For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 NIV, 10-3-12)

My first response when reading v 3 is to think this is exclusively about “spiritual warfare.” But reading v 5 makes it clear it isn’t only what we normally think of as spiritual.

For Paul, spiritual warfare is both what we would call spiritual and what we would call mental. Taking every thought captive is mental warfare. And if you think about it, that’s just as important as the spiritual part. Our mind is the gun that fires the spiritual bullets. It doesn’t matter how powerful the bullets are if the gun is fouled.

Question: Am I working hard enough to keep my mental weapon clean and functional? Am I letting in impure thoughts? Am I letting uncontrolled, unproductive thoughts run free? Do I have the mental discipline to maintain the habits that keep my mind and spirit in proper functioning order?

I am afraid the answer to too many of those questions is No. Which means I am going into spiritual battle with a malfunctioning gun.

[Father, help me to maintain the mental and emotional discipline I need to be spiritually powerful.]