Have you ever read a passage of scripture that seemed to smack you right between the eyes?
Last night our small group encountered these verses. As they were read aloud I literally rolled my chair backward and said something profound like, “Huh.”
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. [2 Corinthians 10:3-5]
I was particularly struck by this sentence: The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world.
I’m not sure I heard most of the remainder of the discussion. I couldn’t get past the thought that God doesn’t want me to fight the world’s battles according to the world’s rules. I’m not sure why that felt so powerful—it’s not exactly a new concept.
I wanted to look a little deeper, so I looked up the same passage in The Message.
The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair.
No kidding. So how am I supposed to compete in a world with no rules?
But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation,
God doesn’t need to be packaged and promoted in some slick direct-mail scheme. No tricks, no gimmicks, no guilt trips, no bait-and-switch tactics. We don’t use violence, threats, coercion, or peer pressure. Those are the world’s tools, not God’s.
but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.
The war is spiritual. It’s not about politics and nations and material stuff–it’s much bigger. And I’m not supposed to modify the culture into something just a bit less offensive. I’m not supposed to fit in and trim around the edges.
We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.
I can’t just go with the flow. I’m instructed to “capture” my thoughts, emotions, and impulses, not be their prisoner. Jesus is the structure—everything else must conform to Him.
Weapons?
I wondered about the weapons with which we’re supposed to fight, these God-tools capable of smashing philosophies and tearing down barriers. Am I supposed to wear a cape, place a large “J” on my chest and leap tall building in a single bound?
I spent a few moments listing the tools Jesus used to change the world. Indeed, they’re not the world’s weapons.
Jesus deployed an arsenal consisting of:
- Faith
- Hope
- Love
- Prayer
- Spirit
- God’s word
Pretty simple, huh? I wonder if I have the courage to drop the world’s weapons and do life His way.
Two questions: Did I miss anything in my list? Who can you think of who sincerely tried (tries) to use these tools?
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