Principalities and Powers:
What are these evil forces that are constantly working behind the scenes to seduce, deceive, control and manipulate the flesh and the mind?
Paul continues, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."
Paul tells us there are four classifications of demon spirits. He says there are (1) "principalities," (2) "powers," (3) "rulers of the darkness of this world," and (4) "spiritual wickedness in high places."
Before we deal with each of these individually, first something else must be noted. Notice Paul mentions the word "against" in Ephesians 6:12 four times in connection with the devil! Why is this important? Because grammatically, he could have used the word "against" once in reference to all four of these things. But rather than do this, he chose to repeat the word "against" again, again, again and again.
When the truth is repeated in scripture like this, it is always for the sake of emphasis. For instance, in John, chapters fourteen, fifteen and sixteen, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as "the Comforter" four times. This clearly means that the Lord Jesus Christ was trying to drive a very important truth into our hearts about the Holy Spirit.
So when God is dealing with truth that is of paramount importance, or when God calls an extremely important Biblical character, He always repeats Himself. This, of course, leads us back to Ephesians 6:12 where the Holy Spirit repeats the word "against" four times within the context of one verse! This means the Holy Spirit is telling us something very, very, very important.
The word "against" used four times in this verse, is taken from the word pros. The word pros always depicts a "forward position" or a face to face encounter. This means at some point in our experience, we will come into direct contact with evil forces. The word pros in Ephesians 6:12 could be translated,,,,"face to face with principalities, eyeball to eyeball with powers, head on with rulers of the darkness of this world, and shoulder to shoulder with spiritual wickedness in high places."
The Rank and File of the Devil:
All serious scholars agree that the language of Ephesian 6:12 is military language. It seems evident that Paul had received a revelation of how Satan's kingdom has been aligned militarily.
At the very top of Satan's dark domain, there is a group of demon spirits whom Paul calles "principalities." The word "principality" is taken from the word arxhas (arch-as), an old word that is used symbolically to denote "ancient, ancient times." Furthermore, it is also used to depict individuals who "hold the highest and loftiest position of rank and authority."
Then Paul continues to mention "powers" as those evil forces that are second in command in Satan's dark dominion. The word "powers" is taken from the word exousia (ex-ou-sia), and it denotes "delegated authority."
This tells us that there is a lower ranking group of demon spirits who have received "delegated authority" from Satan to do whatever they want to do, wherever they desire to do it. The second group of demon spirits have "delegated authority" to carry out all manner of evil and wickedness.
Next Paul mentions "the rulers of the darkness of this world." What an amazing word this is! It is taken from the word kosmokrateros (kos-mo-kra-te-ros), and is a compound of the words kosmos and kratos. The word denotes "order" or "arrangement," while the word kratos has to do with "raw power."
Why did the ancient Greeks use the word kosmokrateros to depict certain aspects of the military? Because the military was filled with young men who had a lot of natural ability--raw power, if you will. In order for that raw power to be effective, it had to be harnessed and organized (kosmos). Thus, young soldiers with abounding energy were taught to be submitted, disciplined, ordered and perfectly arranged. This is the picture of rank and file. In the end, all of those men, with all of that raw ability, were turned into a massive force.
Finally, Paul mentions "spiritual wickedness in high places." The word "wickedness" is taken from the word poneros (po-ne-ros), and it is used to depict something that is "bad," "vile," malevolent," "vicious," "impious," or "malignant." It is important that Paul would save this word unto; the end of this verse. By saving this phrase until last, he is telling us the ultimate aim of Satan's dark domain: these spirits are sent forth from the spirit realm to afflict humanity in a "bad, vile, malevolent, vicious, impious and malignant" way."
Yes, we do have more authority than the devil has, and we do have more power than the devil has, and we do have the Greater One living in us. We must put on the whole armour of God!!
Just for Today:shades2: