The Children of God, who believe that salvation from sin is conditioned solely on the work and person of Jesus Christ alone ( 1 Corinthians 2:2), according to Ephesians 6, wrestle not against flesh and blood; but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world-rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual (powers) of evil in the heavenly (realms). Matthew 1:21-23, Romans 1:16-17, Romans 3:9-31, Romans 4:3-8
In other words, the children of God wrestle against wicked spirits. The book of Ephesians is addressed to the assembly of believers at Ephesus; not unbelievers, in whom the spirit of disobedience works within.
The Assembly of God is hated by the world, wicked spirits, the children of Satan, the children of disobedience, who have wicked spirits working in them.
God’s children always strive against the world that hates them because they are not of the world and its frame of reference; calling evil good and good evil.
Isaiah 5:20-22
Woe to those who say to evil, good; and to good, evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!
Woe to those wise in their own eyes, and discerning in their own sight!
The children of Satan, ( John 8:44) the natural unregenerate man ( 1 Corinthians 2:14), a descendant of Adam, doesn’t wrestle with the spirit of disobedience, wicked spirits, because the wicked spirits are working in them.
They love darkness rather than light and think the effectual Cross of Christ is foolishness because they cannot discern spiritual things contained in scripture because they are dead in sins and trespasses; void of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 8:9) (Romans 3:23)
Psalm 73:12
Behold! These are the ungodly who are always at ease; they increase their riches
Psalm 73:13
Surely I have purified my heart in vain; and I have washed my hands in innocence.
Psalm 73:14
For all the day long I was touched; and my chastening is at the mornings.
Psalm 73:15
If I say, This is the way I will speak; behold, I would deceive a generation of Your sons.
Psalm 73:16
And although I thought, that I might understand this, it was painful in my eyes,
Psalm 74: 17-18
until I went into the sanctuary of God; now I understood their end.
Surely, You will set their feet in slippery places; You will make them fall into ruin
Psalm 92:7
When the wicked flourish like grass, and all the evildoers blossom, it is for them to be destroyed forever.
Psalm 49:6
Those who trust in their wealth, and in their many riches, boast themselves.
Psalm 5:5
The boasters shall not set themselves before Your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity.
Matthew 19:23-26
And Jesus said to His disciples, Truly I say to you that a rich man will with great difficulty enter into the kingdom of Heaven.
And again I say to you, It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle’s eye, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.
And His disciples were exceedingly astonished when they heard this, saying, Who then can be saved?
But looking on them , Jesus said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
1 Corinthians 4:7
For who makes you to differ? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it , why do you boast as if you did not receive?
Deuteronomy 8:18
But you shall remember Jehovah (YHWH) your God, for it is He who gives to you power to get wealth; that He may establish His covenant which He swore to your fathers, as this day.
Comment; God gives this ability to gain wealth to His children of promise who are unconditionally chosen from before the foundation of the world ( Romans 9:11). Wealth to His children is a blessing; but to the wicked, it is a curse.(Galatians 3:10) ( Hebrews 11:6)
Ephesians 2:1-2
and He worked in you who were once dead in trespasses and sins,
in which you then walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the authority of the air, the spirit now working in the sons of disobedience,
1 Corinthians 1:18-31
For the word of the cross is foolishness to those being lost, but to us being saved, it is the power of God.
For it has been written, “I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and I will set aside the understanding of the understanding ones.” Isa. 29:14
Where is the wise? Where the scribe? Where the lawyer of this world? Did God not make the wisdom of this world foolish?
For since in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom did not know God, God was pleased through the foolishness of preaching to save the ones believing.
And since Jews ask for a sign, and Greeks seek wisdom,
but to the called-out ones, both to Jews and to Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God;
because the foolish thing of God is wiser than men, and the weak thing of God is stronger than men.
For you see your calling, brothers, that there are not many wise according to flesh, nor many powerful, not many wellborn.
But God chose the foolish things of the world that the wise might be put to shame, and God chose the weak things of the world so that He might put to shame the strong things.
And God chose the low-born of the world, and the despised, and the things that are not, so that He might bring to nothing the things that are,
so that no flesh might glory in His presence.
But of Him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, both righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
so that even as it has been written, “He that glories, let him glory in” the “Lord.” Jer. 9:24
1 Corinthians 6:9–20
Or do you not know that unjust ones will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be led astray, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor abusers, nor homosexuals,
nor thieves, nor covetous ones, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor plunderers shall inherit the kingdom of God.
And some were these things, but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God.
