The Battleground

In an opening section of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he warns that there are battlegrounds for their souls. These battlegrounds include the world and the flesh. The world, as Paul refers to it here, is not the tangible, physical world, but the society and system that redefines good and evil and calls it normal. The flesh includes internal desires that get twisted and distorted. It’s about disordered desires and a pressure to conform to the world and its values that are opposed to God. Paul reminds the believers that though they used to live according to the flesh and the world, they have a new identity and way of life found in Jesus.