Ephesians Chapter 6

Protection from Evil Spirits

Read Ephesians 6:10-11

• The beginning of chapter 6 is in Chapter 5B
• Paul might be drawing from Isaiah 11:5, 49:2-3 and 59:17 when talking about putting on the armor of God.
  • Towards the end of a speech or other persuasive works military generals would speak like this to prepare soldiers psychologically for what they were about to endure. They would incorporate a list of virtues like what Paul is doing here. NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible    
• Paul transitions from telling Christians how they are to act whether a husband, wife, parent, child, slave, or master to encouraging them to be strong through the power of the Lord. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead. Refer to Ephesians 1:19-20.  
• The full armor of God could be read like this, the full armor BY God. The armor is given to Christians from God to help them. In the case of the Ephesians, it is to protect them from the forces of evil spirits reigning in that day. These powers do not apply to us today because we are in the new heavens and new earth

Read Ephesians 6:12-13

• Vs.12 – rulers, authorities and the cosmic powers over this present darkness is referencing the Sprits and demons of the Unseen Realm. This is not talking about earthly rulers or authorities, but the Spiritual beings that were ruling over the Gentile nations. Reflect on Psalm 82 and Deut. 32: 8-9  
• Paul fully understood the Spiritual powers that were at work trying to stop the spread of Christianity. 1 Corinthians 2:6, Ephesians 2:2 and Ephesians 3:10
  • Stand against the schemes of the devil. This stand firm or stand against is a military term for holding a position.
• Vs. 13 – Take up what God has given you through the Holy Spirit to withstand the war that is about to begin in Heaven and on Earth. Preterism and the Beast Who Rises Out of the Earth
• The ESV in vs. 24 starts with Now rather than “But”. It functions the same. Making the contrast that Christ is the savior and is superior to the husband, but the submission is the same. Wives submit to your husbands just as the church submits to Christ.

Read Ephesians 6:14-20

• Each piece of armor coming with a divine or spiritual gift to withstand the evil that is coming for the Christians in the first century.
  • Isa. 59:17 the God of Israel, displeased because no one has shown themselves willing to stand up for justice, arms Himself for the defense of the cause of truth. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) pg. 406
    • Now Paul is telling the Christians it is their time to stand up and with the Holy Spirit they will be successful.
• Vs. 17 – The only weapon of attack is the sword. Paul says the “Sword of the Spirit”. Isa. 11:4 says the prince of the house of David, “he shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked”.  This is also depicted in Revelation 19:15.
  • The sword here is not to smite the earth, but to repel the Spiritual forces with the “sword of the Spirit”.
• Vs. 18-20 – Praying for all Saints in the body of Christ as they all go through this dark time. As the “this age” comes to end to usher in the “new age” after 70 A.D.
  • The Christian/Messianic Age has no end.
  • Already, but not yet.  
  • “Paul says that he is an ambassador—and you know that an ambassador is a diplomat, and they’re granted diplomatic immunity, they’re not allowed to be arrested, they are not allowed to be imprisoned. This is the paradox here; in fact in the Greek it’s a title given to the Legate of the Emperor—an ambassador and diplomat of the Roman Emperor, he’s using these words! They’re not allowed to be imprisoned, they’re not allowed to be harmed—but the irony is that the great ambassador of the King of the universe is in chains! There seems to be a bit of a play on words on that word “chained,” because an ambassador in those days would have worn a big gold chain, and I believe Paul is saying: “And look at the chain I have.” – David B. Curtis commentary on Ephesians

Read Ephesians 6:21-24

• Tychicus was with Paul and was trusted with the letters to Colossae and surrounding cities in the Lycus Valley which would include Ephesus. See my study on Colossians 4:7. The passage is almost word for word.

 The closing is very similar to Colossians and one more reason why scholars do not believe this was an Epistle specifically for the Christians in Ephesus and more broadly a letter written for the brothers and sisters in the Lycus Valley region. The Epistles to the Colossians, to Philemon, and to the Ephesians (The New International Commentary on the New Testament) pg. 414