other letter. After a number of references in the first two chapters, he will refer again to the heavenly realms in 3:10 and 6:12, where he will reveal a remarkable dimension of the church’s mission, one that affects even supernatural beings.
Who is this battle against?
More than just a soldier
Similarly, the OT speaks of the divine armament. The rainbow is originally the bow with which God shoots in the storm and which He then hangs up in the clouds. The original mythical conception is present in weakened form at Gn. 9:13.4 The lightning is His burning arrow, Ps. 7:13; ψ 143:6; Hab. 3:9 ff.
For the Christian this warfare has an eschatological dimension. His wrestling is part of the great final battle which has already begun and is intensifying. His opponents are the devil and demons,6 his reward preservation and deliverance in the judgment. The same figure of speech is used by Paul elsewhere, cf. 1 Th. 5:8; R. 6:13; 13:12.7
Greeven
God wins
an evil, wicked nature—‘wickedness.’ πρὸς τὰ πνευματικὰ τῆς πονηρίας ἐν τοῖς ἐπουρανίοις ‘against those spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly realms’ Eph 6:12. In a number of languages one can speak of ‘a wicked nature’ as ‘one who is bent on doing what is wicked’ or ‘one who habitually does what is wicked.’ For the total expression in Eph 6:12 as a title, see 12.44.
But powers and principalities
The Duck That Thought It Was a Dog
Scientists know that ducks tend to imprint soon after birth. To “imprint” means that they attach themselves to the first thing they see after they hatch, thinking they are “that” thing. This is supposed to work for the duck, since, when they hatch, the first thing they normally see is a mama duck.
This phenomenon backfires, occasionally. Once, for example, a duckling was hatched under the watchful eye of a motherly collie dog. The baby duck took one look at the collie and decided that the dog was its mother. It followed the collie around, ran to it for protection, and slept with it at night. It spent the hot part of the day under the front porch with the collie. When a car pulled into the driveway, along with the dog, the duck would run out from under the front porch quacking viciously, trying to peck the tires.
Some things could not be changed, however. The duck still quacked, enjoyed the water, and flapped its wings. Sometimes it acted like a duck, and sometimes it acted like a dog.
Christians often experience a similar confusion in identity. We have been born into and grown up in a fallen world, so we have learned the ways of the world. We have become like it. When we become a Christian, we are in Christ. We die to the world and are born again, so that, spiritually, we are no longer who we once were (2 Cor. 5:17). Too often, however, we don’t see ourselves correctly. We act like the thing we think we are, rather than what we really are. We believe and try to do the right things; but for the life of us, we cannot get it exactly right. When we least expect it, a car pulls into the driveway of our life; and we explode from underneath the front porch, quacking viciously and pecking at the tires.
Who are we? We aren’t supposed to do that. We’re supposed to be swimming around in clear blue lakes, bobbing for seaweed, preening our feathers, and laying eggs—not quacking at cars or harassing the cat.