speaks of; just as in the heavenly places there are “thrones and dominions, principalities
and powers.” (Col. i. 16.)
Ver. 13. “Wherefore,” saith he, “take up the whole armor of God, that ye may be able
to withstand in the evil day, and, having done all, to stand.”
By “evil day” he means the present life,468 and calls it too “this present evil world” (Gal.
i. 4.), from the evils which are done in it. It is as much as to say, Always be armed. And again,
“having done all,” saith he; that is, both passions, and vile lusts, and all things else that
trouble us. He speaks not merely of doing the deed, but of completing it,469 so as not only
to slay, but to stand also after we have slain. For many who have gained this victory, have
fallen again. “Having done,” saith he, “all”; not having done one, but not the other. For even
after the victory, we must stand. An enemy may be struck, but things that are struck revive
again if we do not stand. But if after having fallen they rise up again, so long as we stand,
they are fallen. So long as we waver not, the adversary rises not again.
“Let us put on the whole armor of God.” Seest thou how he banishes all fear? For if it
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be possible “to do all, and to stand,” his describing in detail the power of the enemy does
not create cowardice and fear, but it shakes off indolence. “That ye may be able,” he saith,
“to withstand in the evil day.” And he further gives them encouragement too from the time;
the time, he seems to say, is short;470 so that ye must needs stand; faint not when the slaughter
is achieved.
Moral. If then it is a warfare, if such are the forces arrayed against us, if “the principalities”
are incorporeal, if they are “rulers of the world,” if they are “the spiritual hosts of wickedness,”
how, tell me, canst thou live in self-indulgence? How canst thou be dissolute? How if we
are unarmed, shall we be able to overcome? These words let every one repeat to himself
every day, whenever he is under the influence of anger, or of lust, whenever he is aiming,
and all to no profit, after this languid life. Let him hearken to the blessed Paul, saying to
him, “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the
powers.” A harder warfare this than that which is matter of sense, a fiercer conflict. Think
how long time this enemy is wrestling, for what it is that he is fighting, and be more guarded
than ever. “Nay,” a man will say, “but as he is the devil, he ought to have been removed out
of the way, and then all had been saved.”471 These are the pretenses to which some of your
468 [“The use of ἡμέρᾳ, rather than αἰ& 242·νι (Gal. i. 4.) is opposed to the interpretation of Chrysostom. Still
more untenable is the view of Meyer, that Paul is here specifying the day when the last great Satanic outbreak
was to take place. Paul has at heart what he knew was much more present and more constantly impending,
namely, the day of violent temptation.”—Ellicott.—G.A.]
469 Not ἐργασάμενοι, but κατεργασάμενοι.
470 i.e. “but a ‘day.’”
471 [This entire sentence and the preceding one, though attested by three mss. and read by Savile, are wanting
in the text of Field, who has, in their stead, Νῦν οὖν ἦλθε, φησὶν, ἐμοὶ παλαῖσαι, “Now then,” says some one, “he
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Ephesians 6:5-8