Ephesians

The Strong Man—and the Stronger Man

Notice that Paul suggests that the only ones who can successfully battle against these dark forces are Christians: “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood” (Ephesians 6:12). The phrase “our struggle” refers to the struggle of Christians. Only Christians are capable of being victors in this war; all others are victims.

Jesus makes this point clear in Luke 11. There He is challenged by the religious leaders because He goes about driving out demons. His opponents say that He is able to drive out demons because He has a relationship with Beelzebub, the prince of demons—another name for Satan. The name Beelzebub means “lord of flies.”¹⁷ The Jews regarded hell as a cosmic garbage dump, and in a real sense they were right, for that is exactly what hell is—the awful repository of wasted lives. The being who reigned over this garbage heap was the devil, and because a garbage pile always attracts flies, they called Beelzebub the lord of the flies.

When these religious leaders accuse Jesus of casting out demons by the authority of Beelzebub, Jesus replies, “If Satan is divided against himself, how can his kingdom stand? I say this because you claim that I drive out demons by Beelzebub” (Luke 11:18). His argument is simply this: Satan never fights against himself. Satan is too cunning to divide his forces in that way. If he did, his kingdom would fall. Therefore, Jesus suggests that any man under the control of Satan has no possibility of deliverance apart from an outside, intervening force.

He elaborates in Luke 11:21, “When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe.” Who is the strong man? Satan. What is the house of the strong man? The world. What are the strong man’s possessions? People. Apart from the intervention of God, we as human beings are under the control of Satan (see 2 Timothy 2:26). We are powerless and hopeless in our own strength. As 1 John 5:19 tells us, “We know that we [Christians] are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.” That is the position of the Bible—the world has fallen under the control of Satan. Not the world of trees and mountains and lakes and seas; that is God’s world. But the world of organized human society has fallen under the control of Satan, and there is no possibility of escape apart from outside intervention.