For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 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.

I recently read a quote from a Navy SEAL talking about war and conflict. He said that in order to win a war “you have to understand the nature of the conflict in which you are engaged.” If you don’t understand the nature of the conflict, you can’t possibly know how you should fight.

‍

Wars have been lost because militaries didn’t understand their enemy. Championships have been lost because teams didn’t understand their opponent. Relationships have been destroyed because one person didn’t understand what the other was trying to communicate.

‍

Sometimes we don’t understand the nature of the conflict because of ignorance; we just don’t know any better. Sometimes it’s intentional; we’re trying to get our way in a conflict. Sometimes it’s because we have never seen any other way to fight; our default reaction is all we know.

‍

No matter the reason, and no matter how these situations have played out in our lives, the same thing remains true: If you don’t understand what’s happening, you can’t effectively move forward. You might see part of what’s happening, and you might be reacting to it somehow, but it doesn’t mean you’re making forward progress. You can do a lot of things and still lose the war.

‍

When we feel like we’re stuck fighting the same things over and over, maybe the problem isn’t the fight; maybe it’s our understanding of what’s happening. We need something greater than ourselves to show us what is really happening.

Paul spent plenty of time giving the Corinthian church reminders; they weren’t a church without problems. In these verses in particular, he reminds them that we can easily misunderstand the nature of the conflict in which we’re engaged. And as Paul says, it’s easy to “wage war as the world does” when we do that.

‍

The world says that we should be able to do whatever we want. So, we fight as the world does when we only focus on ourselves and what we want. The world says we should have our own “truth,” and no one can tell us otherwise. So, we fight as the world does when we have to get rid of the people in our lives who disagree with us. The world says that life should be about happiness and comfort. So, we fight as the world does when we get rid of all the things that are difficult.

‍

We can absolutely fight for this way of living. The world does it every day. But the question is, is that a life worth fighting for?

‍

Paul says in verse 5 that “we demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God.” There will be all kinds of things that the world says we should fight for. But the only things truly worth fighting for are the things of God, because God is the only One who we can truly hope in.

‍

The only way for us to stay in this fight is to understand the nature of the conflict we’re in. It may not always seem like there is a conflict in front of us, but there is always going to be something that is trying to get your attention over Jesus. But the good news is, Jesus fights for us.

‍

Because when these conflicts come up, we can do as Paul says and “take every thought captive to make it obedient to Christ.” When we pray for help, we’re asking God to step in and fight for us.

‍

When the world says we should be able to do whatever we want, we can take that thought captive. Then we see this life isn’t about doing what we want, it’s about living the purpose God has given us. When the world says we should have our own “truth,” we can take that thought captive, realizing we can’t make up a “truth,” but God himself has given us the truth of the gospel, that Jesus died to save us from sin. When the world says that life should be about happiness and comfort, we can take that thought captive, knowing there will be hard times in this life, but that God is with us through all of it.

‍

When we give Jesus authority over our minds, everything changes. God can give us perspective that we would have never had on our own. He can overcome the thoughts that have kept us from seeing how good He is. And He can give us a new purpose that only comes from Him.

Thank you, God, that we don’t have to fight alone. We give you authority over our minds today to take every thought we have captive. We don’t want to do this by ourselves; we want the power of your Spirit to guide us and show us where you want us to go. Help us to get rid of the thoughts that keep us from seeing you clearly. Take those captive and remind us of all the times we’ve seen your faithfulness in our lives. It is not us who lives, but Jesus who lives in us. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.