Is Paul telling us to wage war against demonic oppression?

Put on the armour of God (Eph 6:10-20).

Many modern Christians apply this passage to spiritual warfare, often citing it as a way to wage war against demonic oppression or bad situations that one might accredit to the Devil. Is that really the case? Let's examine the context.

In Chap 1 and 2 of Ephesians, Paul established God's master plan of Salvation for the Christians, essentially establishing their inclusion into the Church of Jesus Christ, which was originally meant only for the Jews (Eph 2:19-22).

The inclusion of the Gentile church was termed in Chap 3 as the "Mystery" which was hidden in the ages and now revealed in Jesus Christ that the Gentiles should share of this eternal inheritance, fellow partakers of this wonderful promise through Jesus Christ.

Paul then spent Eph 4:1-6:9 to expound on how these truly converted Christians should live "Worthy of their calling", at which he addressed the following issues:

1. 4:1-6 - Unity of the Spirit
2. 4:7-16 - Exercising the gifts through the unity of the Spirit
3. 4:17-24 - Regeneration through the unity of the Spirit
4. 4:25 - Lying vs Truth
5. 4:26 - Anger vs Sin
6. 4:28 - Stealing vs Giving
7. 4:29 - Unwholesome vs Edifying words
8. 4-30-32 - Consequence of unwholesome words which grieve the Spirit. Believers to be Kind.
9. 5:1-7 - Walk in Purity
10. 5:15-21 - Walk in Wisdom
11. 5:22-6:4 - Responsibility in Family
12. 6:5-9 - Responsibility at Work

With this in mind, one would wonder, what has the whole passage of the Armour of God has to do with Paul's admonishment from 4:1 to 6:6? Why would Paul deviate from admonishing the Ephesians on moral living to "how to fight demonic oppression"? The answer is, he is not.

1. The term "Heavenly places" in 6:12 was also found in 1:3, 1:20, 2:6, 3:10. These references refers to the realm in which Christ, rulers and Principalities, and demons operate in. A picture of what happens in the spiritual realm is also found in Daniel 10 where the "Prince of Persia" is referred as a territorial ruler from the Kingdom of darkness. What aspect of "Spiritual warfare" was Paul trying to address? Are we to apply the Armour of God against Demonic oppression?

2. The spiritual issues in which Paul tried to address in this epistle are i) false teaching (4:14) and ii) Sin (5:11) induced by the Kingdom of darkness.

Therefore the aspect of spiritual warfare in which Paul is referring to (6:11) refers to fighting against dark spiritual influences that introduces false teaching and Sin. By putting on the Armour of God, we are called to be equipped with the of the Word which produces the Belt of Truth, Breastplate of Righteousness, Boots of Peace, Helmet of Salvation, Sword of the Spirit. All these are found from all that Paul expounded from 1:1 to 6:9, citing from Justification, Inclusion of Gentiles to the Church, Sanctification... being filled with the Spirit, we pray in the Spirit and obey his word to walk in faith.

Hence as we consider all that Paul taught in this epistle, let us consider how we can continue to walk out the Belt of Truth with our lives, putting on His Breastplate of Righteousness, that we can wear the Boots of the gospel of Peace that is found in His Helmet of Salvation, as we pray in the Spirit to enable us to live a life that is worthy of our calling.