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 battlefield
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.
Attack, not defence
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.
Why human tools fail here
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.
What "imaginations" means
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.
Whose thoughts?
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.
The hardest capture
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 standard: His kind of obedience
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.
Start with your own thoughts
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.
Summary
- 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.