Jump Start # 1463

2 Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

  Our verse today shows us that Christians aren’t sitting passively on the sidelines of life allowing anything to happen to them. There is an aggression about them. There is a militaristic assault taking place. The Christians were on the move. They were not barely holding on, hoping not to lose ground. Instead, they were taking position away from the enemy.

In this section of Corinthians Paul tells the brethren:

• To be courageous against some (2)
• We war, but not according to the flesh (3)
• We are destroying speculations (5)
• We are ready to punish all disobedience (6)

Paul was not rallying the troops to march upon those who disagreed with them. He was not inciting riots, encouraging civil disobedience, nor was he wanting violence. This would be contrary to the Lord’s instructions to love and pray for your enemies. Paul’s call to arms was against theories, doctrines, ideas, teachings that were false. How they would destroy these things was through the teachings of Christ. Truth destroys error. Christ always triumphs. Christ wins. Put any false theory against Christ and it will be destroyed.

There are a couple of thoughts for us here:

First, we must be careful what we feed our soul. It doesn’t take much poison to ruin our hearts. We can recognize foul language in a movie, but too many cannot recognize foul teaching that comes from a religious book or a blog. That can be even more dangerous. Changing ideas. A new way of looking at things. A different perspective. Seeing things outside of the box. The problem with all those catchy expressions is that a person must understand what’s inside the box before he can start thinking about what is outside the box. Many don’t know. They gravitate to the new and the different. They like to be on the cutting edge of different thinking. They will toss out generations of thoughts that careful Bible students have come up with. Especially today, just about anyone can write what they want on a blog, myself included. Truth will be manifested in consistent and thorough teaching of God’s word. I’ve known some recently who want to consume just about everything an author writes. He is being praised as one of the greatest thinkers in modern times. His books sell. He is radical on so many fundamental thoughts. Bring those things captive to the obedience of Christ. Compare what is said with what the Bible says. Don’t change the Bible. Don’t buy this “re-looking at the Bible.”

So, this is a concern. This is a concern of parents whose grown children are influenced by others. This is a concern of shepherds as they notice their flock being influenced. Not too far from where I live, is a small cemetery. There is a special grave in that cemetery. Her name was Nancy. She died along time ago. In the village she lived a sickness spread. It wasn’t something like smallpox. Instead, many drank tainted milk from cows. The cows ate a poisonous plant, called milk weed or snake weed. That poison got into the milk. Nancy was a young mother who got sick. She died. She would have been forgotten through history except for her son. His name was Abraham. He grew up to become the President of the United States. Abraham Lincoln’s mother died from the milk weed poison. Paul’s words were about a spiritual poison. Some of it is passed around innocently. Friends talk. Things are taught and explored. Today, folks share blogs and websites. Books are read. Without an anchor of Biblical teaching, these lofty ideas take hold. They are not challenged. Instead they are accepted and believed. They are not brought captive, as our passage states. Instead, the heart of the believer is held captive by these strange and new ideas. These speculations are not being destroyed. They are being accepted and taught. This is how error spreads through a congregation. Just as the milk weed disease spread through a village long ago, error finds it’s way into the hearts of a congregation. Folks get confused. Fingers are pointed. Tempers flare. People leave. Radical ideas explode among those who left. In time, what little faith they had  trickles out. They are gone. They have allowed speculations and lofty ideas to win.

We must be careful what we feed our souls. Just because something is written in a religious book doesn’t make it so. Wolves in sheep clothing can be disguised as truth in a bookstore, when it’s really nothing more than lofty ideas that are against the teachings of Christ.

Secondly, we must be active in fighting against these things. It’s not the hatred of the enemy before us but the love of the brethren behind us that compels us to dig in and destroy these lofty speculations against Christ. The battleground takes place first within our hearts. We must decide what is true and right. We must stand upon the word of God. We must understand principles. We must take our study of God’s word seriously. Satan can fool us by thinking we are religious and we are believers in Christ even though what we are doing and believing cannot be supported by Scriptures. We are not dancing to the moon. We are not sacrificing babies. We can be so close to right, that we think we are right. We can be close, but still not there. Satan can get us. So, we must teach God’s word. We must measure everything but the standard, God’s word. We must know God’s word. Our time must be spent in that word. Know it so well that we can recognize when something isn’t right. Those that work in banks are trained to recognize forgeries. They have special ways to tell if money is the real thing or a fake. We must do the same with God’s word. Those in charge of leading God’s people must teach the basics. We must go over the fundamentals. We must help folks to know what is right.

Speculations and lofty ideas that are against Christ—this was a greater threat to those early Christians than the Romans. This remains a great threat today.

Tell me the story of Jesus, write on my heart every word.

Roger