For walking in flesh, we do not war according to flesh.
Paul's critics said he lived on the same low level as they did. This verse is his answer: he admits he walks in the flesh, but denies that he fights according to it.
The verse is a reply, not an abstract statement. One writer points back to the charge in the previous verse.
His opponents took advantage of his absence. They tried to undermine his authority and influence, and they hinted, among other things, that he "walked according to the flesh." (v. 2.) There is the widest possible difference between walking "in" the flesh — that is, in the body (compare Galatians 2:20) — and walking "according to" the flesh. The second would mean that the flesh governs him.
The value of the verse is that it puts both uses of "flesh" side by side in a single sentence.
Verse 3 is instructive, because both senses in which the word flesh is used are brought together in it. We walk in the flesh; that is, in the bodies of flesh which we have derived from Adam. But we do not war after the flesh; that is, according to the Adamic nature which is connected with our bodies.
The first half of the sentence costs nothing to say. The second half is where the test lies.
All who live on earth can say the first; how few can say the second — at least as the apostle could. He could say it because the weapons of his warfare were not fleshly but mighty with God. Flesh is proud of its own resources and digs itself in behind them against God. And God works in His children when they are dependent, and least of all in His own when they are independent.
Paul chooses his words with care. One writer shows how exact they are.
They had accused him of walking on the same level as they did, that is, "according to the flesh." He rejects this. He says he walks in flesh — note that in the Greek the word flesh has no definite article: not "in the flesh," but "in flesh" — which is quite a different thing. He was a man like other men. But when it came to warfare, he waged no fleshly conflict. He admits that he has no wisdom in himself. As to flesh he is powerless, so he is thrown back on God. How different from these false teachers, his accusers, who walked in pride, boasted of wisdom, and let selfish motives rule them.
Paul is not simply denying a habit. He is naming his target.
He will let his opponents know that, though he follows peace, he has weapons and can use them with winning effect. He was waging a warfare, not after the flesh, but against the flesh. Some kept questioning his apostleship and his service as a minister of God, out of idleness or spite. Others tried to lift themselves up at his expense, out of envy. Both would find it out, and be defeated quickly and completely.
Paul writes "we," not "I." One writer takes the verse as a rule for every Christian, not just for Paul.
The apostle first shows that it is one thing to walk in flesh and another to walk according to it. Then he declares that we do not war according to flesh. He puts it not as a personal question of fact, but as a matter of general Christian principle and practice. The warfare of the saint takes its character from Christ. The freedom God calls us to gives no licence for flesh, as if violence or abuse became holy in His service.
Refusing fleshly weapons is not a retreat from conflict.
The point here is not so much our walk as our warfare. Is the believer then called to warfare? He is — and to warfare of a very aggressive kind. But his weapons, like the warfare, are not fleshly but spiritual.
The weapons Paul goes on to name look weak. One writer answers that with a boy, a sling, and a giant.
He found that the meekness and gentleness of Christ were the weapons God used. Five smooth stones and a sling seemed feeble weapons to meet a giant in full armour. But one stone in the hands of a youth was mighty through God to bring down the giant.
One writer sees the same drift in Christian work today:
They are adopting worldly methods, mixing world schemes with the gospel they preach.
- Where — Paul walks in flesh: a real body, real weakness, a man like other men. That much every believer can say.
- How — He does not fight according to flesh. The old nature does not govern him: not its pride, not its self-defence, not its resources.
- Against — His war is not after the flesh but against it. Pride, self-confidence and boasted wisdom are the targets.
- With — His weapons look feeble: meekness, gentleness, dependence on God. Yet they are mighty through God.
- Who — The rule is not Paul's alone. Christian warfare takes its character from Christ, so no cause makes violence or abuse holy.
For the arms of our warfare [are] not fleshly, but powerful according to God to [the] overthrow of strongholds;
At Corinth, Paul's critics claimed he fought on a merely human level. He answers by describing a different fight altogether — different weapons, and a power that is not his own.
