Part
8 of 10
Abiding
in the Truth
Paul
writes; "For the weapons
of our warfare are not carnal,
but mighty through God to the pulling
down of STRONGHOLDS" (2 Corinthians 10:4)
The “strongholds”
to be pulled down are the repeated sinful tendencies that we as Christians
might still practice. These are the “works of the flesh” that
may continue in the life of perhaps an untrusting and unyielded
Christians. These sinful acts and
thoughts are according to “the
lusts (strong desires) of the flesh.” These acts all begin as the thoughts
and imaginations or fantasies
of the “carnal (fleshly) mind”
(Rom 8:7, below).
2
Corinthians 10:5
CASTING DOWN IMAGINATIONS,
and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and BRINGING
INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of Christ;
1
John 2:16 For
all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not
of the Father, but is of the world.
Romans
8:7
Because the CARNAL
(FLESHLY) MIND (phroneo, mindset)
IS ENMITY (in
opposition to) AGAINST GOD: for it is not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be.
Satan works
repeatedly to fan the flames of these “strongholds.”
But as believers we now know that his power and hold has been broken and
that we are “freed” (Rom 6:7).
Paul tell us how the power of the Sin-nature
was “made of no effect” (Rom
6:6) in believers. Paul writes; “Know
ye not” that you “have been
crucified with Christ” (Rom 6:3, 6, Gal 2:20). Being dead with Christ,
as to our “old man,” the
Devil now has no compelling power over believers; all he can do is “tempt”
us with his “fiery darts” as thoughts
to tempt us. Now we can and must
extinguish the “fiery darts” the
enemy of our soul may shoot into our minds, by using the elements of “the
armour of God” discussed in Part 7 of this series.
The word “imaginations”
here above could be translated thoughts
or reasonings. The “carnal
(fleshly) mind” that is “at
enmity with God” is full of moral or carnal reasonings of the “mind
of the flesh.” Men often rationalize to justify their sinning against
God’s providences and purposes and against Christ and His plan of
salvation.
These thoughts are of “the
natural man (who) receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned.” (1
Corinthians 2:14). The “natural
man” is the Greek, “psych-ikos,”
meaning “the man of the soul”)”
This is not the unsaved
person but rather the Christian who lives by his
soul’s natural mind, which is of
“the flesh.” The “natural”
is the Christian who lives independently of Christ in Him and so he is in
opposition to the living Word of Christ speaking within his conscience. The “vain
imaginations” of the fleshly mind must be set aside as trash, in favor
of the truth being spoken by the “Spirit
of life in Christ” within our conscience.
Our natural reasonings,
though they may be seemingly logical and believable by the world’s terms,
are little more than imaginings that
have been directed to us from the “lying
one” to falsify the
truth. Such reasonings bear no fruit or benefit. All such reasonings are
of the deception of the lying one. Man’s reasonings are foolishness to God
(Jeremiah
8:9, Romans
1:22 , 1
Corinthians 1:20). Jeremiah
8:9 The WISE
MEN are ashamed, they are
dismayed and taken: lo, they
have REJECTED THE WORD OF THE LORD; and what wisdom is
in them? 1 Corinthians 1:20 …GOD
MADE FOOLISH THE WISDOM OF THIS WORLD.
Paul
says the lost “are
without excuse” because everyone knows there is a God. Romans
1:20-22 For the
invisible things of him from the creation of the world are CLEARLY SEEN,
being understood by the things that are made, even
his eternal power and Godhead; so that THEY (the lost) ARE WITHOUT
EXCUSE: 21 Because
that, WHEN THEY KNEW GOD, THEY
GLORIFIED HIM NOT AS GOD,
neither were thankful; but became
vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. 22 Professing
themselves to be wise, they became fools, But “the lost” gave no
expression or reverence to “glorified
him,”
refusing to acknowledge Him as God. Paul
says they are “vain
in their imaginations,
and their foolish heart was
darkened.” So we must “cast
down” all false reasonings.
