Paul has been alluding to spiritual warfare and an unseen reality since early in the epistle, all leading up to this final section when he calls on the Ephesians (and us) to gird themselves for the struggle that they have ahead of them.
First, he instructs them to be “strong in the Lord.” This is much what he says he prays for the Ephesians:
…that according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
Ephesians 3:16-19
This is what strength in the Lord looks like.
Paul is speaking into a community that had seen up close the way spiritual darkness could impact their community. In Acts 19, we see the story of the Sons of Sceva, ineffectually trying to cast out demons but in the process demonstrating the power held by those who are truly “strong in the Lord” and inspiring a mass turn away from occultism in Ephesus.
After being strong, we are called to stand firm, like an army resisting a charge. This term “stand” is used multiple times in this passage, and is in many ways the main theme.
Specifically, we are to stand against the “schemes of the devil,” which raises the question of “who exactly is the devil, who is our enemy?” The Hebrew terms for Satan intermingle seemingly incongruous concepts like serpents and seraphim and light and deception. The concept is not entirely clear, but what’s clear is that he is alluring despite being fundamentally opposed to God and His people.
We do see his strategies, though – deception, disunity, pushing us away from Christ and from each other. Psalm 1 shows the movement he seeks, from standing to sitting: walking in the counsel of the wicked, standing in the way of sinners, sitting in the seat of scoffers.
This means our response must be the reverse of that – coming closer to Christ, coming closer to each other. Our response is not mystical or esoteric, but the everyday Christian living that we know we must do, the prayer and fellowship and seeking of Christ’s will.
Spurgeon said, “The howling of the devil may tend to drive us nearer to Christ, may
teach us our own weakness, may keep us upon our own watchtower, and be made the means of preservation from other ills.”
Paul uses a wide variety of terms to describe the various forces of darkness: thrones, dominions, world-powers and so forth. There does seem to be some kind of relationship to geographic area, which comports with some of Daniel’s visions as well. What this means to us is not entirely clear – please don’t go on the internet to try to figure out which demonic kingdom you live in – but it does mean we should be zealous about making the places we control to be places of peace, live and prayer.
We can do this by doing as Paul instructs, to put on the armor of God and keeping in mind what Paul tells us in Romans 8:
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Romans 8:38-39
We can also look to the promises made to those who overcome in the letters to the churches in Revelation – each one promised something to those who overcome. From the tree of life to hidden manna, to authority over the nations to sitting with the father. The specifics of what all this means is unclear, but it’s certainly exciting.
When feeling oppressed or attacked spiritually, we should be vocal – these “authorities” are not omniscient. We should sing, as called to in the Psalms and elsewhere. We should pray, and immerse ourselves in scripture.
– Sermon Notes, Bart Hodgson, Seed Church, Lynnwood WA, February 28, 2021