Paul draws a line in the sentence just before this one. Living in a body is one thing. Being ruled by it is another.
There is the widest possible difference between walking "in" the flesh, that is, in the body (compare Galatians 2:20), and walking "according to" the flesh, which would mean being ruled by it. The apostle gives his reason for the distinction: the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly, but mighty through God to pull down strongholds — the seats of the enemy's power, like Jericho long ago in what it pictured.
The fortresses in view are not made of stone. They are positions inside people, and someone holds them.
With us there are "strongholds" to be overthrown. Who holds these strongholds? The great adversary himself. He is the one who has dug himself into human hearts. So those hearts are full of "imaginations," or "reasonings." They lift themselves up against the knowledge of God, and they are full of lawlessness. All these proud thoughts have to be brought down and made captive to Christ, so that lawlessness gives way to obedience to Him. What weapons are strong enough to produce that result?
The answer is blunt. A weapon drawn from the same source as the enemy cannot defeat him.
Merely human weapons are completely useless. Fleshly weapons can no more subdue the flesh than Satan can drive out Satan. Only spiritual weapons can win, and they must be used in God's way if they are to work.
Human skill is always close to hand. Set it against Satan's fortresses and the mismatch is absurd:
Set mere human eloquence, or learning, or skill, or intellect against such strongholds. Try to coax people round the corner of their rebellion and self-will by arts and sciences that appeal only to feelings and emotions. That is worse folly than attacking the fortress of Gibraltar with a pea-shooter. Nothing but the power of God will do.
Paul does not list the weapons here, and commentators fill the gap in different ways. One points to a boy with a sling facing an armoured giant:
Paul did not fight according to the flesh. In his conflict with the enemy he had no use for fleshly weapons. He found that the meekness and gentleness of Christ were the weapons God used. Five smooth stones and a sling looked feeble against a giant in full armour. Yet one stone in the hands of a young man was mighty through God, and the giant fell.
Another points to weapons every Christian can use:
There are, however, spiritual weapons that all may use. The apostles in Jerusalem gave examples when they said, "we will devote ourselves to prayer and to the ministry of the word" (Acts 6:4). Every believer can pray, and every believer can speak the Word in some way.
The power is not in the man holding the weapons. Paul enters this fight with nothing of his own.
In the flesh he is powerless, for by his own confession he is dead with Christ. But in the Spirit he has weapons that are mighty, through God, to overthrow whatever stands against God. At the root of his confession as a servant of God lies this: the power is God's alone. So efforts made in his own strength are fruitless, even when the purpose is godly.
Paul's fight here does not only hold ground. It advances.
The conflict of Ephesians 6 is mainly defensive: the only attacking weapon named there is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Here the conflict is aggressive, and there are weapons — the word is plural, for there is more than one. Pulling down strongholds of stone or iron is easy next to pulling down strongholds of unbelief and of the powers of darkness, and casting down the empty reasonings of darkened yet proud and self-satisfied minds.
- Not carnal — Paul lives in a body like everyone else, but he will not be ruled by it. A weapon taken from the enemy's own supply can never beat him.
- Not stone — the strongholds are reasonings and pride dug into human hearts. No argument or eloquence can shift the enemy who holds them.
- Not ours — the might is "through God"; effort spent in our own sufficiency is fruitless even when the aim is good.
- Not scarce — prayer, the Word, and the meekness and gentleness of Christ are within every believer's reach. They look as feeble as a sling before a giant.
- Not defensive only — this warfare advances. Its aim is captivity: every thought brought into the obedience of Christ.
overthrowing reasonings and every high thing that lifts itself up against the knowledge of God, and leading captive every thought into the obedience of the Christ;
Paul is at war, but not with people. He names the real battlefield: the reasonings and proud thoughts that stand between a person and the knowledge of God.
