2 Coríntios 10

2 Coríntios 10

Meyer writes about bringing every thought captive - THE apostle is planning a campaign; his words glow with the fire of military enthusiasm: but, as one has eloquently said, the weapons of his warfare are not carnal; the standard under which he fights is a more sacred sign than that of Caesar; the territory he invades is more difficult of conquest than any which kept the conquerors of the world at bay. He sees rising before him the loftly fortresses of hostile error; they must be reduced or razed. Every mountain fastness to which the enemy can retreat must be scaled and destroyed; and every thought of the soul, which is hostile to the authority of the Divine Truth, must become a prisoner in the camp of Christ. Be sure to distinguish between the proper use of the intellect by the man who recognizes its necessary limitations and uses it in the humble and reverent inquiry after truth, and that undue exaltation of the intellect, which sets itself on high as the ultimate judge of truth, or which roams wildly, unheeding the Divine control. There are vain thoughts, sensual thoughts, cynical and self-reliant thoughts, skeptical thoughts, proud thoughts, wandering and wayward thoughts; but the apostle says that, however strongly they fortify themselves against Christ, they should and must be brought into captivity. Paul once thought he ought to do many things contrary to Jesus, but became His humble disciple. The intellect has its province, but faith has hers; and while the intellect tends to exalt man, faith humbles him and leads him captive in the chains of love. We must come with absolute obedience to Christ, that every vail may be torn away, and whatever blurs the clear surface of the mirroring intellect may be removed. (F. B. Meyer. Our Daily Homily) Rob Morgan gives us some practical application of 2Corinthians 10:5... As I said earlier, all the temptations we face come to us via our thoughts. We think about lying before we do it. We think about adultery before we do it. We think about secret sins and lustful behavior before we commit it. We think covetous thoughts before we make that unwise purchase. We think those angry thoughts before we say those angry words. There is a wonderful story in a book entitled The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr., which was based on Dr. King’s speeches and writings. On one occasion he told of growing up in Atlanta, Georgia: I remember another experience I used to have in Atlanta. I went to high school on the other side of town—to the Booker T. Washington High School. I had to get the bus in what was known as the Fourth Ward and ride over to the West Side. In those days, rigid patterns of segregation existed on the buses, so that Negroes had to sit in the backs of buses. Whites were seated in the front, and often if whites didn’t get on the buses, those seats were still reserved for whites only, so Negroes had to stand over empty seats. I would end up having to go to the back of that bus with my body, but every time I got on that bus I left my mind up on the front seat. And I said to myself, "One of these days, I’m going to put my body up there where my mind is. (Clayborne Carson, ed., The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. (New York: Warner Books, Inc., 1998), p. 9.) And he did. Our bodies and our lives always end up where our minds are. A few months ago I delivered a Sunday morning message about the perils of pornography, and it’s very easy to have a pornographic brain. Or it’s easy to have a brain that thinks depressed thoughts all the time. It’s easy to have a greedy, materialistic mind. All our temptations and sins come to us via our brains. So how do we take every thought and make them captive to Christ? I have four important prescriptions. Starve First, you have to starve your mind. The temptations and sins inside your brain thrive on what you feed them, and if you cut off their food supply, they’ll begin to gradually wither up. I know a man who, when he checks into the hotel on business trips, asks that they disconnect the television because he doesn’t want to be tempted. A lot of the trouble you’re having with your thought life would clear up if you’d stop feeding your sin with salacious materials. Feed Second, feed your mind. Find Bible verses to memorize and start pushing out the wrong thoughts with the right ones. Choose some verses having to do with the mind and with the thoughts, and commit them to memory. Isaiah 26:3, 4 says, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee.” Romans 12:1, 2, which I’ve already referred to, tells us to yield our bodies as living sacrifices and to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Philippians 2:5 says, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8 says, “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace.” There’s tremendous power in memorizing these verses and meditating on them; and whenever tempting thoughts float through your brain, train yourself to refuse them by quoting Scripture to them. That’s the way Jesus defeated Satan in Matthew 4, and you can do the same. Starve the bad thoughts and feed the good ones. The biography of Geoffery Bull, the British missionary to Tibet who was captured and imprisoned by Chinese Communists, tells of how his captors took Bull’s possessions from him, threw him in a series of prisons, robbed him of his Bible, made him suffer terribly at their hands for three years. In addition to extreme temperatures and miserable physical conditions, coupled with bodily abuse and near starvation, Bull was subjected to such mental and psychological torture that he feared he would go insane. He had no Bible now, but he had studied the Bible all his life. So he began to systematically go over the Scriptures in his mind. He found it took him about six months to go all the way through the Bible mentally. He started at Genesis, and recalled each incident and story as best he could, first concentrating on