Begin with two minutes of silence and stillness before God.
Paul seems weary in this passage. Who can blame him? He has been through a lot, and he just wants what is best for his fellow believers. He knows what is at stake, and he is practically begging the Corinthian Christians to heed his words. He is charging them to remember who they are in Christ and fight the good fight. Paul urges them not to wage war as the world does, but to do so as Christ does with gentleness and understanding. Ready to fight, armed with the knowledge of the Lord. In verses 3-5, Paul explains, “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.”
We are fighting a war not only with the outside world, but a war within ourselves. It is a daily fight to remain holy and pure in the eyes of God. There are so many sins coming at us all of the time that the battle can leave us all weary. Paul reminds us that there are many spiritual battles that we will face that will seek to undermine our faith and separate us from God, but thankfully, we are empowered by God’s divine strength. Arming ourselves with spiritual weapons, we can defeat anything the world and Satan throw at us. I don’t know about you, but that truth gives me renewed confidence!
Let’s refresh our memories and discuss some of the spiritual weapons the Lord has given us. One essential spiritual weapon is the Bible. It is the living word of God and our firm foundation as believers. Paul says that we fight with the knowledge of the Lord. Where does our knowledge come from? It comes from reading and studying the Bible.
Another spiritual weapon is prayer. Prayer is powerful because it is a direct line of communication with God. We must pray without ceasing. Prayer is how we seek God’s guidance and make our requests known to Him. Through prayer, we strengthen our bond with God. After all, it is His battle we are fighting, not our own. We cannot win the fight if we are not communicating with the Lord in prayer.
Lastly, we must discipline ourselves to take captive intrusive thoughts that separate us from God. Intrusive, ungodly thoughts are a powerful weapon in spiritual warfare. They can quickly send us down a path of unrighteousness. We have to be ready to intercept ungodly thoughts with divine power. We must always be ready to fight by putting on the full armor of God (Ephesians 6:13). Confidently, we can proclaim victory over spiritual warfare because the war has already been won through Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.
Take two minutes to reflect in silence.