Everyday spiritual warfare
Say the word “Corinthians” and most, perhaps, think of “the love chapter,” I Corinthians 13. That’s good. There we see the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” — the embodiment of spiritual maturity.
Few, perhaps, see it as the outcome of another of Paul’s exhortations to the Corinthians — II Corinthians 10.
Yes, I’m quite aware that I comes before II, but the Bible is not a step-by-step handbook. Oh, how I wish it were!
Learning to walk in love is a two-steps-forward, one-step-back kind of journey. Like the Corinthians, as we continue to strive toward spiritual maturity, excelling in some areas and stumbling in others, we need the whole counsel of Scripture to “walk in the way of love.” (see Ephesians 5:1).
Much of the disciple’s life is about the walk, but the walk has a definite, clearly defined, destination: unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ (see Ephesians 4:13).
When Paul wrote the letter we call II Corinthians, he was concerned about the influence some dissenters were having on the church. The conflict centered around the validity of Paul’s apostleship, but the danger Paul saw went beyond the doubt cast on his ministry to the schisms the false accusations were bringing to the body.
The dissension was drawing the believers into worldly ways of dealing with conflict, so Paul addressed the matter of spiritual warfare.
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. (II Corinthians 10:3–6, NKJV)
Today, “spiritual warfare” is the subject of much fiery preaching, in-depth teaching, and many intense prayers, but is often directed at casting down those things that lie outside of ourselves. Read different versions and listen to different teachers and you’ll get different takes on whose arguments, pretensions, and thoughts Paul was talking about, but one thing is clear:
You are only prepared to punish someone else’s act of disobedience when your own obedience is complete.
That sounds like something Jesus said:
How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. (Matthew 7:3–5, NIV)
So for now, let’s make these instructions our own.
Even before beginning the fight, it’s important to identify the strongholds of the enemy. “Strongholds” are those places where righteousness has not yet won. Now, even though they are the enemy’s strongholds, they are set up in our territory and we supply the materials.
Given they exist, Paul gives us the one-two punch of effective spiritual warfare to pull those strongholds down:
1. Cast down (demolish) arguments and pretensions. 2. Take every thought captive.
I doubt we need a definition of arguments. We know what they are because we’ve been involved in them, but just in case you are one of those rare creatures who can hold their tongue in all situations, an argument is “an exchange (usually heated) of opposite views.”
Arguments arise for various reasons. Sometimes our goal is to win someone over to our point of view. Nothing wrong with that; sometimes we are right. But if we are carnal as well as right and our heart is filled with pride in what we know rather than with the peace that Christ brings, the spark an argument provides will ignite the fires of hell rather than invite the peace of heaven.
Sometimes an argument is used as a weapon of self-defense, as in, when we really don’t know what we believe. We fear being exposed so we try to intimidate the other person out of our space. In that case, rather than an explosion driving us apart, a silent distance is created.
A soul out of control, or a soul living in fear. Either way, arguments can create a place for the enemy to erect a stronghold.
Unity lost.
“High things” are pretensions. If you are pretentious, you put on airs — acts designed to impress or attract attention. You try to convince others you possess more knowledge than you do — which means you don’t know it all. And that bothers you. Affectation is the result. Others may shake their heads, roll their eyes, and walk away, but you walk on, impressed with yourself, and alone.
“Unity? Not interested.”
You can’t fight unrighteousness with unrighteousness and expect the cause of righteousness to win. Fighting with the world’s weapons will bring worldly war’s results: more fighting or a false peace. There might be quiet but there will be no unity.
Our arguments with others and our high thoughts of ourselves are rooted in opinions — our best guess at what is true. Having opinions is human nature. Neither good nor evil, but useful for both.
So how do we defuse opinions — make them harmless expressions of ourselves? Here are some suggestions.
Hang around people you love who think differently than you do. Rather than argue with them, listen to them. Or, if that’s too hard, read a book like The Sin of Certainty by Peter Enns. Read it all the way to the end. Determine you will make it past page 14 without throwing the book at the wall.
Remember what we are fighting. Not each other, but strongholds. Those things the enemy erects to hinder the answer to Christ’s prayer:
“that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” (John 17:21, NIV)
The enemy will not win the war; we're promised that. But you get to choose if you will be a brick in his wall of defense or a part of Christ’s love-driven army.
Arguments. Pretensions. Opinions. They may be based on truth, or they may not. What matters most is how much the matter matters to you. Enough to move you from the spirit of Christ?
Don’t let your thoughts lead you to a place where irritation or impatience or anger lie in wait. Catch them, and do it quickly. But don’t just catch them, hold them captive.
When you catch something, you grab it and hang on to it for all you’re worth, giving it all of your attention so it can’t get away. But when you take something captive, you make it your prisoner. You bind it. Confine it. You lock it away, so it can do you no harm while your attention is elsewhere.
And that is the point. When you take something captive, it is out of your way. Your thoughts can be fixed on what is before you. Your mind can be filled with the knowledge of Christ, so there is no room for thoughts that oppose.
Now set your sights on the rich treasures and joys of heaven where he sits beside God in the place of honor and power. Let heaven fill your thoughts; don’t spend your time worrying about things down here. You should have as little desire for this world as a dead person does. Your real life is in heaven with Christ and God. (Colossians 3:1–3 TLB)
And that is where unity is found.
So ask the Spirit to give you eyes to see any thought that is contrary to the spirit of Christ, that has lodged itself in the shadowy places where opinions form. To recognize any opinion that has so grown in importance that it has become fodder for an argument or a pedestal for pretension — a stronghold that will attempt to stand against the knowledge of the Son of God.
See it for what it is: a distraction.
Set it aside, out of the way.
And ask the Spirit to give you clear sight for the vision of Christ:
That all may be one…