The strongholds Paul names are not made of stone. Commentators place them in the human heart, and behind the heart, in an enemy.
With us there are "strongholds" to be overthrown. Who holds these strongholds? The great adversary himself. He has dug himself into human hearts. So those hearts fill up with "imaginations" or "reasonings." They lift themselves up high against the knowledge of God, and they fill with lawlessness. Every one of these proud thoughts must be brought low and taken captive to Christ, so that lawlessness gives way to obedience to Him.
People often read this verse next to the armour of Ephesians 6. The two passages face opposite ways.
The conflict in Ephesians 6 is mostly defensive. The only attacking weapon named there is the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Here the conflict is on the attack... Pulling down strongholds of stone or iron is easy next to this. Here you take apart strongholds of unbelief and of the powers of darkness. You throw down the empty reasonings of minds that are darkened, yet proud and pleased with themselves. The goal is that the whole soul and mind, and every thought in it, bows to God with the glad, ready obedience Christ Himself gave.
Sharper argument, wit, or pressure cannot do this work. They come from the very nature they are trying to beat.
Human weapons on their own are useless. Human nature can no more subdue human nature than Satan can drive out Satan. Only spiritual weapons win, and we must use them God's way for them to work.
The older word translates a term for reasonings. One writer defines the aim of the whole campaign, and draws a sharp conclusion from it.
The true aim of spiritual warfare is to hold down the natural will. That will is where Satan sits, and it is the tool he works through. So faith claims and defends God's rights against the rights people claim for themselves. This is why Paul writes as he does here. Thoughts that run independent of God can never sit alongside a real submission of heart and mind to Him. God's church is a holy place for God's truth, not for human thought... A believer who thinks free of God is a contradiction in terms, because God's truth is what sanctifies us.
Commentators differ over who is in view. Some read the verse as Paul's own inner discipline. Others hold that the setting points outward, to those attacking him at Corinth.
"Taking every thought captive to obey Christ" does not mean Paul's own thoughts. The context makes that clear. He means the thoughts of his opponents, who were trying to corrupt the truth of Christianity at Corinth. Paul had to face two kinds of opposition. The first came from teachers who pressed the Jewish law on believers. The second came from philosophy. Both stood against the truth.
Paul's picture is of prisoners of war led away. The Greek verb behind it carries its own picture, and that picture fits how hard the task is.
The Greek word here for "leading captive" is completely different from the one used in 1 Cor. 9:27 for "keep it under control." The word in 2 Cor. 10 comes from a word that means 'to throw a spear.' Our thoughts slip away from us and are very hard to catch and lead off. Perhaps that is why the Spirit of God chooses a word about throwing a spear. And thank the Lord — even every thought can be led captive to the obedience of Christ. That is the hardest of all.
The verse does not say obedience to Christ only, but the obedience of Christ. That phrase sets the kind of obedience, not just who it is owed to.
The obedience of Christ is the character of our obedience. Suppose my child wants to go into town, and I say, "No, sit down and do your lesson." The child obeys. That is very nice and right. But Christ never obeyed like that. The proper character of Christian obedience is that the motive for doing a thing is that it is God's will.
Whoever the opponents are, one writer insists that the order matters. You start with your own thoughts.
Why does evil lift its head while we cannot go out to meet it in the strength of God as we should? Is it not because we go out before we have judged ourselves? We fail to get down on our faces and ask God to search our hearts. We fail to take every thought captive to obey Christ first. then we can deal with the evil. A man that judges himself in the presence of God is the man who can go out and conquer for God.
- Enemy — the adversary holds the strongholds. He is dug into human hearts, filled with reasonings that lift themselves against the knowledge of God.
- Weapons — human tools are useless here. Human nature cannot subdue human nature. Only spiritual weapons win, and only when used God's way.
- Advance — the armour of Ephesians 6 mostly defends. This warfare attacks. It goes out to pull down proud, self-satisfied thinking.
