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Ephesians

Ephesianschapter 6

24 verses · BSBEphesians book hub →

Speaks with:Colossians 3×4Philippians 4×2Ephesians 6×21 Thessalonians 5×22 Corinthians 5×2Colossians 4×2

Summary

Chapter summary

Children, obey your parents in the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath. Servants, obedient as to Christ; masters, forbearing threatening. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. Stand therefore, having your loins girt with truth, and the breastplate of righteousness, shod with the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, and prayer. Calvin reads the armor as the Christian's daily dress.

Context

Epistle · Paul — Ephesians overview

  • A. 1–4 Children Obey; Fathers, Don't Provoke
  • B. 5–9 Serving as to the Lord, Not to Men
  • C. 10–20 The Whole Armor of God
  • D. 21–24 Tychicus Will Tell You Everything

The outline

  1. A.Children Obey; Fathers, Don't Provokevv. 1 to 4

    Read vv. 1 to 4 →

  2. B.Serving as to the Lord, Not to Menvv. 5 to 9

    Read vv. 5 to 9 →

  3. C.The Whole Armor of Godvv. 10 to 20

    Read vv. 10 to 20 →

  4. D.Tychicus Will Tell You Everythingvv. 21 to 24

    Read vv. 21 to 24 →

Threads

Each of these runs on past this chapter. The passage you have just read is marked.

In heavenly places

Pattern

Ephesians names the heavenly places five times: blessed there, Christ seated there, believers seated there with him, the principalities schooled there by the church, and the wrestling there against spiritual wickedness.

The five beats are the letter's own map of the unseen realm. The same sphere holds the believer's blessing and the believer's battle, and the seating of chapter 2 comes before the wrestling of chapter 6.

  1. Ephesians 1:3

    Blessed in heavenly places

    Every spiritual blessing is located there, in Christ, before any command is given.

  2. Ephesians 1:20

    Christ seated there

    Raised from the dead and set at God's own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and power.

  3. Ephesians 2:6

    Seated there with him

    Believers are raised up together and made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

  4. Ephesians 3:10

    The principalities taught by the church

    The manifold wisdom of God is made known by the church to the principalities and powers in heavenly places.

  5. Ephesians 6:12 you are here

    The wrestling there

    We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places, the same word as the other four beats.

The world behind this chapter

Ephesians 6
When
Paul's imprisonment, traditionally at Rome · c. AD 60–62 on the traditional dating
Where
Children, slaves and masters, and a suit of armour described by a man chained to a soldier.
Who first heard it
Households in Asia where believing slaves and believing owners sat in the same room.

The history

Slaves are addressed directly, which was itself unusual — moral codes normally spoke about slaves to their owners. Here they are treated as people who can serve Christ in their work and receive from the Lord whatever good they do.

The word to masters is the sharper turn: do the same to them, and stop threatening, because their Master and yours is in heaven and there is no partiality with him. Roman law gave an owner nearly unlimited power over a slave's body; this sentence puts him under judgment for how he used it.

The armour list matches Roman legionary equipment: the wide leather belt that gathered the tunic, the breastplate, the hobnailed marching boots, the large shield, the helmet, and the short stabbing sword. Large shields could be soaked and locked together against fire arrows, which were a real siege weapon.

Paul was living with that equipment in view. He calls himself an ambassador in chains, and Roman custody meant a soldier attached to him hour after hour.

Underneath the imagery is the letter's insistence that the real struggle is not against flesh and blood but against rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers of present darkness — language that landed hard in a province famous for magic and spirit-fear.

What it meant to them

For the first hearers the armour was not a call to attack anyone but to stand. Every piece is defensive except the sword, which is identified as the word of God, and the whole passage ends in prayer at all times in the Spirit.

Paul's own request is telling. Not release, but words — that he may open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel, which is what he was in chains for in the first place.

Sources cited

Every work MannaFest builds on →

The text of this chapter

This page carries no textual note on Ephesians 6. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →

Connections from this chapter

v. 2 · Quoted here

'Honour thy father and mother': Paul explicitly quotes the OT nine verses before the armor passage; the chapter is saturated with OT citation.

Exodus 20:12→

Honor your father and mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the LORD your God is giving you.

public-domain commentaries in agreement; cross-checked against the UBS apparatus

v. 14 · The same writer, elsewhere

Paul's own earlier, shorter armor list ('breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation'): same two Isa 59:17 pieces; the strongest internal control on the reading.

1 Thessalonians 5:8→

But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation.

biblical text (ASV floor)

v. 14 · An object that pictures Christ · An echo of this verse

The armor of God reworks YHWH's own armor (breastplate of righteousness, helmet of salvation) onto the believer; the page's structural anchor. Hays A/V/R/TC/HP/HI/S.

Isaiah 59:17→

He put on righteousness like a breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on His head; He put on garments of vengeance and wrapped Himself in a cloak of zeal.

biblical text

This page draws on Charles Hodge, A Commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary and Michael Heiser, The Unseen Realm.

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