Not Enemies, Traveling Companions

November 8, 2024

There are a few basic ideas in Ephesians 6:12 which are easily missed. They are important to keep in mind in these times of political upheaval…

Here is one translation: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” — Berean Study Bible

After looking at several different translations and amplifications and the original Greek Interlinear* text, I think that I might have a handle on a version in modern vernacular, that is, everyday talk.

I am a Born Again Bible Believing Christian who is not tied to any particular Denominational Church. Rather, having a personal relationship rather than a religious mindset, I have a certain freedom to listen and to hear and so as to understand. All of this was a mystery to me until I saw the errors of my way and turned and accepted the sovereignty of God in my life.

Be that as it may, here is what I understand from the verseabove:

• We are not fighting against people.
• We are fighting against shadowy moral blindness.
• We are fighting against all the influences which lead to wrong thinking, bad attitudes, and disastrous behaviors.
• The struggle is for hearts and minds in the invisible but the unavoidable world reality in which we are living.

The apostle Paul has put his thoughts in his way of thinking and it is not supposed to be ethereal or mystical, but straightforward and in language people of his day would understand.

Unfortunately, we go to fantasyland, and so we see it instead in a spookier way — especially with his use of the phrase translated as “spiritual realms.” We hear that and immediately take a trip to fantasyland. So, we seem to understand it as some mystical other worldly idea we cannot possibly understand… nor are we meant to…

But God means for us to get the right ideas from the stories recorded and the letters written in the Bible.

All in all, in reality, although Paul was a highly educated man, he is talking “meat and potatoes,” realism. We need to try to read it in that way.

As Christians or people seeking righteousness and justice, we should be keeping these ideas in mind and proceeding on that basis.

* — https://biblehub.com/interlinear/ephesians/6-12.htm