Wrestling Against Principalities And Powers

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places." (1)

Paul did not mean that Christians would not have enemies among men, for the church has always suffered at the hands of wicked men. He refers to spirits and powers that are superior to men in intelligence and in evil cunning, to satanic forces arrayed in open rebellion against God and against His faithful followers. The struggle between Christ and Satan is not of an earthly concern only; it is of cosmic significance, embracing the whole universe of God.

All humanity contends with forces that are supernatural in nature. Through the Bible Christians are given an understanding of these forces, and they are assured of spiritual help. All the intelligences of heaven are involved in this warfare. The Holy Spirit, the representative of God, the Father, and Jesus comes down to direct the battle. Our weaknesses may be many, our sins and mistakes grievous; but the grace and strength of God is for all who seek it with contrition. The power of Omnipotence is enlisted in behalf of those who trust in God. "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned... For 'who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct Him?' But we have the mind of Christ." (2)

"The truth and the work of God are unappreciated by a world-loving and compromising Christianity. Not in the ways of ease, of earthly honor or worldly conformity, are the followers of the Master found. They are far in advance, in the paths of toil, and humiliation, and reproach, in the front of the battle against principalities and powers, "against spiritual hosts of wickedness."

Jesus "did not interfere with the authority or administration of those in power. He who was our example kept aloof from earthly governments. Not because He was indifferent to the woes of men, but because the remedy did not lie in merely human and external measures. To be efficient, the cure must reach men individually, and must regenerate the heart.

"Not by the decisions of courts or councils or legislative assemblies, not by the patronage of worldly great men, is the kingdom of Christ established, but by the implanting of Christ's nature in humanity through the work of the Holy Spirit. 'As many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.' (3)" (4)

1. Ephesians 6:12.
2. 1 Corinthians 2:14, 15.
3. John 1:12, 13.
4. The Desire of Ages, pp. 508, 509.