All things are lawful to me, but not all things profit. All things are lawful to me, but I will not be ruled by any.
Foods for the belly, and the belly for foods, but God will destroy both this and these. But the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body.
And God both raised up the Lord, and He will raise us up through His power.
Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Then taking the members of Christ, shall I make them members of a harlot? Let it not be!
Or do you not know that he being joined to a harlot is one body? For He says, “The two shall be into one flesh.” Gen. 2:24
But he being joined to the Lord is one spirit.
Flee fornication. Every sin which a man may do is outside the body, but he doing fornication sins against his own body.
Or do you not know that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit in you, which you have from God, and you are not of yourselves?
You were bought with a price; then glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are of God.
John 3:19–20
And this is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness more than the Light, for their works were evil.
For everyone practicing wickedness hates the Light, and does not come to the Light, that his works may not be exposed.
John 7:7
The world cannot hate you; but it hates Me because I witness about it, that its works are evil.
Comment– The world loves its own. There is no wrestling with Like minded sinners. Wicked spirits have them in their grips because there is no Holy spirit in them to discern they are perishing in this temporal life where everything done under the sun without God is vanity.
John 15:19
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, for this reason the world hates you.
Ecclesiastes 1:14
I have seen all the works which are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and striving after wind!
Comment– All the kingdoms of the world are ruled by the children of disobedience with its evil frame of reference. Children of God don’t love the world. They see it for what it is
Matthew 4:8-9
Again the Devil takes Him to a very high mountain, and he showed to Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
And he said to Him. I will give all these things to You if falling down, You will worship me.
1 John 2:15
Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him,
because all that which is in the world: the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
And the world is passing away, and its lust. But the one doing the will of God abides forever.
Comment– All of God’s unconditionally chosen people from before the foundation of the world ( Ephesians 1:4-11) will come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. Jesus Christ promised the Father that He would save all the Father gives to Him. (John 6:37-39)( Matthew 11:27-30), (John 1:12-13), (Romans 9:16)(2 Thessalonians 2:13) (Acts 13:48) (John 6:65)
2 Corinthians 4:6
Because it is God who said, “Out of darkness Light shall shine,” who shone in our hearts to give the brightness of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Isa. 42:6, 7, 16
Comment
All unconditionally chosen reprobates will never come to the knowledge of the truth and be saved. They did not receive the love of the truth in order to be saved. They never desired to come to Jesus Christ
2 Thessalonians 1:6-12
since it is a just thing with God to pay back tribulation to the ones troubling you,
and to give you, those being troubled, relief with us at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from Heaven with angels of His power,
in flaming fire giving full vengeance to those not knowing God, and to those not obeying the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Isa. 66:15; Jer. 10:25
who will pay the penalty: everlasting destruction from the face of the Lord, “and from the glory of His strength,” Isa. 2:20
For which we also continually pray concerning you, that our God would count you worthy of the calling, and would fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and work of faith in power,
so that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Corinthians 4:3-4
But also if our gospel is being hidden, it has been hidden in those being lost,
in whom the god of this age has blinded the thoughts of the unbelieving, so that the brightness of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn on them.
John 5:24
Truly, truly, I say to you, the one who hears My word, and believes the One who has sent Me, has everlasting life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
Luke 18:10-17
Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee was standing, praying these things to himself: God, I thank You that I am not as the rest of men, rapacious, unrighteous, adulterers, or even as this tax collector.
I fast twice in the week; I tithe all things, as many as I get.
And standing at a distance, the tax collector would not even lift up his eyes to Heaven, but smote on his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner!
I say to you, this one went down to his house having been justified, rather than that one. For everyone exalting himself will be humbled. And the one humbling himself will be exalted.
And they brought infants to Him also, that He might touch them. But seeing, the disciples rebuked them.
But Jesus called them near, saying, Allow the children to come to Me, and do not prevent them. For of such is the kingdom of God.
Truly I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child, not at all will enter into it.
Comment– The above verses are clear. Except you come as a little child, knowing that you are a sinner with self righteousness equal to a menstrual cloth , asking for mercy, knowing the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ that salvation is conditioned on the work and person of Jesus Christ alone, you shall not enter the kingdom of God.
You cannot justify yourself with your filthy self righteousness. Only God can justify through Jesus Christ received by God given faith. He is the one working the willing and doing in His people for His good pleasure. Philippians 1:6, 2:13 Isaiah 64:6
Highlights, italics added by me where it doesn’t appear in the 1993 Literal Translation by Jay P Green See also his Literal Translation KJ3 2006-2010
God’s Word Interprets God’s Word 
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