---
title: Ephesians 6:12
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/ephesians-6-12/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/ephesians-6-12.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Ephesians 6:12
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Ephesians 6:12

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this world’s darkness, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

## JW Usage

Ephesians 6:12 — "our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the governments, against the authorities, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the wicked spirit forces in the heavenly places" — is accepted in JW teaching as describing spiritual warfare against Satan and his demonic system. The "world rulers of this darkness" are often interpreted as the political-governmental system Satan uses to oppose Jehovah's organisation.

## Protestant Usage

Ephesians 6:12 is doctrinally important for what it says about "flesh and blood" as a Semitic idiom. Paul uses the phrase here to mean "ordinary human beings" in contrast to "wicked spirit forces." This matches 1 Corinthians 15:50 — "flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God" — where "flesh and blood" means mortal human weakness, not "physical substance." Jesus uses the same idiom in Matthew 16:17: "flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven." Paul uses it again in Galatians 1:16: "I did not confer with flesh and blood." In every instance the idiom means *mortal humans*, not *physical matter*. This matters because the Watchtower uses 1 Corinthians 15:50 to argue for a non-bodily resurrection and a non-bodily return of Christ. Ephesians 6:12, Matthew 16:17, and Galatians 1:16 settle what "flesh and blood" actually means — and once the idiom is recognised, the objection to bodily resurrection collapses. The risen Christ himself tells the disciples in Luke 24:39, "a spirit does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have" — deliberately choosing "flesh and bones" over "flesh and blood" to make the same point Paul makes.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Visible, Bodily, Every Eye — The Return Acts 1:11 Promised](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/visible-bodily-return-acts1.md) — Acts 1:11 / Revelation 1:7 / 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 [Eschatology]
- [Satan Is Not Omnipresent — Locomotion, Not Ubiquity](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/satan-functional-omnipresence.md) — Job 1:7 — Going to and fro on the earth [Holy Spirit]