2 Corinthians 10:5
5 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.
1.
Part that sticks out: “demolish arguments and every
pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God”
a. What is
the knowledge of God?
i.
Gnosis
1. Thayer
Definition:
1) knowledge signifies in general
intelligence, understanding
1a) the general knowledge of Christian
religion
1b) the deeper more perfect and
enlarged knowledge of this religion, such as belongs to the more advanced
1c) especially of things lawful and
unlawful for Christians
1d) moral wisdom, such as is seen in
right living
ii.
The phrase - the wisdom of God is foolishness
to the non-people of God, however this word in Greek denotes a “common
knowledge”
b. The KJV
says “every imagination” – something certainly false
2. Thought on
application with experience
a. In the
spiritual warfare that we find ourselves in, we find ourselves under a barrage
of attack – one tactic, the “doctrine of demons” (1 Timothy 4:1), seeks to dissuade
us from the knowledge of God and to knock us off course.
i.
In effect, these doctrines set themselves up
against the knowledge of God – what is understood, or let’s even go as far as
to say, what should be understood about God.
1. It is
interesting to note here that common knowledge gets lost through time. Once, I stumbled upon a passage in a book
that said “it is common knowledge that vegetarians are more susceptible to
spirits” (Larkin). This caught me very
off guard. How was this common
knowledge? I had certainly never heard
of this.
a. 1 Timothy
4:1-5 and Acts 10:9-16 assert (in some eyes) that vegetarians (I think they
mean more specifically, those of the vegetarians that call meat evil or the
consumption there of evil) are wrong because they call bad what God has called
good. I asked my dad about this and he seems
to know exactly what was meant there – it was common knowledge to him. (I don’t
quite agree or understand this point of view and logic)
b. What else
then has been lost?
c. I must put
in opposition what I think vs. what the knowledge of God is; therefore I am to
also have the knowledge of God so that I can accurately place the two in
comparative opposition.
b. I will then
take captive those thoughts and make them submit to Christ
i.
This goes for both acceptable and unacceptable
thoughts
1. For the
acceptable ones, they are already in submission to Christ by being aligned with
the Way
2. For the
unacceptable ones, I personally perform a mental exercise.
a. I take the
thought and put it into image form in my imagination and place it in a jail or
some sort of container. Then, I take the
container or jail and imagine it being burned up.
b. This is
because I understand that imagination can be prayer.
i.
Just as humans and animals communicate
non-verbally, we also communicate with our Creator non-verbally.
ii.
He speaks to us through nature, feeling, other
people and more.
iii.
We speak to him through our conduct, feelings
and thoughts
1. Through
non-verbal communicative prayer, I can imagine and picture what I could put
into words (if I chose to do so) and simply enact them in my thought life as a
prayer before God
a. Many call
this meditation
2. So, my
imagining these unacceptable thoughts before God’s knowledge and putting them
in a holding place and destroying them is in essence and active way of
expressing wordlessly: “Lord, help me rid myself of these thoughts and have a
clean thought life.”
3. Conclusion
a. Obtain
knowledge of God and put is against your own precepts
b. Make all
of your thought life submissive to the Will of God
i.
90’s Question of Reflection: Would Jesus think
that?
c. Be mindful,
conscious of your thoughts at all times (“every thought”)
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