2 Cor 10:1-6 “In, Not Of”
Although we have a text from 2 Corinthians this morning, I want us to start our time together in a different place. I want us to turn in our Bibles to the Gospel of John, Chapter 15, verse 18 and on. You can look that up now please. In His time, Jesus told His disciples and all of the followers who would come after Him these words: “If the world hates you, be aware that it hated me before it hated you. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own.”
Last week we focused on the idea that not only do we have Christ in us, but that we are in Christ. We see with His eyes. We go with His feet. We work with His hands. We no longer view things from merely a human perspective. We view the world as Christ did. The other side to this is that the world will see us as it saw Christ. Jesus is warning us about this. When the world saw Christ, some came and bowed down before Him, recognizing God. Others, however, followed Him to harass Him, to nail Him to a Cross after humiliating Him in public torture.
We see from the Bible that Jesus was sent by God. He is God’s Son. In this way, we can see that He was in the world, but He was not of the world. He is of God. He is of the heavenly kingdom. So too are we as the body of Christ in the world today also in the world, but not truly of it. Our Kingdom is the heavenly one. Our King is Jesus.
As I have certainly hinted at as we have been reading these letters to the church at Corinth written by Paul, the church there in Corinth had become somewhat worldly. There were many divisions among the people that had to do with status or class. The Lord’s Supper was celebrated by the wealthy as a huge feast that went on for many days, while the poor slaves would only be invited in afterwards to have the leftover bread and wine. The people in the church argued a lot on philosophical points or even politics, not focusing anymore on the Gospel of Jesus.
It was for Paul an untenable situation there at Corinth. He tried hard to get the people to focus back on the mission set out by God, but they would not listen to him. They would not even let him come back to Corinth to be with them, so he writes them this letter. And, in this letter we get the sense that Paul is feeling exactly what Christ foretold, that we would be hated for our belief in Him.
Also, we must assume that there was a letter written to Paul from the people in the church in Corinth that made an accusation against him. We read about this in the first two verses of today’s Scripture. Paul talks about opposing those who think that he is acting by human standards. In other words, someone has accused Paul of being un-Christian. When we see the claim that you are acting by human standards, we should read that to mean you are being un-Christian.
How can this be? How can anyone accuse Saint Paul of being un-Christian? It is hard for us to imagine today as we are outside of the conflicts and intrigues of Corinth; however, if I were to ask all of you if you have ever been called un-Christian in your lives, I think a good many of you would probably say that you have been.
Sometimes people can be very hurtful because it seems like a direct attack of personal faith when they say such things as: “Look at your life. . . .how can you call yourself a Christian?” And, when the person who says this portends to be a Christian himself, then we wonder: “How can a real Christian call another Christian un-Christian?” That is the dilemma that Paul is in now. The church in Corinth is calling him un-Christian and He is calling the church in Corinth un-Christian. There is of course nowhere to go with this kind of polemic. And, we should at least see what a futile argument it is when we know that we all fall short of Christ and have but only the grace of God to rely on. Amen to that.
In verse three, Paul expands the argument past the church in Corinth when he writes, “Indeed, we live as human beings, but we do not wage war with human weapons.” Who said anything about a war? What kind of a war is that? Some will say that Paul is taking about the war that goes on inside each of our hearts between good and evil, between the worldly and the sublime. I can see that. I understand that. But, Paul cannot just be talking about an inner conflict. I believe that Paul is talking about a real spiritual war with this world, a war in which we Christians are fighting in the trenches and advancing slowly foot by foot.
When we put the two ideas together, that is that we are in the world but not of it and that we are engaged in a kind of spiritual warfare, then we get the picture that we are working from behind enemy lines to win a victory for Christ. That is a very vulnerable place to be. We better make sure that we are outfitted well for the task at hand.
What are the unconventional weapons at our disposal? Remember that this is a kind of spiritual warfare! What is our number one weapon? Some will have different answers to this. However, I think the number one weapon is prayer. I have known Christian prayer warriors who go at it like they are carpet-bombing an enemy! Actually the high school Bible Club has done this every year where students go out in groups and just pray over every corner of the campus that Christ’s presence will be manifest there! I personally have prayed over the Boys and Girls Club and all of Ola Road. And, every morning before Sunday worship I pray over these seats here in church. I pray that everyone who comes to the church will have a life blessed by Christ, that salvation will be found here in this place.
What other unconventional weapons do we have as Christians? We have the Holy Bible! The Holy Bible is a great weapon—and I am not saying that you should bonk folks over the head with it! But, I know the power this book has to turn people’s hearts to God.
Another spiritual weapon is one that Christ used so effectively, that is the power to do miracles in the Name of Christ. Look at Acts 9:32-34 to see how effective this weapon can be: “Peter went here and there among all the believers; he came down to those living in Lydda. There he found a man named Aeneas, who had been bed-ridden for eight years, for he was paralyzed. Peter said to him, ‘Aeneas, Jesus Christ heals you, get up and make your bed.’ And immediately he got up. And all the residents of Lydda and Sharon saw him and turned to the Lord.” Yes, never forget the unconventional weapon of just saying the name of the Lord! Miracles will happen.
As Paul further states, these weapons have the power to destroy strongholds. He should know. His own life was changed to Christ through the power of miracles. He was on the road to Damascus to persecute Christians when Christ appeared to him and told him to go to Ananias, who healed him in the name of Christ and through the act of prayer. We have that power to bring down strongholds.
In verse five (2 Corinthians 10) we see that we have the authority as well to take every thought captive to Christ. In this spiritual warfare, it looks like we get to take prisoners! How do we make every thought captive to Christ? A better way to ask this is to look at what captivates us otherwise? What captures your imagination? Are you captivated by worldly things?
There is a cable television channel that has fascinated me in that it operates like no other. Unlike other commercial broadcasters, this channel has no commercials except those that tell of that network’s programs. At first one may not even realize it because there are commercials. And, because other networks often time use commercial time to sell further programming it does not seem out of place until one realizes that all of the commercials on this one network are exclusively for this one network and nothing else.
I was thinking about this. What happens when you are watching a drama on television and are really into it and the climax of the action is about to come? That’s right, they cut to a commercial about drain cleaners or biscuits. You are quickly removed from that captivated state to something of no consequence. You have to wait two or three minutes before you can be re-captivated. What happens if you are captivated by a program, then a commercial for that same program comes on that tells of a future plot complication, and then quickly puts you back into the original captivation? You get even more captivated. The network is not there to sell commercial time. It is there to keep young minds perfectly captivated for hours on end. In a way, the programming is one long commercial for the network that has brand recognition beyond television. I won’t tell you the network. I want you to figure it for yourselves! In that way, you may see how the world really is trying to captivate.
WE have the power to do that same thing but for Christ. Paul tells us that we can capture every thought to Christ. And, thoughts are such that even though we can think of something while being in this world, what we think about can be of heavenly things! Even though you are sitting right here right now, your minds can be made captive to realm of God and Christ. That is what Paul was trying to tell the people of Corinth. That is what Paul would be saying to us today if he were here.
We have these unconventional weapons in our struggle to win over the world for Christ. We can do this. We have the power to take this world captive to Christ.
Amen.