The indwelling “Spirit
of Christ” is the “one
Spirit” (Eph 4:4) called the “Spirit
of truth.” Our trust and our walk must be according to the “truth”
of God’s living Word – Christ in us. Paul’s “mystery”
gospel “is Christ
in you the hope of
Glory.” Our “hope of glory”
is our confident expectation of the indwelling Christ to bring us “to
glory.” “Glory” is the full expression of His life in us both now
and for eternity in heaven. Living by trusting Christ within us as our new
life enables us to “cast down”
such vain “imaginations.”
Only Christ within us as the new us, is able to bring us to the “glory”
or the full expression of His
life resident within us. This is the Lord’s work in us; while our work is
trust him (John 6:29). Philippians
2:13 For it is GOD
which WORKETH IN YOU both to will and to do of his
good pleasure.
Not only are we to
“cast down” such “vain
imaginations,” but we must also rid ourselves of every seemingly “high
thing” or “high thought”
that claims to be better than the knowledge of the truth of Christ. We exalt
the “high thing” when we
choose the world’s wisdom and ways or our own independent way of living;
we elevate our self over God. We become like “The
fool hath said in his heart, There is no God” (Psa 14:1). A
regenerated Christian can still choose to live their own self-life ignoring
Christ within, thus elevating their own way of living according to their own
imaginings. Whenever we think we
have something right, even after God says it is wrong, we
have exalted our knowledge above God’s.
Along these same lines of
ridding ourselves of “high
things” that are not of God, we are to take our very thoughts “captive.”
What happens to one in captivity? In the case of a caged bird, for example,
the bird may no longer fly freely in the air; it no longer has the freedom
to do as it wills. Likewise, our life is not our own, we been bought with a
price – the precious blood of
Christ, He is our Lord. To
take our thoughts “captive”
is to not allow our
thoughts the freedom to wander where they wish to go. We must
recognize these thoughts as they
occur and set them aside. Example: Sometimes we
fantasize, wishing, or wondering why things can’t be better, or we wonder
why others who don’t seem to care for the Lord still seem to do well.
These are worthless thoughts. Taking such vain “imaginations
captive” is to shut out all thoughts that are not thoughts that the
Lord would wish us to have. If we take our thoughts “captive”
we will not have imaginations to cast
down or become strongholds;
nor will our thoughts ever exalt themselves above God.
I realize that
this above is the ideal. As humans we still live in the flesh body; it is
very difficult to accomplish this task 100%. When we fail, we know that we
are still okay, because we trust the effectual blood sacrifice of Jesus who
has already paid for and taken away ALL our sins. Nevertheless, through our
failure, we should learn to depend upon the Lord. So,
we can get up and walk again… having learned yet again to trust Him all
the more. Every failing is a learning experience, its part of our training. If
you find yourself getting distracted or are having problems staying on
course you simply need to change your focus from the “things
which are seen” (the earthly) and set your mind on “things
above” (the eternal).
Col
3:2
Set your mind on things above,
not on things on the earth.
2
Corinthians 4:18 While
we look not at the things which are
seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are
seen are temporal; but
the things which are not seen are
eternal.
Paul has given us
a way of short-circuiting vain “imaginations”
– and that is he suggests a new way of thinking. Paul below tells us how
to maintain a good offense that precludes the need of the good defense.
Philippians
4:8-9
“Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true,
whatsoever things are honest,
whatsoever things are just,
whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely,
whatsoever things are of good
report; if there be any virtue,
and if there be any praise, THINK
ON THESE THINGS. 9Those
things, which ye have both learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me (Paul),
do: and the God of PEACE
shall be with you.”
Consider
the kind of things Paul says we need to “think
on.” He said thinking on these below will yield the “peace”
that is of the “God
of Peace.”
