2 Corinthians chapter 10. We're going to start
with verse 1. We're going to read kind of a big
little section right here. And then we'll pray
and we'll talk about it. So 2 Corinthians chapter
10 verse 1. Now I, Paul, make a personal appeal
to you by the gentleness and graciousness of
Christ. I, who am humble among you in person,
but bold toward you when absent, I beg that when
I am present, I will not need to be bold with
the confidence by which I plan to challenge certain
people who think we are behaving in an unspiritual
way. For though we live in the body, we do not
wage war in an unspiritual way. Since the weapons
of our warfare are not worldly, but are powerful
through God for the demolition of strongholds.
We demolish arguments and every high -minded
thing that is raised up against the knowledge
of God, taking every thought captive to obey
Christ. And we are ready to punish any disobedience
once your obedience has been confirmed. Look
at what is obvious. If anyone is confident that
he belongs to Christ, He should remind himself
of this. Just as he belongs to Christ, so do
we. For if I boast some more about our authority,
which the Lord gave us for building you up and
not for tearing you down, I am not ashamed. I
don't want to seem as though I'm trying to terrify
you with my letters. For it is said, his letters
are weighty and powerful, but his physical presence
is weak. And his public speaking is despicable.
Such a person should consider this. What we are
in the words of our letters when absent, we will
be in action when present. Let's pray. God, we
come to you. We thank you for these good words.
I pray that we would focus on them, that we would
think about them. That maybe there's something
in here that we can use to apply to our own life,
dear Lord. That maybe we could learn through
what Paul is going through and the things that
have come up in his life and the way that he
handles things, dear Lord, the way that he serves
you. So I pray, God, that you would just help
me to be able to preach and teach in these next
few minutes in a way that's going to bring all
the focus to your word. Let your Holy Spirit
speak to us. And I ask these things in Jesus'
name. Amen. Now, a little refresher of what we
saw really throughout the book, but in the beginning,
and this kind of thread's kind of continued to
be woven along through the book, and that is
it appears as though people are questioning Paul.
They're questioning maybe his motives. They're
questioning his authority. They're questioning
his power, and they're being tempted to turn
to other teachers, other teachers who are not
teaching them well. They're not teaching them
right. And so Paul had already written 1 Corinthians,
and it is believed by many scholars that Paul
might have written a couple of other letters
that we don't have. But we know some of the things
that he addressed in 1 Corinthians. And here
in 2 Corinthians, he's continuing to address
some of the problems, but really he's offering
up a defense for himself. And that's not so that
Paul can say, hey, you need to follow me and
not them, or I'm better than them. I mean, certainly
he does say that. but not in a proud sense, more
in a sense of concern for the people of Corinth.
That, hey, there's these other teachers that
are coming, and they're teaching you other things.
They're presenting to you other thoughts to ponder,
and don't think on these things they're telling
you, and don't give in to these practices and
these other things. It's not a competition between
Paul and these other people, but Paul is concerned
for the people of Corinth, that they won't be
led astray. And so here we see when we get to
chapter 10 that he's kind of defending himself
again. And he says, now I, Paul, make a personal
appeal to you by the gentleness and graciousness
of Christ. Okay, so how does Paul deal with the
Corinthians when he's among them? Well, we saw
as we read through this passage that there is
a certain gentleness and graciousness that Paul
shows when he is present. among the Corinthians.
Now, we already saw earlier in the book that
he does not want to come in and be forceful with
them. Even though there are some things that
they're doing and the way that they're acting,
he doesn't want to come in and be strong. He
wants them to see what's going on, to realize
the error of their ways, to straighten up, to
not be led astray, so that he doesn't have to
really address these situations in a powerful
way. But he realizes that that may be a possibility.
Now, he has dealt gently with them when he's
with them, but there appears to be a difference
between what he writes and the way he acts. Now,
when he wrote to them in 1 Corinthians, you can
go back and read it, boy, he's pretty strong
there on some things. He's pretty stern on some
things. He writes to them. He writes to them
with boldness so that when he's in person, he
doesn't have to act boldly. So he's trying to
give them an opportunity to turn and to do what's
right. But some have questioned Paul. They've
questioned the way that he speaks and things
that he says. We see that in verse 10. For it
is said, his letters are weighty and powerful.
but his physical presence is weak and his public
speaking is despicable. Now, those quotation
marks are there in the text. He's quoting something
that was being said among the people of Corinth,
okay? So when they read his letters, they were
like, wow, this guy's, man, he's got some authority.
