For although we live in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh, but are powerful through God for the demolition of strongholds. We demolish arguments and every proud thing that is raised up against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought captive to obey Christ. And we are ready to punish disobedience, once our obedience is complete. 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 CSB
In this second letter to the Corinthian church, Paul addresses the fact that he had been accused of walking in the flesh. We all walk in the flesh; we are human beings. This means we are all sinners in need of a savior. We should be striving to always walk in the Spirit. But Paul was pointing out that as Christians we do not war in the flesh but in the Spirit. We use God’s power to demolish strongholds.
Strongholds are lies the devil tells us, and we must be able to demolish those or get them out of our heads. We must not spend our time focusing on the devil’s lies but on God’s truth. The devil tries to convince us to focus on all that is bad, but Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8 to focus on all that is good. If we do this, we keep our focus on God.
There is plenty of evil to focus on in today’s world, but is that really where you want to keep your focus? Can you fix all the evil that is going on in the world? Isn’t that a God-sized job? If you study your Bible, you will see that this is no surprise to God. 2 Timothy 3:1-6 tells us that men will be evil and to avoid them.
Paul is telling the church in Corinth they must use spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:10-18) to demolish the devil’s strongholds. He tells them to take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ. If we want to win the war against the devil, we must start with our thoughts. We must focus on God and not allow the devil to distract us and try to lead us into sinful thoughts which may well become sinful actions.
Once we have surrendered to Christ and are walking in obedience, then and only then, are we able to draw a line between ourselves as obedient and our enemies as disobedient.
If we are bitter, angry, and unforgiving towards our enemies, we are disobedient to Christ. If we aren’t leaving all that to God and trusting Him to deal with our enemies, we are disobeying Romans 12:19 in which Paul refers to Deuteronomy 32:35. In Deuteronomy 32:35, God said, “Vengeance and retribution belong to Me. In time their foot will slip, for their day of disaster is near, and their doom is coming quickly.”
Once we remove all these things from us and leave the discipline and vengeance and retribution to God, we can say we are obedient. It doesn’t necessarily mean that we, ourselves, punish their behavior, but that we draw a line between obedience and rebellion. One that we will not cross.
It means that we don’t become entangled with those who are disobedient. We don’t allow them to occupy our thoughts. We take our thoughts captive. We are obedient to Christ and Christ alone. We surrender our hearts and our minds to Him.
If your mind is wandering to places where it shouldn’t go and causing you to think things you shouldn’t think, God will help you with that if you only ask.
If you don’t stop it there it is in danger of becoming words you shouldn’t say. Remember we are told in Matthew 12:36 that we will be held accountable to God for every idle word that comes out of our mouths.
If we allow these thoughts and these words to go unchecked, they can lead us to actions we should avoid. We must be very careful with this.
Vengeance is God’s job. Punishing disobedience is God’s job. In Matthew 8:7 the Pharisees brought a woman to Jesus who had committed adultery. The law said she be stoned. Jesus told them the one without sin should be the first to cast a stone. They all walked away.
We war according to the Spirit. We trust in God. We obey God. We suit up in God’s armor which is described in detail in Ephesians 6:10-18. Failing to do so shows a lack of faith in God.
If you have thoughts of bitterness or vengeance, take them captive. Make them obedient to Christ and leave all that to God. Draw a line between obedience and disobedience and refuse to cross it. Do your best to stay on the obedient side.
Have a great day!