On Taking The Thoughts Captive…
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
from http://www.randallgrier.org/files/Lesson_15.pdf, p.2:
When wrong thoughts persist in staying, start speaking the Word, never try to wage a silent mental battle. Take your thoughts captive with the Word of God by speaking the Word. Try this exercise as an example. Begin counting silently in your head from 1-100. At the same time begin quoting scripture and praising God out loud. What happened to your counting?
from John MacArthur:
The verb here where it says we are taking every thought captive means literally to take a prisoner with a spear. It has the word spear in it in the verb. It means to take a prisoner with a spear. We smash the fortress to the ground, went in and put a spear in the back of the prisoners and marched them out. That’s a magnificent metaphor of rescuing a soul from damning lies, isn’t it? We marched them right out and brought them into subjection to Jesus Christ, that’s what it’s saying. Wow.
and
Then what you’ve got, Paul knew this, is a lot of people who have been convinced by the wisdom of men and that’s not salvation. The Scripture is the weapon that smashes the fortresses that people have built up to buttress themselves against the knowledge of God. “I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ,” Paul says, “for it is the power of God unto salvation.” Hebrews 4:12, “For the Word is alive and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.” The Word is the weapon. And that’s what we read you earlier, 2 Corinthians chapter 4, it says it, verse 5, “We do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord.” That’s the message of power. Over in chapter 6 verse 7, “In the Word of truth, in the power of God by the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and the left.” It’s the Word of truth that carries the power of God that makes up the weapons of righteousness. Scripture is the only weapon that smashes the fortress and takes the people captive to Christ.
Interesting that the word spear is in it. It’s a very active thing, then, taking captive. We have to think hard, look intently at His Word. We need to be a doer who ACTS on what we read. Does it say blessed is the man who makes God his refuge? Then…those are not just poetic words–we MAKE Him our REFUGE! Things like that are not natural things for us to do. So we grit our teeth, hold on to our spear, and go gung-ho and do it!! Christ did not leave us as orphans, but has given us His Spirit to help us “do” God’s Word! I like that!
Ann
November 28, 2008 at 5:42 pm
“Scripture is the only weapon that smashes the fortress and takes the people captive to Christ.”
MacArthur is right. Without the power of Scripture, we cannot take captive the thoughts. And taking it captive does not holding onto it as in controlling the throught. The root meaning of leading away with a spear is a beautiful illustration that Paul is saying “take it away from you, keep it away, and take it to your Lord – Jesus Christ.” We cannot wrestle with the thought. We are to lead it away.
Another way to consider battling the temptation of impure or sinful thoughts is I Cor. 10:13 – “No temptation has siezed you except what is common to man. But God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
The thought perhaps is not the sin, but dwelling on the thought and allowing it to overcome your emotions, dampen your spirit, and twist your thinking… that would be the sin. Another way to see the spear is as a serious weapon against a serious threat. Spears were used to kill from a distance and were not for up close combat. In that we regard, we are not to get close to the thoughts. Col. 3:2 says it in the most simple of terms: “Set your minds on thing above, not on earthly things.”
Stephen
December 3, 2008 at 1:10 am