“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this darkness, against evil, spiritual forces in the heavens.” (Ephesians 6:12 CSB)
Devotional
So much of our frustration gets aimed at the wrong target.
The difficult coworker. The family member who keeps bringing up the same old wound. The friend whose words landed wrong at exactly the wrong moment. It’s natural to treat these people as the actual problem, the source of the struggle. Paul draws a different line entirely. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, authorities, cosmic powers of darkness, evil spiritual forces. The real battle is happening somewhere our eyes don’t naturally look.
This doesn’t mean people never do genuinely hurtful things, or that hard conversations aren’t sometimes necessary. It means that when we treat a person as the enemy, we’re often misdiagnosing what’s actually going on. Behind a lot of conflict, division, and cruelty sits something darker and more organized than one person’s bad mood or poor character. Paul wants the Ephesians to see that clearly, so they stop wasting their energy fighting each other and start recognizing the actual battlefield.
There’s something freeing in this, even though it’s uncomfortable to think about spiritual forces at all. If the person across from you isn’t ultimately your enemy, you’re released from needing to defeat them. You can be honest, even firm, without needing to crush them, because winning against a person was never actually the goal in the first place. The real fight calls for something different: prayer, truth, righteousness, faith, the armour Paul describes just a few verses later.
Next time someone becomes the target of your frustration, this verse is worth returning to. The struggle underneath it is bigger and stranger than the person standing in front of you, and it’s not one you’re meant to fight with anger aimed at them.
Reflection
I default to treating difficult people as my actual enemy more often than I’d like to admit. I want to remember what Paul says here and redirect that energy toward the real battle instead.
Prayer
Father, help us see past the people in front of us to the real spiritual battle behind our conflicts. Equip us for that fight instead of wasting our strength on each other. Amen.