He's really, he's writing some strong and some
bold and some stern stuff. And then Paul comes
onto the scene, but what do they say about him
when he shows up? That's him? Well, he's just
a weak guy. He's not a good speaker. His speech
is despicable. His public speaking is despicable,
it says. And so when they saw him in appearance,
they kind of began to question what he was saying.
Even though they believed it when he wrote it,
they weren't ready to listen to him when he came.
And part of that was because, man, he wrote with
a lot of strength. But then when he... shows
up on the scene, it says that he shows up with
some graciousness and some gentleness. And sadly
in life, we want to be gracious and we want to
be gentle, but sometimes we have to be stern.
And that's a fine line to walk. And Paul was
trying to walk that line. He was trying to give
these people every opportunity possible to do
what's right. He didn't just come in guns a -blazing,
and maybe that's something we can take from this.
There's a way to handle situations, and Paul
gives us a good example of how to handle situations.
He didn't just fly off the handle from the get
-go. He didn't come in like a tyrant from the
get -go and just says, okay, I see what y 'all
are doing wrong. I'm getting on a ship. He just
showed up over there, and he started just tearing
everybody up. That's not what he did. He wrote
a strongly worded letter, and sadly, they didn't
pay attention to it. But he acknowledges in these
verses that, look, If I have to come to you,
I might come to you with the same boldness as
in these letters, and that's not what I want
to do. And so they saw this gentleness that he
showed. They saw this graciousness that he showed,
and they didn't take him serious. But Paul says,
look, you better take me serious. I don't want
to be this way. I don't want to act this way.
What I want more than anything is for you guys
to live in obedience. I'm trying to hold off.
He says in verse 6, and we are ready to punish
any disobedience once your obedience has been
confirmed. I think what he's saying there is,
look, we're holding off because we want you to
be obedient so that we don't have to punish any
disobedience. But he also acknowledged in this
passage that he has some apostolic authority.
Okay, God has called me to serve in this way,
and I'm trying to be gracious to you, but there
comes a time when I'm going to have to put my
foot down. And he says something great that we
need to consider at the end of verse 4. He had
talked about there, you know, even though we're
fleshly, even though we live in the flesh and
we're in the fleshly world, like our battle's
not really. really a battle against flesh and
blood. It's a spiritual battle, and some had
accused him of being unspiritual, or another
way to say that, they had accused him of being
fleshly in the things he was doing. But Paul
says, no, wait a minute. Our power comes from
God. Our power comes from God, and we are serving
God, and we are trying to be obedient to God.
And at the end of verse 4, he says, based on
this power that comes through God, he says, but
our power... Let's see. Since the weapons of
our warfare are not worldly but are powerful
through God for the demolition of strongholds.
Okay. Well, that's good that God has the power
to release people from strongholds because we
probably all have some strongholds that we wish
we could break free from. Maybe it's sweets.
Maybe it's something more serious. Maybe it's...
alcohol, maybe it's drugs, maybe it's a bad attitude,
maybe it's laziness, maybe it's gluttony. I mean,
whatever it is, we all have these strongholds
in our life and we're like, golly, I know this
isn't good for me and I shouldn't act this way
or I shouldn't do this thing, but man, this stronghold's
got a hold of me. Well, praise the Lord. Paul
shows us here that God has the power. to free
us from our strongholds. And then what does he
say? That power is also used to demolish arguments
and every high -minded thing that is raised up
against the knowledge of God. Okay, so people
are coming at Paul. There's always arguments
against the word of God, against Christianity,
against Jesus. We still see that in our world
today. But what does Paul say? The power of God
gives us strength. to be able to battle against
these things, to demolish these arguments that
come up, that we're going to stand on the Lord,
on the Word of God, on Jesus Christ, and there's
great power in that, and there's nothing else
in the world that can stand up to the power of
God that comes against the knowledge of God,
he says. And then at the end of verse 7 here,
he says, taking every thought captive to obey
Christ. Paul says, all right, we take every thought
captive. So there's a lot of thoughts that go
through our mind. And the question that we have
to consider is, do we take every thought captive
or do our thoughts take us captive? When we begin
to thinking about things, are we captivated by
those things so much so that... that the thought
and the idea and the thing that's on our mind
kind of controls us, and that's what we focus
on, and that's what we desire. Do our thoughts
take us captive, or do we take our thoughts captive?
