2 Corinthians 10:1-6I had a conversation with someone about this passage. He took the phrase "take every thought captive to obey Christ" to mean to not entertain negative thoughts but focus on positive thoughts. Other Christians use it to encourage themselves to combat temptation. When they become aware of an evil thought, they pray about it and confess it. This may be a good activity, but is this what Paul meant when he wrote this passage to the Corintian church? Years ago I read a biography of Martin Luther which gave me reason to question this interpretation of the verse.
I, Paul, myself entreat you, by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away!— 2 I beg of you that when I am present I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
Every Thought
Martin Luther's early life was not easy: he lived as a monk in a monastery. Luther was well aware of his sins and the holiness of God. To keep his sanity, he relied on the sacrament of confession. He would confess every sin and sinful thought to the priests until the priests were worn out. He would also confess his sins directly to God.Roland BaintonIf we conscientously strived to take "every thought captive" as I described above, our Christian walk would be like Luther's experience: the more we focus on our inner life, the more we concentrate on sinful thoughts, the more sinful thoughts we would uncover. We have to ask ourselves, is this what Paul intended for us to do? Are we to continually focus inward instead of focusing upward toward God? This weight of sin is one of the burdens that Luther was set free from when he discovered that "salvation was by faith alone". Confessing our sin is good but our salvation is dependent on God's grace and not ourselves.
But Luther's question was not whether his sins were big or little, but whether they had been confessed. The great difficulty which he encountered was to be sure everything had been recalled. He learned from experience the cleverness of memory in protecting the ego, and he was frightened when after six hours of confessing he could still go out and think of something else which had eluded his most consceintious scrutiny. [1]
The Context
If "taking every thought captive" does not mean controlling one's inner thought life, what does it mean? To understand Paul's intention for the passage, we have to determine the context. Paul is writing to the Corinthian church, obviously. However, in this section, Paul seems to be warning in verse 2 that he is planning to show boldness against some of the audience who "suspect us of walking according to the flesh." There are some believers, a subset at the Corinthians church, who question Paul's motives, methodology and apostleship.
Another question to help us to determine context is "why did Paul switch from first person singular in verse 1 to first person plural in verse 2 (from "me" to "us")? In other words, who is the 'We' in "We destroy arguments..."? To answer that question, let us look at verses 3 and 4. In these verses 3-4, Paul uses an elaborate war metaphor to warn the Corinthians about certain aspects of his ministry: he is planning to visit Corinth and those who oppose him should be wary because of the weapons he [they] may use. Paul and his team use spiritual weapons and not weapons of the flesh.
Divine Powers
- destroy strongholds
- destroy arguments
- destroy every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God
- take every thought captive to obey Christ
- being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete
More evidence is that Paul and his team are planning to go to war against this oppositional sect is found a little further on in the passage:
2nd Corinthians 10:8Paul is coming on strong in verses 5 and 6 and he is stressing that his authority over them is given to him and his team ultimately to build them up and not just to punish them.
For even if I boast a little too much of our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be ashamed
Therefore, since we have "us versus them" scenario, Paul is indicating that if the oppositional sect in the Corinthian church does not give up their questioning of his authority, Paul will come after them with every spiritual weapon in his arsenal. The power of "taking every thought captive" is one of them. It is not something Paul was doing in his own mind, but is going to do to the obstinate Corinthians.
Taken
Let me illustrate what Paul is doing in the passage with Liam Neeson's character, "Bryan Mills", in the movie, Taken. Mills is a a retired, highly trained intelligence officer with years of experience in international missions. His daughter is being kidnapped. Mills talks to one of the the kidnappers on Mills's daughter's phone during the kidnapping. Mills states matter of factly, "But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career." He is using the indicative mode: Mills is telling the kidnapper facts. Mills is alerting the kidnapper that he has skills that the kidnapper does not have. Mills implying he will be able to find and punish the kidnapper if he does not let his daughter go. Paul, likewise, is not telling the Corinthians that we as Christians all have these particular ministeries or powers. Paul is telling the Corinthians that he is coming to clean house theologically with a particular set of specialized skills. Those who oppose him will be vanquished and will face punishment
Vocabulary
The next step in determining the meaning of the passage is to take a closer look at some key words in the passage: "Take Captive", "Thought", and the phrase, "when your obedience is fulfulled".
Take Captive
"take captive" or "αἰχμαλωτίζοντες", according to my linguistic key, is a present, active, participle. The key defines it as "to take one captive w. a spear, to bring into captivity, to bring into subjection. The pres. tense points to the continual struggle and warfare."[2] This participle is not a command, but a statement of fact. The mode of the participle supports my argument that Paul is doing what the Bryan Mills character did in Taken. Paul is making a statement about his team's ministry: he is trying to intimidate them into obedience and respect, but he is not commanding the Corinthians to do anything.
