Take Every Thought Captive

 

Read 2 Corinthians 10

Paul gets a little personal here. He has heard the gossip that Paul is bold in his letters but timid in person. He talks big when he is somewhere else, but not when he is with us.

Paul mentioned before that when he comes to visit, he hoped for a time of fellowship, not discipline. He wanted hugs and friendly meals with friends, not people to chastise.

What is Paul saying?

We are all on the same team. We are not competitors. We are surely not enemies. We should be friends and coworkers in the gospel.

The battles we face are mostly in our minds. We do not look at scorecards of accomplishments, but Paul could play that game if required. To use the leadership metaphor, we all need to get our eyes off the scoreboard and on the ball.

This morning, we get to talk a little about one of my favorite subjects—metacognition. We will examine thinking about thinking and consider Paul’s words to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

Is that an analogy, a metaphor, or some other figurative tool? What if it is as literal as it gets?

Remember, the battle is in our minds. We don’t just kick bad thoughts to the curb; we make them obedient to the will of our Master. 

Any thought that somehow enters our mind is challenged. Halt! Who goes there!

Halt! Who goes there!

To challenge every thought, we must have a perimeter. Any thought that enters that perimeter is challenged, and if it stands in accordance with our Master’s instructions, it can stay.

And every other thought is not just dismissed, it is made to be obedient to the will of Christ. If the thought enters our minds, there is a battle—a battle of wills if you will—and only the will of our Master is acceptable.

Last Sunday, I mentioned that you can’t go through life with the paradigm that life is a minefield. Yes, there is God’s way and there is everything else, but we can’t let fear govern and just creep along through life. We keep our eyes fixed on Jesus and run our race of faith. We don’t sweat the troubles of this world.

But we can’t be passive either. It’s not Que Sera, Sera. It’s not whatever will be, will be. It’s not whatever. That mindset is called cheerful fatalism. If you are a cartoonist like Gary Larsen, then you might use this cheerful fatalism for a little gallows humor.

The rest of us need to avoid it at all costs.

We don’t worry, we are not anxious, we don’t sweat the circumstances of the world, but we are not passive. Our minds are always engaged, and we are always on the lookout for those things that don’t get to live within our security perimeter.

The passive mind is like a sponge that does not discriminate. It will absorb whatever comes its way, be it good, bad, or ugly. The passive mind is indifferent to God’s way and everything else.

The passive mind grants equal access to the thoughts of Satan and the thoughts of God. That dog don’t hunt! We justify the passive mind, thinking that God will use it all for good.

Yes, God will use everything for good for those who love him and are called according to his purpose, but that’s no excuse for us to tune out this thinking business.

You might think Tom loves this metacognition business, but is it biblical? Really, does the Bible even talk about thinking?

Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Before we fight the stray thoughts that enter our minds, we fight the battle outside the lines. We are proactive in thinking about specific things. We don’t have to fight thoughts in our minds if our minds are already engaged in thinking on good things.

We are not passive.

We are proactive in our thinking.

In Paul’s earlier letter to this congregation, he said:

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding.

Our thinking and the Spirit's leading inside us need to be in sync. We want our thinking to be in accord with God’s directions.

Too often, we ask him to align with our plans. Our own understanding has confounded our thinking. We want God to bless our plans, and he does when we align them with his plans.

In Paul’s letter to the church in Rome, we get these words.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

You might be thinking that this thinking stuff is just Paul, so let’s consider Isaiah’s words.

You will keep in perfect peace

    those whose minds are steadfast,

    because they trust in you.

The prophet noted that peace comes with a steadfast mind—a mind that trusts in the Lord.

Most of our battles are in our minds. Our battlefields are not places like Thermopylae, Waterloo, or Iwo Jima. I’m sure we could relate to some intensive mental combat in our minds even though the battles may or may not have names.

We do not fight most of our battles in the physical world. The strongholds that we demolish are falsehoods, lies, and deception. Our primary weapon is the truth, and we are not passive.

Peace is not passive.

And now I get to do another favorite thing. I get to cover some grammar and syntax in the sermon. It’s Christmas come early for me.

How should most professional writing be designed these days?  Correspondence is usually present tense. The target audience for most professional writing is at an eighth-grade level. That one still seems odd.  Here’s the heart of professional writing:

Active voice, indicative mood.

What?  We should use the active voice and the indicative mood. That’s how we communicate real things.

As opposed to?

Passive voice, subjunctive mood.

It’s the difference between “I’m doing this” and “Whatever will be will be.”

It’s the difference between being proactive with God’s directions and what-ifing something until you are overcome by events.

It’s the difference between putting your Master’s talents to work at once and burying them in the ground.

It’s the difference between doing something and explaining why it can’t be done.

And it’s all happening in our minds. Our minds prompt us to action, and our minds convince us to do nothing. The battle and the battlefield are in our minds.

Paul says that we have to be proactive. We take this cognitive fight to the enemy. We think on good things. We renew our minds in the word of God. Our hearts and our minds trust the Lord.

Our thinking is proactive, not passive.

We are a sponge for God’s directions and repel all that runs counter.

Any thought that enters our minds without proper authority will be captured, then indoctrinated, or destroyed. There is no catch-and-release.

No worldly thoughts live rent-free in our minds. If they show up, they are in for a fight.

One of Paul’s secular contemporaries was Plutarch. He said: The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.  We are to fan the flames of our God-driven minds.

When the world thinks it has us beat, remember, we have the mind of Christ.

God’s ways and thoughts are not ours. They are so much higher than ours, but we have the mind of Christ. We have the mind of God that lived the human life.

We have the best counsel ever.

It’s still God’s way and everything else, but we have the mind of the only One who has ever lived God’s way in a human body. So, here are your thoughts for Sunday lunch.

Our thinking is proactive, not passive.

We are a sponge for God’s directions and repel all that runs counter.

Any thought that enters our minds without proper authority will be captured, then indoctrinated, or destroyed. There is no catch-and-release.

No worldly thoughts live rent-free in our minds. They are in for the fight of their lives.

One last analogy, for now. Do we take the gifts of our minds and God’s directions on how to use them and put them to work at once and produce a return for our Master, or do we bury them in the ground?

That’s the big picture. For now, work on taking every thought captive and making it obedient to Christ.

Amen.