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Eph. 4: 14, we cannot expect to understand Paul's second reference if we ignore the
first. While the first reference is in a context sad beyond words, there is nothing of the
demonism so often associated with the wiles of the devil in Eph. 6:, except as will be
explained presently. Let us read iv.14:--
"In order that we may be no longer babes, being tossed and whirled about with every
wind of doctrine, which is in the dice-throwing of men, in cunning craftiness with a view
to systematized deceit."
We have translated methodeia "systematized". There is somewhat warrant for the
freer rendering, "lie in wait to deceive", for Aquila so uses methodeus when translating
Exod. 21: 13. There is certainly a "tossing" and a "whirling" mentioned, but not in the
sense of a person possessed or demented. The meaning of the "tossing" and the
"whirling" is explained as the result of that itching ear which cannot endure sound
doctrine, but is carried away by any new "ism" engineered by seducing spirits with their
doctrines of demons. This is where to look for the "wiles" of the devil and the attack of
demons. Instead sometimes of spending several hours agonizing in prayer that the
meeting-place may be cleansed from all the power of the enemy, it might be more
effective if, say, the hymnbooks with their erroneous doctrine had been quietly destroyed.
It is in the realm of false doctrine that the wiles of the devil are to be discovered. In
chapter 4: these "wiles" are not overcome by fighting, but by attaining to the measure of
the perfect man, by being no longer children, by growing up into Christ in all things, by
putting off the old man, by putting on the new, by putting off the lie, and by speaking the
truth, and by so walking in the power of that new life that no place shall be given to the
devil.
We are now once more at the starting point. The soldier is the full-grown man. The
conflict is around the truth entrusted to us; the object of the attack is to rob the believer
of his crown. Satan has no power over that life which is hid with Christ in God, and the
believer is as secure as those who were hidden in the secret place of the Most High. The
sphere of possible gain or loss is in the experimental outworking of the truth. There one
may be exhorted to "Lay hold on eternal life"; there one may heed the warning, "Hold
fast . . . . . that no man take thy crown", or as Paul has written to us: "Beware lest any
man make a prey of you . . . . . Let no man deprive you of your prize" (Col. 2: 8, 18).
The only way to meet this attack is the scriptural one, and any that cannot stand the test
of "chapter and verse" should be rejected absolutely. What is the repeated safeguard of
Col. 2:?
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition
of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not AFTER CHRIST, for in Him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are filled to the full in Him, which is the
Head of all principality and power . . . . . having spoiled principalities and powers, He
made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Let no man therefore judge you
. . . . . which are a shadow . . . . . but the body is of Christ."
Here it will be seen that in opposition to these spoiled agents of the wicked one the
believer stands in all the fullness of Christ. Moreover, these spoiled principalities are
engaged in fastening upon the One Body the shadows of the past--fasts, feasts, sabbaths,