The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Before I became a Christian, I thought I had a pretty good handle on life. I believed that the earth and everything in it was the result of an amazing cosmic accident that had caused the sun and the planets to form and that life started and evolved on earth because we are fortunate enough to be on a planet at just the right point in space to support it. I couldn’t see God in it anywhere and I didn’t really want to either. I was happy to live life thinking that someday when I was old and grey the lights would go out and that would be it – life would end and I would know nothing about it. But then I met someone who had a different view. He believed that everything was created by God and that there was much more to life than I had previously considered. For about 3 months we met and talked late into the night and little by little he demolished the strongholds that I had built my life around.

The strongholds Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians are the arguments and ideas that we set up against the knowledge of God. They are the ideas that we use to convince ourselves that we know what life is about and that we’re okay with the way things look like they’re going. They are defensive positions that we hold because they provide us with a measure of security. The trouble is that we are prone to find security in the wrong places sometimes.

The weapons Paul talks about are not swords or spears he’s referring to the knowledge of God as we find it in the scriptures. They are formed out of truth and wisdom and they’re employed in the way that Jesus used them during his temptation in the wilderness (see Matthew 4). When we take captive our thoughts to make them obedient to Christ we’re disciplining our minds to hold on to the truth that we find in the scriptures. The aim is simple, demolish the strongholds, capture the errant thoughts and live by the Word!

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Application:

Set a time aside at the end of each day to think about the things you’ve said and done. Consider the places where you’ve been true to God’s word and the places where you’ve made mistakes. Capture the mistakes and make them right with God.

Prayer:

Strengthen us Lord to know Your ways, to walk in Your strength and to be obedient to Your Word. Amen.