Christians are called to be soldiers and must engage in spiritual warfare. We have to fight for every inch of heavenly ground. What the Canaanites were to Israel, the wicked spirits in the heavenlies are to us. We are not called to fight for eternal life; we have that as God’s free gift, before we begin. We are not called to fight for salvation; we are saved before we enter upon the conflict. It is most needful to know what it is that we have to fight for and whom we are to fight with. The object for which we fight is to make good, maintain and carry out practically our heavenly position and character in the circumstances of daily life. And as our spiritual foes during this present time are permitted to occupy the heavenlies, “we wrestle not against flesh and blood” — as Israel had to do in Canaan — “but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in the heavenlies.”
In Ephesians 6 a Christian warrior is seen putting on his armor. The inward man is to be governed by “truth,” the outward conduct characterized by real, practical “righteousness,” the moral habits and ways marked by the sweet “peace” of the gospel, the whole man covered by the impenetrable shield of “faith,” the seat of the understanding guarded by the full assurance of “salvation,” and the heart continually sustained and strengthened by persevering prayer and supplication and led forth in earnest intercession for all saints.
C. H. Mackintosh, adapted