“The weapons we fight with are not
the weapons of the world. On the
contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension
that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every
thought to make it obedient to Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:4-5
Every time I read this
scripture, I eagerly jump on my horse. But the problem after I get up here is
that I’m tempted to ride off in all directions
at once.
This is one of those scriptures that says so
much that, as a teacher and a writer ( and a hyperactive one, at that), about
twelve hundred words gather on the tip of my tongue and do fierce battle with
one another over who is to break down the gates of my sealed lips first. We might be stuck on this one for days.
Paul has just finished
talking about how we are to live in this world in a manner contrary to the
world’s standards. He asserts that we
are equipped with supernatural weapons to wage this unconventional war. These weapons are strong enough to demolish our enemies… and the enemies he
is focused on here are our thoughts. He labels what our thinking can do to us
“strongholds.”
You and I both know this
is the truth. We know, once we take it
out and purposely look at it, that what Ralph Waldo Emerson said is the plain
and simple, undeniable truth: “Sow a
thought, reap an action. Sow an action,
reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a
character. Sow a character; reap a
destiny.” Everything we have ever done,
will ever do or become will start, or has already started, with a mere,
seemingly innocuous thought. (Please stop
reading for just a minute and think about that.)
Almost every day, and
some days more than once, arguments come parading across my mind. They are devilish little creatures carrying
big placards that display lies in vivid colors.
Sometimes they shout in red-faced ardor what they want me to buy or
believe. They came to Jesus, too, in the wilderness right after he was
baptized. Their message was “Be a
miracle-working savior!” “Be a powerful
savior!” Now, undoubtedly Jesus was both of these things, but what the
devil wanted was for Him to give up the long, winding road we needed Him to
take and snatch hold of something less arduous, to cash in the greater purpose for the lesser. Had He accepted the devil’s offer, we would
have still been without hope. He could
not have been the perfect sacrificial Lamb of God had He made the deal with
Satan.
Satan wanted Jesus to bank on His ability to heal disease, bring back the dead, and provide
food for thousands miraculously. Satan’s
placards were all about promoting an agenda of instant gratification. God’s plan for Jesus had nothing to do with
anything instant or easy; God’s plan for Jesus was that He would grow up
honoring His Father by resisting such urges toward shortcuts and
self-gratification.
God’s vision for His Son
was to show us dull earthlings, at great expense to Himself, how to live humbly,
to serve others at our own expense, take up crosses that would feed the world
more than temporary food, and heal them
eternally, not just slap on some kind
of flashy band aid.
Our Savior used His weapons valiantly that day
and all the others of His thirty- three years down here. His weapons were God’s Word.
We are heirs to the same
weapons Jesus used so well. We, as His
followers and bearers of His name, are challenged and commissioned to fight
bravely against the same Enemy using this same mighty and unconquerable
weaponry.
Satan is diligent to send
out his placard-bearers. When they march
across our brains shouting their lies and trying to make their sinister deals;
when they cavort maniacally with their shenanigans to get us to sell our
Treasures for a mess of pottage, we need to do whatever it takes to snatch out
our Weapons, God’s Truth, and fight. He
has armed us to the teeth.
