For we wrestle 171 171 “ Πάλη is properly a gymnastic term but the Apostle often unites military with agonistic metaphors and here the agonistic is not less suitable than the military. And it is with great justice, that a state of persecution is compared with it since many are the arts, arising from the terrors of worldly evil on the one hand, and the natural love which men have to life, liberty, plenty, and the pleasures of life, on the other, that the devil makes use of to circumvent and foil them.” - Chandler. And it is certain that persons who understand this exercise have many fetches, and turns, and changes of posture, which they make use of to supplant and trip up their adversaries. 2., page 638,) that wrestling was the most artful and subtle of all the ancient games, and that the name of it ( πάλη) was derived from a word, which signifies to throw a man down by deceit and craft. To quicken our vigilance, he reminds us that we must not only engage in open warfare, but that we have a crafty and insidious foe to encounter, who frequently lies in ambush for such is the import of the apostle’s phrase, THE WILES 170 170 “Plutarch tells us, (Symp. It remains for us to apply them to use, and not leave them hanging on the wall. The Lord offers to us arms for repelling every kind of attack. We ought to be prepared on all sides, so as to want nothing. To correct this security, or, we should rather say, this indolence, Paul borrows a comparison from the military art, and bids us put on the whole armor of God. But we are almost all chargeable with carelessness and hesitation in using the offered grace just as if a soldier, about to meet the enemy, should take his helmet, and neglect his shield. God has furnished us with various defensive weapons, provided we do not indolently refuse what is offered. He exhorts them to be courageous, but at the same time reminds them to ask from God a supply of their own deficiencies, and promises that, in answer to their prayers, the power of God will be displayed.ġ1. But it will be asked, What purpose did it serve to enjoin the Ephesians to be strong in the Lord’s mighty power, which they could not of themselves accomplish? I answer, there are two clauses here which must be considered. If the Lord aids us by his mighty power, we have no reason to shrink from the combat. As if he had said, “‘You have no right to reply, that you have not the ability for all that I require of you is, be strong in the Lord.” To explain his meaning more fully, he adds, in the power of his might, which tends greatly to increase our confidence, particularly as it shews the remarkable assistance which God usually bestows upon believers. But when our weakness is considered, an exhortation like this would have no effect, unless the Lord were present, and stretched out his hand to render assistance, or rather, unless he supplied us with all the power. Resuming his general exhortations, he again enjoins them to be strong, - to summon up courage and vigor for there is always much to enfeeble us, and we are ill fitted to resist.
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