Well, Paul says, hey, look, I got the power of
God here, the power to take every thought captive.
And that's what I think he wants his audience
to do. Because there's all these other teachings
that are going on that may be, you know, opposed
to what Paul says or differ in some way from
what Paul says. And he said, hey, you don't need
to be thinking on those things. You don't need
to be dwelling on those things. You need to take
what I've taught you about Jesus Christ, about
the word of God, about the power of Christ. And
you need to know that, look. These things don't
have a stronghold over you, and you don't need
to let your thoughts take you captive, but you
need to say, look, I'm going to think about the
things of God. I'm going to take my thoughts
captive, not vice versa. And what does he say?
Taking every thought captive to obey Christ.
Okay, so what are our thoughts on? Are our thoughts
on doing the things of the world? And when those
other thoughts come into our mind, we say, nope,
I'm going to push that out. I'm not going to
let that have the final say. I'm going to focus
on Jesus Christ. Or when those thoughts pop into
our mind, do we just kind of let them take over?
We start thinking about things of the world,
things that we want, things that we want to do.
We start thinking about people that we're angry
at. Man, you let something like that, that thought,
it creeps us away in. And if you don't take it
captive instantly, man, it starts working its
way into your mind, and pretty soon you just
work up and you get so angry or you just get
so focused on something that it just completely
takes you away from hearing what God's trying
to say or the way that God's trying to lead you.
So Paul says, hey, look, we need to be those
who take every thought captive. And he tells
his audience, look, you may say these things
about me, but I'm trying to be patient with you.
And that's exactly what God does to his people
throughout the scripture. God is patient, not
wanting any to pass away, not wanting any to
be destroyed, but all to come to repentance.
God is patient with us just as Paul was patient
with these people and are we patient with those
that we encounter. Maybe there's a time for gentleness
and patience in our life, but... There may also
be a time that we have to exercise some boldness.
How do we know when to do that? Well, we have
to pray a lot about it. We don't want to be one
that's quick to jump on somebody about something.
There are some times that we need to be bolder
than we are, and there are some times that we
don't need to be as bold as we've been. And so
I can't tell you when that is, but the Holy Spirit
can lead you in that way. If we pray and say,
okay, God, help me to know how to act and when
to act. what to say and what not to say, when
to say it and when not to say it. We want to
be compassionate. We want to be gracious, just
as Paul was. But Paul also knew, well, you can't
let these things go on forever. You can't let
these bad habits and these bad things continue
to take place because, man, once these bad teachings
and these bad thoughts entered the people, he's
fighting for their attention now. And he says,
look, you need to trust in the Lord and take
every thought captive. And that advice is good
for you and I still today. Let's pray. God, we
come to you. We thank you for these words. I
pray God that you would help us to exercise that
same graciousness and gentleness in our lives
that Paul exhibits here. I pray God that you
help us to know when we need to be bold, if we
need to be bold, dear Lord. Perhaps there are
times that we need to be a little firmer than
we are. God, I pray that you just guide us and
help us to know what to do in those times and
when to do it. I pray, God, that you would help
us with our thoughts. They continually run through
our mind, a million of them a day. But don't
let our thoughts get control of us and slow us
down and sidetrack us. God, help us to know that,
God, we don't have to give in to our thoughts
and our strongholds, but through Jesus Christ,
we have freedom. So I pray, dear Lord, that you
would help us to take our thoughts captive, to
think about how we're going to live our life,
to think about the decisions we make. Are they
going to be for your kingdom or are they just
for us? Are they pulling us away from you or
are they drawing us closer toward you, dear Lord?
So help us to take our thoughts captive as they
come before us, dear Lord, the temptations and
the distractions of the enemy that we would not
give in to those, but that we would stand firm.
In Jesus Christ. And I ask these things in Jesus
name. Amen.