For we wrestle not against flesh and blood
The Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, and some copies, read
"you", instead of "we". This is a reason why saints should be
strong in the Lord, and why they should put on the whole armour
of God, and prepare for battle, since their enemies are such as
here described: not "flesh and blood"; frail mortal men, such as
were wrestled against in the Olympic games, to which the apostle
alludes. For this wrestling, as Philo the Jew says F5,
concerning Jacob's wrestling, is not of the body, but of the
soul; see ( Matthew
16:17 ) ( Galatians
1:16 ) ; and the meaning is, not with men only, for otherwise
the saints have a conflict with men; with profane men, and
wrestle against them, by bearing a testimony against their
enormities, and by patiently enduring their reproaches, and
conquer them by a constant adherence to Christ, and an exercise
of faith upon him, which gets the victory over the world; and
with heretical men, and maintain a conflict with them, by
watching and observing the first appearance of their errors and
heresies, and declaring against them, and by using Scripture
arguments to confute them, and by rejecting the stubborn and
incorrigible from church communion: yet they wrestle not against
these only,
but against principalities, against powers;
by whom are meant not civil magistrates, or the Roman governors,
though these are sometimes so called, ( Titus 3:1 ) , and may be
said to be the rulers of the darkness of this world, or of the
dark Heathen world, and were in high places, and were of wicked
and malicious spirits, against the people of Christ; yet these
cannot be opposed to flesh and blood, or to men, since they were
such themselves; and though they were in high, yet not in
heavenly places; and the connection with the preceding verse
shows the contrary, the enemy being the devil, and the armour
spiritual; wherefore the devils are here designed, who are
described from their power, rule, and government, (See Gill on
Ephesians 1:21), both in this clause, and in the next:
and against the rulers of the darkness of this
world;
that is, over wicked men in it, who are in a state of darkness
itself; and so Satan is called the prince, and god of the world,
( John
12:31 ) ( 2
Corinthians 4:4 ) . The Jews use this very word, the apostle
does here, of the angel of death; who is called darkness
F6; and the devil is called by them,
(Kvwx lv rv) , "the prince
of darkness" F7; and mention is made by them of
(amle ykwvx) , "the
darkness of the world" F8; from whom the apostle seems to have
taken these phrases, as being in common use among the Jews; who
also use it of civil governors F9, and render it, as here, "the
rulers of the world", and say it signifies monarchs, such as rule
from one end of the world to the other F11: some
copies, and the Ethiopic version, leave out the phrase, of this
world. It follows,
against spiritual wickedness in high places;
or wicked spirits, as the devils are, unclean, proud, lying,
deceitful, and malicious; who may be said to be in "high" or
"heavenly places"; not in places super celestial, or in the
highest heavens, in the third heaven, where God, angels, and
saints are; but in the aerial heavens, where the power or posse
of devils reside, and where they are above us, over our heads,
overlooking us, and watching every advantage against us; and
therefore we should have on our armour, and be in a readiness to
engage them; and so the Syriac and Ethiopic versions render it,
"under", or "beneath heaven"; and the Arabic version, "in the
air".