Saturday 20 February, 2021

10 By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! 2 I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 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. 6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. 7 You are judging by appearances.[a] If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. 8 So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it. 9 I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. 10 For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” 11 Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.

Have you ever met a person who thinks they are always right?  Some people believe if they think something it must be right.  Maybe you are one of these people only to find out you are often wrong. This usually happens if you fail to realise all thoughts and ideas need to be tested for correctness. To do this you need to be ‘thinking about what you are thinking’.

Paul knew this to be true and in verse 2-5 NIV he states; 1) He does NOT live by the standards (thoughts and ways) of this world.  2) He tests all thoughts and ideas to see if they are in line with his knowledge of God and the teachings of Christ.

This may sound simple but when you are confronting the grind of daily life with beliefs that are often contrary to society it becomes obvious why Paul uses the language of battles and warfare.

We love people but we are at war with the thoughts and ideas that stand against people finding God.  For us to be effective in this battle we must first be sure we are thinking right thoughts before we can challenge others. The good news is there is supernatural power (v4) available to us when we challenge the ideas that separate us and others from God.

So, take the opportunity today to be more aware of your thoughts and challenge any wrong thinking.

Help us today God to be more aware of what we are thinking so in turn we can help others to tear down the barriers that have separated us all from You.

Written by David Newton