Lesson for April 14, 2024
The Power of Thought
Lesson 5
II Corinthians 10:3-5, “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
Staying with our passage from II Corinthians 10, we must ask the question, what fortresses does Satan have and how can they be destroyed? We have seen the weapons of our warfare as believers from Ephesians 6. These weapons are spiritual weapons designed by God to destroy the strongholds of Satan, the influence of demons, and the world system. It is Satan’s desire to distract, deceive, and destroy us as believers.
The Greek word for arguments is “logismos,” meaning thoughts. The Greek word for arrogance is “pashupsoma,” meaning everything high or exalted, as in human pride. Pride is both a mental attitude sin and a human viewpoint system of thought. Satan uses human viewpoint and false doctrine to keep us off-balance and off-track spiritually. The Greek word for raised is “epairo,” meaning to elevate. These arguments (thoughts) and arrogance (pride) are raised up against the knowledge of God (Bible doctrine resident in the souls of believers). The meaning of these Greek words confirms the fact that we are in battle for the control of how we think.
There are only two viewpoints of life for believers, divine viewpoint and human viewpoint. Choosing the right viewpoint will determine what a believer’s life will be like. It will also determine whether a believer glorifies God or plays into the hand of Satan and his world system. So, the question is whether we will use our volition to “take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” So, how do we accomplish this seemly impossible task?
II Corinthians 10:6, “And we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.”
The Greek word for punish is “ekdikeo,” meaning revenge. Revenge connotes punishment and indicates that all these revolts in the mind of a believer must be put down immediately. The Greek word for disobedience is “parakoe,” meaning refusal to hear. All disobedience connotes deviation from obedience or authority by failing to listen to and obey the truth.
Satan has many clever systems for controlling the mind/soul of believers, but God has provided a security system to protect the soul. And we are ready is a military term denoting security and could be translated, “to garrison troops at a certain point to prevent revolution.” This verse is a warning against revolution in the soul. How can the believer have revolution in his soul? When he goes negative toward Bible doctrine through emotional revolt, reversionism, human viewpoint or apostasy, causing scar tissue in the soul or hardness of heart, his soul is in revolution.
Emotional revolt in the soul may be temporary carnality and last only as long as it takes to rebound, or it may be permanent and lead to reversionism. When emotion takes over, it causes irrational behavior and unhappiness. The person who is controlled by their emotions is happy when things are going their way, but unhappy or even depressed when they aren’t. Therefore, we need to guard our souls against satanic attacks.
As a believer, your soul is not automatically protected from the influence of Satan’s world system. You must allow the Holy Spirit to assist you in arming yourself. This can be done as you use your volition to make positive decisions regarding your relationship with God. Your first decision after salvation should have been to start learning the Word of God, since it is one of our power options in the Christian life. However, it is never too late to begin a life of faithfulness to God and His Word. Learning how to use the equipment that God has provided us to win spiritual battles is the key to overcoming the deceitfulness of Satan, his demons, and his world system. This involves learning how to think and use doctrine as an offensive weapon. I Timothy 4:15-16, “Take heed unto yourself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this you will both deliver yourself from satanic doctrine and deliver those whom you have influence over.”
II Corinthians 10:7, “You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, have him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so too are we.”
Although no demon can enter the body of a believer, Satanic doctrine can infiltrate the soul. One of the great dangers that believers face in the Christian life is to assume that they know something when they know nothing or very little! A superficial knowledge of the Word of God often leads to misinterpretation and misapplication of the Bible. When this occurs, it leaves a vacuum in the soul that can be filled by false doctrine. As this false doctrine infiltrates the soul, human viewpoint takes over as the standard of thinking and living. This mindset is looking at things as they are outwardly.
In contrast to Human Viewpoint Thinking, believers who have equipped themselves with the armor of God have a mindset of divine viewpoint. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s is a first-class condition meaning they are confident they belong to Christ. Have him consider this again within himself means use the power of thought from their soul to think divine viewpoint.
That just as he is Christ’s, so too are we is Paul reminding these believers that he is a believer like them and that he has spiritual authority as an apostle and has taught them accurately how to think. Paul wasn’t teaching some erroneous doctrine that was contrary to the teachings of Christ. Paul had been given the ministry of teaching the mystery doctrine of the Church Age, which requires believers to have a positive mental attitude toward learning it and applying it.
Isaiah 26:3, “The steadfast mind You will keep in perfect peace, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock.”
A believer will never advance one step toward spiritual maturity until they have a stabilized, steadfast mind. The opposite of perfect peace is spiritual turmoil. Paul warned against this in Ephesians 4:14, “As a result (of growing up in Christ), we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming.”
The Greek word for tossed is “kludonizomai,” which is used for a ship out of control, at the mercy of the wind and the waves. It refers to succumbing to the false teachings of Satan’s world system of human viewpoint thinking or falling prey to the teachings of a false teacher. Both of these errors lead to carnality and eventually into reversionism. This is illustrated by the words carried about which is the Greek word “periphero,” meaning to lift and to be carried away. In this case, Paul was warning them not to be carried away into some system of false doctrine. False doctrine is called the doctrine of demons in I Timothy 4:1. It is the doctrine that enters the vacuum in the soul of negative believers. Vacuum is translated as vanity or futility from the Greek word “mataiotes,” meaning emptiness.
This warning is further illustrated by Paul in the phrases the trickery of men and craftiness in deceitful scheming. The Greek word for trickery is “kubeia,” meaning gambling with dice. The Greek word for craftiness is “panourgia,” which means to cheat. The reversionistic believer is playing dice with the devil, and the devil has “loaded the dice” with false doctrine. The devil cheats those members of the royal family who neglect and/or reject Bible doctrine. Neglect of Bible doctrine inevitably results in being outsmarted by the devil. Satan “loads the dice” in favor of false doctrine.
Deceitful scheming illustrates the character and treachery of Satan and his “ministers of righteousness.” These ministers of Satan are ministers of false doctrine and they are in the pulpit of churches every week. The Greek word for deceitful is “planeao,” meaning to lead one into error or seduce. So, Satan uses both trickery and craftiness to lead the unsuspecting spiritually immature believer into false doctrine. This believer is in the royal family but has no spiritual life. In that condition, there is no hope of advancing in the Chrisian life or effectively coping with the trials of life. Therefore, accurate Bible doctrine is to be our very highest priority as believers and without it we will likely believe false doctrine.
Paul compares a spiritually immature believer to a ship out of control, floundering in a storm. A spiritually immature believer is also compared to a person in a “crooked” dice game, playing with loaded dice. This means that no matter how smart these believers think they are, they cannot stand up against the influence of demon doctrine that Satan makes appear as accurate Bible doctrine from God. The power of thought is key to defeating Satan’s attempt to fool us, distract us, and deceive us!