the content and then musing on certain points, seeking light in prayer. He continued through the Old Testament, reconstructing the books and chapters as best he could, then into the New Testament and on to Revelation. Then he started over again. He later wrote, “The strength received through this meditation was, I believe, a vital factor in bringing me through, kept by the faith to the very end.” (Geoffrey T. Bull, When Iron Gates Yield (Chicago: Moody Press, n.d.), passim.) So many people have IPod’s now, and I want to encourage you to find biblical lectures and sermons and download them. Instead of listening to some of the music or talk radio that usually blares from the car radio, listen to scripture and sermons and Bible lectures. (Check out the podcasts on our www.donelson.org website.) Feed your mind. Take Control Third, take control of this area of your life. I had a letter recently from a man in Illinois who told me that after he got out of the service he spent a great deal of his time driving tour buses for various groups. As a result, he said, he was often on the road driving through the night. Everyone else was asleep, and he couldn’t listen to the radio and he had no one to talk to; and he was tempted during his long hours at the wheel to fantasize and think lustful thoughts. But, he said, I developed a plan. It had three parts. For the first third of my time, I forced my mind to meditate on Scripture passages that I had read or learned or studied or memorized. The middle portion of the time was spent in prayer and I took my time in bringing to the Lord every item of praise and prayer that I had on my heart. The last third of the time was in quietly singing to myself the great hymns of the faith. I found that when I followed this pattern, the devil never had a chance with my thoughts. Report In It’s important for most of us to report in, to have someone with him we can be honest about areas in which we need accountability. I’ve spoken about that recently, and I think most of us realize that this is often a very helpful tool. We live in a twisted world of temptation; and Christians are being bombarded from every direction. The Lord Jesus wants control of our minds. He wants us to be pure of mind. He wants us to be renewed in our minds. He wants every thought captive to Him. Starve, feed, take control, and report in. Keep a healthy, positive, clean mind. And let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, for Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee. (See his excellent message 2Corinthians 10:5 Every Thought Captive) 2 Corinthians 10:6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. AMP Being in readiness to punish every [insubordinate for his] disobedience, when your own submission and obedience [as a church] are fully secured and complete. Plummer - We are quite prepared to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. EXPNT We are ready to punish anyone there who does not obey, but first we want you to obey fully. NRSV We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Weymouth while we hold ourselves in readiness to punish every act of disobedience, as soon as ever you as a church have fully shown your obedience. NET We are also ready to punish every act of disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. The Living Bible I will use these weapons against every rebel who remains after I have first used them on you yourselves and you surrender to Christ. KJV 2 Corinthians 10:6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled. NET 2 Corinthians 10:6 We are also ready to punish every act of disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete. BGT 2 Corinthians 10:6 καὶ ἐν ἑτοίμῳ ἔχοντες ἐκδικῆσαι πᾶσαν παρακοήν, ὅταν πληρωθῇ ὑμῶν ἡ ὑπακοή. NLT 2 Corinthians 10:6 And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. ESV 2 Corinthians 10:6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. NIV 2 Corinthians 10:6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. YLT 2 Corinthians 10:6 and being in readiness to avenge every disobedience, whenever your obedience may be fulfilled. ASV 2 Corinthians 10:6 and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full. CSB 2 Corinthians 10:6 And we are ready to punish any disobedience, once your obedience has been confirmed. MIT 2 Corinthians 10:6 These weapons are poised to crack down also on all disobedience until such time as your obedience is in full compliance. NKJ 2 Corinthians 10:6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. NRS 2 Corinthians 10:6 We are ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. NAB 2 Corinthians 10:6 and we are ready to punish every disobedience, once your obedience is complete. NJB 2 Corinthians 10:6 once you have given your complete obedience, we are prepared to punish any disobedience. GWN 2 Corinthians 10:6 We are ready to punish every act of disobedience when you have become completely obedient. BBE 2 Corinthians 10:6 Being ready to give punishment to whatever is against his authority, after you have made it clear that you are completely under his control. And we are ready: 2Co 13:2,10 Nu 16:26-30 Ac 5:3-11 13:10,11 1Co 4:21 5:3-5 1Ti 1:20 3Jn 1:10 when: 2Co 2:9 7:15 OBEDIENT ONES WOULD SEPARATE OUT DISOBEDIENT And we are ready (hetoimos) to punish (ekdikeo) all disobedience (parakoe), whenever your obedience is complete (pleroo) - Once the Corinthian church responded in obedience to the Gospel, it would become very clear who among them were still in disobedience. Obedience is complete refers to their being fully committed to Christ as their Lord. Then Paul could effectively separate out the wheat from the chaff so to speak (cf Ps 1:4-6+) The result would be a church set free from the false teaching and teachers (at least for a time). Malherbe notes that being “ready” was a phrase used of military preparedness (“Antisthenes and Odysseus and Paul at War,” in Paul and the Popular Philosophers [Philadelphia: Westminster, 1989], John