Winning the war for your Mind

Winning the War for Your Mind  (2 Cor 10:1-5)  

Verses 1-2 Paul is addressing some in the Corinthian church who were questioning his authority.

Verse 3 Paul realizes that this is a type of spiritual warfare.

• They don’t have just cause for their complaints. Paul has been firmly established by God as an Apostle.

Verse 4 Paul begins to explain his method of overcoming their attack on him.

• Not fighting back with physical weapons, the weapons of the world, but with spiritual weapons.

• Paul sees their criticism of him being rooted in a demonic stronghold.
  • The word stronghold in Greek means just that, stronghold or fortress.
• A stronghold is where an enemy force can hide and launch an attack from.
  • The enemy hides safely in the broken thoughts of people.
  • This stronghold is a collection of lies, thoughts, pretensions that the enemy now uses as a place from which to launch attacks on us.
• Many English version put the “We tear down thoughts,” or “we destroy arguments” into the next verse.
• EHV ⁴ Certainly, the weapons of our warfare are not those of the flesh, but weapons made powerful by God for tearing down strongholds. We tear down thoughts 5…
• First, the stronghold or fortress, which again is demonic, are thoughts or arguments.
• Second, there is both a noun and a verb used in the sentence to convey the idea of tearing something down that has been lifted up.
  • The implication is these thoughts are being lifted up in place of Jesus.
  • In fact, one of the definitions for this verb is, “to take down as from a cross.”
• The Corinthians had allowed their own human thoughts and reason to become lifted up, in their own minds.
  • Once it became “lifted up” in place of Jesus, it became empowered by the demonic.

Verse 5 Many English translations use this word pretension, but it’s actually two words in Greek.

• A good literal translation would be: “every high thing lifted up against”
• What is being lifted up are, arguments, human reason and thinking, lies.
  • The verb is in the Greek passive form.
  • Which means these thoughts are being lifted up against us without our volition.
• Paul makes an important distinction, all of these thoughts or arguments, these high things that have been lift up, are being set in contrast to the knowledge of God.
  • We now have two competing forces. These two choices are going to be constantly before us.
• Of course, the knowledge of God is perfect and true all the time.
  • This knowledge of God is referring to the total nature and character of God.
• One specific example: “I can’t do this,” versus the truth of God, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Phil 4:13
• Now, here is the real danger. If we let that thought stay in our mind for more than a few seconds, we are prone to start to believing it.
  • And if we start to believe it then we are putting it above what is true in the knowledge of God.
• Our consent to agree with a lie or false thought is what makes the lie powerful.
  • We have made that thought or lie, higher than the truth of Jesus in our life.
    • And once it becomes a high thing, we have the potential for a stronghold.

So what do we do? We fight back but not with the weapons of the world, rather with knowledge of God.

• The word used here means “captive” or “to make a prisoner.”
  • Taking that thought in your head, and making it your prisoner rather than the other way around.
• But the verb to take captive here in the Greek has an ongoing sense to it.
  • So this is something we are to keep doing.
• It also says take every thought captive, every thought not just the bad thoughts.
  • Every thought must come into alignment with the knowledge of God.
• How do we take that thought captive?
• We start by grabbing a hold of that thought and not letting it roll around in our head.
  • We do this with the help of the Holy Spirit.
  • Over time training ourselves to recognize those thoughts that are not from God.