In the current climate of society, and especially throughout the past seven or eight months, it has become increasingly apparent of the great divide between people in our nation. What is particularly concerning, from both sides of the ideological and political spectrums, is the volatility of the methods and vernacular being used to augment this divide. Both liberals and conservatives paint each other with broad strokes of the same brush dipped in different color paint. For believers, this is particularly dangerous because our allegiance is not to a political party, a certain ideology, or even to one human—our allegiance is to Christ alone.
It is through belief upon and confess of Christ that we have been delivered from the penalty of sin, which is eternal damnation. However, what believers often fail to recognize is that deliverance from sin IS NOT deliverance from human nature. This is evidenced by the way that some professing believers are responding to those with whom they disagree politically, philosophically, or ideologically. And no, I am not just referring to those who appear on television. This includes the human nature that is on display for the world to see on social media platforms.
There are things in human nature, such as prejudices, preconceived ideas, and personal biases that we all bring to the table. Depending on the severity of these, they can be a thorn in the flesh, much like the Apostle Paul had to deal with. In fact, his beloved church at Corinth, based on Paul’s words in 2 Cor 10, considered Paul to be “walking according to the flesh” in the way that he dealt with them regarding spiritual matters and issues within the Corinthian church. So, in the text we’ll look at briefly this evening, we see Paul defending his ministry, defending the way he spoke to, wrote to, and loved this church and reminding them of where our battle is fought.
Look at verses 3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
Let’s take this apart. “For though we walk in the flesh.” This is exactly what I stated earlier. Deliverance from sin, which every single person who has believed upon, trusted in, and confessed Christ as Savior and Lord, has received deliverance from sin. Deliverance from sin is not deliverance from human nature. We are freed from the penalty of sin, but not the presence of sin. We all walk in the flesh, however, “we are not waging war according to the flesh.” Paul is saying that while he is in the world, he is not of the world, and he doesn’t go to battle the way the world does. He doesn’t fight as the world fights. But far too many of us today are fighting the way the world fights. Just look at Facebook. There is ideological, political, and philosophical banter going on in almost every post. Its as if we, and when I say we, I mean the many professing believers who utilize social media platforms, its as if we are trying to go to battle against what we perceive to be the enemy by touting certain ideologies in the hopes that we can persuade others to our side.
Perhaps, maybe, even in the hopes that the side with the most posts wins. Wins what? Maybe bragging rights. Maybe an election. Maybe the fraudulent notion of a moral victory.
But doing battle this way, the way the world fights, is not a winning strategy. Why not? Look at verse 4, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” Divine power...the power of God. The word power in the Greek is the word dynatos. The root of this word is dynamai which is where we get our English word dynamite. This divine power that we have is an explosive power that is able to destroy strongholds. He’s talking in military terms referring to strong fortifications; however, remember, he’s writing in defense of his ministry and dealing with a church that is in the midst of a pagan city which places a lot of stock on logic and reason. So, he’s saying that the weapon of divine power at his disposal is an explosive power that is able to dismantle or tear down any well-crafted form of logic or reason.
Then verse 5, “We destroy arguments.” You see, this power tears aparts, literally shreds any argument that might try to stand against the truth of God’s Word, the truth of the gospel of Christ, the truth of divine doctrine. Keep reading...”We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to obey Christ.” Anyone in the city of Corinth or anywhere else who might raise an argument against God regardless of how sophisticated it might be, regardless of how eloquent it may be presented, the divine power that indwells every believer can destroy it. Completely dismantle it. How? By taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
That’s where most of us miss it and the human nature that we contend with takes over. This conflict is along the line of turning our natural life into a spiritual life, and this is never done easily, nor does God intend it to be done easily. It is done only by a series of moral choices. God does make us holy in the sense of character; He makes us holy in the sense of innocence, and it is our responsibility to strive to be obedient in following God’s Word and Christ’s example so that innocence is revealed in holy character. These choices are continually in opposition to the entrenched desires of our natural life, the things which build themselves as fortifications against the knowledge of God. AND it is only when God has altered our disposition and we have entered into the experience of sanctification that the fight begins.
So, how can this help us today? Our fight is a spiritual fight. Ephesians 6:12 tells us, “we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” So, when we have an actual conversation with another person, when we send an email, a text message, or when we respond to a post, make a post, like a post, share a post, we have to remember who we are fighting—Satan and the power of darkness. We have to take every thought in that moment captive to the gospel, captive the Word of God, and obey Christ. If we would strive to do this, then perhaps we would realize that the power of the media (news, print, and social) is nothing when compared to the divine power that indwells us and instead of fighting the battle within ourselves by speaking or posting our viewpoints or agreements or disagreements; we would instead bend our knees, bow our heads, and turn to the only One with real power to mold our hearts, save our souls, and change our nation.
Brent Thompson
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