- Capture — the word pictures thoughts led away as prisoners. Thoughts slip away from us, which makes this the hardest capture of all.
- Obedience — the goal is Christ's own kind of obedience, where you act because it is God's will. It starts with judging yourself, before you face evil outside.
and having in readiness to avenge all disobedience when your obedience shall have been fulfilled.
Paul writes to the church at Corinth holding a power he has not yet used. The verse raises practical questions: what makes obedience "complete," why does Paul wait, and what is left of this authority today?
The ESV says obedience must be "complete." Older translations, which the writers below quote, say "fulfilled" and "avenge." Either way, Paul is waiting for something.
In verse 6, "when your obedience is fulfilled" means he waited for them to go with him in all. There is the greatest grace in this, for he comes with authority behind, and has what I may call a rod for them, if needed.
Why did he write so plainly about evil? One writer gives the reason.
In 2 Cor. 10:6 we find a reason why he poured out the light he had about evil among people who were living in disorder. It might bring some of them to obedience before he came with a rod to avenge all disobedience, when their obedience was fulfilled. God's mind was to build up and not to destroy, and Paul's mind was the same.
But is waiting the same as letting the matter drop?
But the grace in the apostle could wait. He was never indifferent. He was patient now that their conscience was at work, and he would wait until their obedience was fulfilled. Yet he never gave up Christ's right to punish every kind of disobedience, and not only what was scandalous. He would have them all with himself united for the Lord against every evil thing. The church would be giving up Christ if it quietly accepted what denies His name.
Paul was after a particular result. He did not want obedience that his presence forced out of them.
He knew well the power he had "to avenge all disobedience," and "to use sharpness according to the power which the Lord had given him for building up and not for tearing down." If his aim had been to prove his claim to authority, that would have been the quickest way. But his one question was how to use his authority for building up. Making them fall in line by simply turning up in person was not his aim. His delight was to see obedience flowing from grace.
Some at Corinth doubted that Paul could back up his words.
Some among them could not deny the force of his words, yet they doubted his power to make them good. For all who stayed in that mind, he has his remedy ready. The Lord whom he served, and who had sent him, had armed him with powers that no one could keep on resisting except to their own destruction.
But what if some still refuse?
Patience was kindly shown, to seek the right result. But once time had been given to secure the obedience of the assembly as a whole, the same weapons of God would be ready to "avenge all disobedience," through the discipline of His hand toward those who resisted. God is in no way going to be defeated by the pride of man.
The verse pictures a case where not everyone agrees. One writer draws a practical conclusion from that.
This puts the case that the apostle's work to produce obedience had its full effect, and yet some might still not submit to the word. Then he would come with the rod and avenge disobedience. So Paul states a case where not all agree, and deals with those who stood out.
The apostles are gone. One writer says what has not gone with them.
The power of God's Spirit was to bring all that was under its influence to obedience to the ways of God. Then came vengeance on disobedience. You may not have an apostolic rod, but you have God's sure government for Christ's glory.
And what about a believer who is treated wrongly by a church decision? For him the verse holds a promise.
The assembly can make mistakes, and a decision, even one taken by the majority, may be wrong. Anyone who believes he has been treated wrongly should commit his way to the Lord in confidence. Humility, patience and a spirit of meekness are necessary in all. The Lord cannot fail to answer after our obedience is fulfilled.
- Obedience first. Paul waits to act until the believers have gone the whole way with him. The rod stays behind the letter.
- Grace waits. The delay is patience while conscience works. It is not indifference, and Christ keeps His right to judge every kind of disobedience.
- Power is real. The Lord who sent Paul had armed him. Those who resist meet the discipline of God's hand, and human pride cannot defeat His purpose.
- Holdouts, not head-counts. Some may still refuse after the word has done its full work. Total agreement is not the condition for acting.
- Still true today. No apostolic rod remains, but God still governs. The wronged believer can wait for the Lord to answer.