Ephesians 2:2
in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience,
in which you formerly lived according to this world’s present path, according to the gravitational
We lived in offenses and sins. That is the past, but Paul does not want us to forget the past, so that we can appreciate the present.
When God rescued Israel from Egypt, He laid out several requirements to ensure they had a constant reminder of where they came from.
One was the annual Passover, which reminded them of their last night in Egypt. That was when the firstborn of the Egyptians died, and theirs were spared. And there was the Feast of Tabernacles to remind them of how they and their children had lived in tents in the wilderness.
It seems almost everything was about drawing a contrast with Egypt and the subsequent wilderness journey.
When they ate the food they had farmed and prepared, it was a contrast to their 40 years in the wilderness, where they ate the same manna every day. Staying in the houses they built reminded them that they were slaves building for Pharaoh. We can go on and on.
So Paul saying these people formerly lived according to this world's present path is not about being sad, it is about rejoicing for how far God has brought them.
Then we have the mention of the ruler of the domain of the air.
Remember that Paul had just told us that Jesus had been lifted up above all rulers, powers, authorities, and dominion (Ephesians 1:21).
Now we are being introduced to the ruler of the domain of the air, and that is associated with this world's present path.
We do not have to dig too much into what that means, but we know it is not good. But it tells us something. It tells us that choice is an illusion.
He is saying people live as they do because something animates them; they are energized to act wrongly.
I call it the itch of sin, through which people are driven into self-destruction, like the demon-possessed man in the gospel, who was cutting his body with stones (Mark 5:1–20), where people are driven by lust and not love, by anger and not compassion, driven by self-image and not humility, they hunger and thirst not for righteousness (Matthew 5:6) but to consume others (Galatians 5:15).
That we formerly lived in it means there was no escaping it. And it can manifest differently from one person to another.
It means just as we are empowered to do good by the Holy Spirit, the life of sin is also a result of an empowerment.
It's a drive fueled by hell. All bets are off, all brakes are off; it might be that the conflict never ends, the arguments never end, the violence never ends, the depravity seems to surprise at every turn; it's the perpetual blindness to consequences.
We are not talking about a small thing here. Paul is giving us a spiritual insight into the world of darkness and how things are influenced on the earth.
The point is, the only escape is through Christ. Christ, by His resurrection, becomes the means (spiritual spacecraft) by which we escape the gravitational pull of "the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience."
There is no other way.
Christ, and we in Him, have escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, according to 2 Peter 1:4:
Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire.
God continues to allow those forces to operate, as the people energized from hell strike at believers in persecution. And they cannot stop themselves. They are inventive when it comes to evil.
But look at what Paul told believers,
Brothers and sisters, do not be children in your thinking. Instead, be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature. (1 Corinthians 14:20)
Jesus encouraged us to have an innocent attitude:
“I am sending you out like sheep surrounded by wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves. (Matthew 10:16)
The wolf is hungry, looking for other animals to eat up, driven by an unending eat-hunger cycle.
Being wise as a serpent is about not being on the other side of that hunger as much as you can, meaning hiding yourself if possible, while still maintaining your innocence, not adopting the same aggressive, confrontational attitude, which, of course, means you may be called a fool. But not to worry -
For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength. (1 Corinthians 1:25)
Unbeknownst to Paul in his previous life, the reason for his incessant persecution of the church was exactly what he now writes about; he was being driven by the ruler of the domain of the air, the ruler of the spirit that is now energizing the sons of disobedience.
And after his conversion, he moved to the other side, and he became the recipient of the same things he had meted out to believers before.
