◄ What Does 2 Corinthians 10:5 Mean? ►

We must stop looking to other people, to other ministries, to the church, to the philosophy of others, and especially to our own understanding, if we are to destroy the arguments, perception, and pretensions that set themselves up as the authority of God and which so often become an authority against God.

Our concern is to bring our heart and our thoughts in line with Christ and to place every thought under the authority of Christ in obedience to Him: "Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ."

Our spiritual safety and strength does not lie in our own knowledge or the wisdom of others but lies in identifying and eliminating those thoughts that have anything to do with putting someone or something in the place of Christ, in our lives and our minds. God may use our own knowledge and the wisdom of others but only so far as Christ is preeminent in our hearts, for the measure of our own self-respect, esteem, and wisdom lies in inverse proportion to that of Christ.

When we cast down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, the finger is too often pointing inward. Every prideful thought of the heart, every inflated egotistical word, every haughty look, and every vain and scornful attitude, every foolish imagining of the heart, is exulting itself against the knowledge of God and a defiant advance against the gospel of Christ.

Every notion that invades from the outer, and every thought that is conceived within, is to be taken captive so that we are in obedient submission to Him and not to our own arguments, perception, and pretensions. Taken captive implies a conscious decision to bind that thought and march it, handcuffed, to Christ, where it cannot escape and re-enter our imaginings.

The more we think of the Lord Jesus, the less we think of ourselves. The greater He is the central focus of our thoughts, the more we have captivated every imagination in obedience to Christ. The superabundance of Christ in our thoughts means there is less influence from others and less inflation of self, until Christ is all in all.

Loving Father, too often my thoughts are not kept in captivity to obey You. Help me to become more and more captivated with Christ so that all else melts away as I gaze on the beauty of His presence within my heart. In Jesus' name I pray, AMEN.