·
true
- not concealed, not false, not hypocritical, without pretense
·
honest
- venerable, honorable, devout
·
just
- equitable, just, of good character,
holy
·
pure
- innocent, untainted, unsullied, clean, chaste
·
lovely
- acceptable, exquisite – there is a
beauty to genuine righteousness
·
good
report - reputable, upright, decent
·
virtue
- excellence, righteousness
Thinking on these things of
God that were given to Paul for us (verse 9) will prevent the entrance of
thoughts that can gain a “stronghold”
and we will enjoy His peace. My most common way of turning my wayward
heart and mind to Him when I recognize I have been straying from Him is to
breathe out His name in mind or word,
“Lord Jesus.”
We are to be those who “call
upon the name of the Lord” (Rom 10:13) to be saved from our thoughts.
When we are tempted we can “call
upon His name” and “think
on these things” (these are
prayers); this turns our focus away from the thought
temptation at hand and establishes us in a new and proper mindset
of His everpresence.
“Let
this mind (Greek, phroneo, “mindset”)
be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians
2:5). Paul’s instruction is in
perfect accord with what Isaiah wrote. Isaiah
26:3 Thou
wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind
is
stayed (set) on thee:
because he trusteth in thee.
Recall some our
key text from Part 1, now we will add verse 6.
“for
though we walk in the flesh
(body), we do NOT
WAR after (in the manner of) the flesh: 4(for the
weapons of our WARFARE are
NOT carnal (fleshly), 4but
(our weapons are) mighty through God
(who is “Spirit”) to the PULLING
DOWN (Gk., kathairesis, destruction) of STRONG
HOLDS; 5CASTING
DOWN IMAGINATIONS, and every
high thing that exalteth itself against the KNOWLEDGE of God, and BRINGING
INTO CAPTIVITY EVERY THOUGHT to the obedience of (attentively
harkening to) Christ.
6And
HAVING IN A READINESS
(OF MIND) TO REVENGE (BRING JUSTICE FOR) all
disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled (secured and
complete).” (2Corinthians 10:1-6)
Verse 6 (above)
indicates that we can bring “revenge
(KJV),” which actually translates as “justice,”
to the “every
(disobedient) thought (referring
back to v5)” we have, thus
we “cast (them) down.”
We can set such “thoughts”
aside in “captivity
(v5).” To help us understand this verse, let’s consider a
military campaign. After the fighting is over and the enemy is defeated,
there still may remain pockets of
resistance; these are rebels in
hiding who still fight on against the victorious army. Each of these foes
must be rooted out and justice
must be meted out to them. If not, the insurgency will never end.
Victory requires that our troops search out those rebels in an effort to
stop the harassing violence. For with such violence, it will be difficult
for a new government to succeed.
We are called to do the very same thing in
our “thought life,” as we
turn our heart and yield to Christ who is our Lord or governor,
having “the government” of
our lives “upon His shoulders”
(Isa 9:6). So it is with these insurgent “thoughts”
that are of what Paul calls “the
mind of the flesh.” Even with Christ as our Savior and even though we
try to take every thought captive,
there will still be some improper thoughts
that sneak in as “fiery darts”
from the fleshly Sin-nature to tempt
us. These insurgent thoughts are shot into our mind so unexpectedly. We
must recognize them as not being of
ourselves, not of our new nature. “Now
THEN IT IS NO MORE I THAT DO IT,
but SIN THAT DWELLETH IN ME.”
(Romans 7:17) We must treat our thoughts uncompromisingly, by
rejecting them as we turn our heart to the Lord.
Some might ask,
why does the Lord allow this? The Lord permits these tempting situations in
order to show us our utter neediness in ourselves, thus to build our dependence
upon Him. We have the truth of the written word of our faith as our
defensive armor, upon which we stand, but this only works by
our faith in the ever-present living “Word
of God,” which is the Lord Jesus Christ within us. We can overcome
these insurgent thoughts with the
truth of the unshakable “gospel of
our salvation,” which is by
grace through faith alone;
and by our continual dependence upon and communion with the Lord
