‘Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.'
The armour does not fall on us, we have to put it on. We cannot defeat the enemy by our own efforts but we can put on the armour, the armour of truth, of righteousness, of faith, of His word, and of assurance of salvation. And we need that armour, for we have to deal with a wily enemy who will attack at every point in all manner of ways. He will come as a roaring lion (1 Peter 5:8), he will come as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). He will try to frighten us into betrayal of Christ as he frightened Peter; he will try to lure us into false teaching through deceptive teachers; and into false ideas as he did the Master Himself, appearing to offer a quick and easy way to all we desire. He will try to make the bad look good, and the good appear not worth the effort. He will seek to undermine our faith, and to persuade us to compromise the best for the good. And sometimes he will appear to have succeeded.
Satan desired to have Peter so that he could sift him as wheat (Luke 22:31), and Peter, terrified, denied his Lord. But he had behind him the strength of the Lord, and he was restored and overcame. We too may stumble, but if we put on the armour of God we too will finally prevail.
‘That you may be able to stand.' This does not refer to fleshly temptations. From those we have to flee (1 Timothy 6:11; 2 Timothy 2:22). (Do not attempt to fight them, your hope lies in flight. You must avoid them and keep away from them). But this refers to the frontal assaults of the Evil One, his attempts to mislead and misdirect, his attempts to weaken our faith or attack us head on, or to put insidious thoughts into our minds. Against these we have to stand in the armour of God.
‘The wiles of the Devil.' We are against a tricky foe and he knows every dirty move. He is a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). He is the perpetrator of false teaching (Ephesians 4:14). He uses the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches and the desire for other things to choke the word that comes to us (Mark 4:19). He is the arch Deceiver (Revelation 12:9). We have no hope on our own. Sometimes he will attack with fiery darts, inflicting wounds of doubt and fear, even with the unwitting help of our loved ones and friends and those we trust the most. Only Jesus is totally reliable. Then we will need the shield of faith. At others he will seek to whisper in our minds, insidious thoughts, evil thoughts, disturbing thoughts, even using self-satisfaction and overmuch holiness to bring about our downfall, and we will need the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit. At others he will tempt us openly with all that is most desirable, and our only hope will be a strategic retreat. But attack us he will, and his attack will be subtle and clever, tailored to our strengths and weaknesses.
‘For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.' These are our enemies, the evil hosts of wickedness under their evil master. And our wrestling is in heavenly places, demonstrating our present access to that sphere. It is the spiritual world into which we enter with Christ when we become His. And there we will have our major battles. And there we will need the protection of God's armour.
‘Our wrestling.' The battle will often be very personal, individual and hand to hand. But the wrestling in mind is that of the soldier as he grapples, fully armed, with his opponent, not that of the wrestler in a sporting contest. This is no sport, this is war.
‘Not against flesh and blood.' What we may see may be human beings who are against us, and we may be very conscious of them. But our fight is not really with them. They are only the tools. The real battle is with spiritual forces of wickedness.
‘The principalities, the powers.' They were originally His creation (Colossians 1:16) until they rebelled. And now they are defeated foes and fighting a violent rearguard action (Colossians 2:15). They are unable to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:38), and as they fight they are filled with amazement at what God is doing for His people (Ephesians 3:10). But they still fight on for there is nothing left for them but final doom.
‘The world-rulers of this darkness.' Kosmokratores - used of world-rulers such as Nebuchadnezzar and one of the adulatory titles for the Roman Emperor. But here it refers to the powers that lie behind them and work through them. Those who run the world in darkness and keep it in darkness, by blinding men's minds, rendering them bereft of the light that shines out from God (2 Corinthians 4:4).
‘The spiritual forces of wickedness in heavenly places.' While we were under the power of darkness (Colossians 1:13; Colossians 1:13) we were left untroubled, except to be drawn in into his schemes (Ephesians 2:2), but now we have entered the heavenly places with Christ, the spiritual realm, and live in the light, we are subject to the attacks of spiritual forces of wickedness under the Prince of the power of the air (the prince of a kingdom not of this world and yet with no right in the heavenly sphere).
So what we are to face is frightening. But God has provided the means by which we can go forward without fear, the armour of God. As we go forward in His mighty strength, His mighty armour will provide all the protection that we need.