6:11 wiles. The word “wiles” is equivalent to “strategy.” The devil is “the god of this world,” the one that “deceiveth the whole world” (II Corinthians 4:4; Revelation 12:9). He can appear as “an angel of light” and yet is “a roaring lion…seeking whom he may devour” (II Corinthians 11:14; I Peter 5:8). In our own strength, we are no match for him at all. Not even the archangel Michael could rebuke him on his own (Jude 9). We can only stand against him if we are “strong in the Lord” (Ephesians 6:10) and wear “the whole armour of God.” We need not be “ignorant of his devices” (II Corinthians 2:11), the very first of which (and still the most effective) is to cause us to doubt God’s Word (Genesis 3:1, 4) and then to disobey it (Genesis 3:5-6). That he has been extremely successful with this device is evident, considering especially the modern widespread distortion of its foundation in the Genesis record of creation and earth history, followed by wholesale rebellion against all God’s commandments and finally by the rejection of His great love in the sacrifice of His Son.

6:12 darkness of this world. The curtain of the invisible is slightly opened here to give us a brief glimpse of the tremendous spiritual forces arrayed against the people of God. God created “an innumerable company of angels” (Hebrews 12:22), and apparently at least a third of this host of created spirits have followed Satan in his long war against God and His people (Revelation 12:4,7). These are organized into a great hierarchy of principalities and powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world. We dare not be without God’s whole armor when wrestling against such powers. Nevertheless, “greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world” and “they that be with us are more than they that be with them” (I John 4:4; II Kings 6:16). If we, using God’s armor, “resist the devil,” then he and all his minions “will flee from” us (James 4:7).