Thought -- νόημα
My linguistic key has the following: "νόημα thought, purpose, design (s. 2 Cor. 3:14).[3]"
Paul Barnett comments on "every thought"
With this image Paul the victor takes "every thought" captive and brings it in obedience to Christ. The "capture" of "every thought" appears to be closely related to the "reckonings" (of his local detractors?) that he "pulls down."This captive-taking stage of the siege metaphor is a striking image for the apostle-minister as a military general who takes fortified rebels captive and brings them into submissive obedience to Christ. This is a highly figurative way of saying, "We...preach Jesus Christ as Lord (4:5) as well as--and with no contradiction--"We preach Christ crucified (1 Cor 1:23), the other side of the paradox of Christ. In v. 1 Christ is "meek...gentle...[humble]"; here Christ is a conquering king to whom prisoners are brought.
Although this is capable of application to his ministry in general, Paul probably has in mind his prospective relationships with the Corinthians in particular. This emerges from the next verse, when the image of obedience is pursued but in a context referring to Paul's planned return to Corinth and the discipline that he hopes he will not have to exercise (v. 2; cf. 12:20-21).[4]
... when your obedience is fulfilled.
The next key phrase about the context of this passage is determining what verse 10:6 means. Hodge points out the Paul is willing to dispense discipline on his next trip. Hodge gives verse 6 its context:Charles Hodge on 10:6
What was the nature of punishment which he threatened, he does not intimate. It may be that he purposed nothing more than excommunication. The fact, however, that the apostles were armed with supernatural power, that they exercised that power for the punishment of offenders, 1 Cor. 5, 5. I Tim. 1, 20, and the whole tone of the passage are in favour of the assumption that Paul was determined to use all the means at his command to suppress the insolence, and to destroy the power of the corrupters of the truth in Corinth. He gives what he had said a special application by adding, when your obedience is fullfilled. That is, he would not resort to severity until all other means had failed, and until it had become fully manifest who among the Corinthians would submit to God, and who would persist in their disobedience.[5]
Conclusion
First, I am not saying we should we should stop praying for forgiveness when we have sinful thoughts. However, I am asserting this passage is about apostolic authority over the Church members and not about our personal thought lives. The passage is about humility and submission to authority. There are other passages about how we ought to think (e.g. Phil. 4:8). Notice how the verse in Phillippians is God-centered and not sin centered. Since the 1st Corinthians passage is about Paul's apostolic authority, we can conclude that the passage is about how the Bible is authoritative in our lives. Paul was combating believers who thought they were super spiritual. They were listening to other (false) teachers (see 1 Cor. 4). They felt they could disregard Paul because of his appearance and lack of rhetorical skills. If the "we" means, apostles/pastors/teachers that God has gifted with authority over the local church to teach the church, then we need humbly to submit to their teaching.
Applications
The passage is about authority and submission within the church. We must seek to be humble both in following our leaders and in our leading as leadership.- Humbly Study the Word. We need to do more than just do a daily reading. We need to find ways to understand the arguments and historical context of the epistles like 1st and 2nd Corinthians.To tear down strongholds, we need to understand how God instructed Paul to do it in the first century. We must humbly seek to apply our whole minds to the study of Scripture and humbly submit our thoughts to its teaching.
- Humbly Submit to Church Leadership. Some of the members of the Corinthian Church listened to false teachers rather than Paul. In our day we have podcasts, TV shows, books and innumerable forms of media that spread false teaching. We need to submit to the leadership of the local church. Our leaders are not apostles and we can question them like the Bereans questioned Paul in Acts 17; however, we must question them humbly. If you are in a Church, you should follow the leadership without grumbling or mumbling. There is good teaching in printed and online media, but it needs to be used cautiously.
- Humbly Lead and Teach. As leaders of a church, we really don't have a moral authority. The Word does. In counseling, we can advise and encourage using our life experience, but our advice, our exhortation, and our encouragements need to be grounded in the Word. We need to use the Word from the pulpit and in training young leaders. If a member of the flock questions us about a sermon or teaching, we must accept the questions and criticisms humbly.
- Argue humbly. If you think someone must have a certain political position then they are not a Christian, please reconsider. If you have used the argument that the Holy Spirit has given you special insight, you are being super spiritual like the Corinthians. Please go home, lock yourself into your figurative prayer closet, and pray for forgiveness.
- Confess humbly. I want to reiterate 1 John 1:9 is a command. I fully support confessing one's sin. The apostle John was battling "super christians" as well, but they thought they were without sin. Your confession should turn your focus back to God.
[1]Roland Bainton, Here I Stand, p. 55 (Go Back)
[2]Fritz Rienecker, Translated by Cleon L. Rodgers, Jr., A Linguistic Key to the New Testament: Volume 2, p. 140 (Go Back)
[4]Paul Barnett, The New International Commentary on the Second Epistles to the Corinthians, p. 466 (Go Back)
[5]Charles Hodge, A Commentary on 1st and 2nd Corinthians, p. 613
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