Spiritual strongholds - what is the biblical view?

Our warfare is upon another plane altogether. With us there are "strongholds" to be overthrown. Who holds these strongholds? The great adversary himself. He it is who has entrenched himself in human hearts, so that they are filled with "imaginations" or "reasonings," so that they exalt themselves on high against the knowledge of God, and are filled with lawlessness. All these lofty thoughts have to be brought low into captivity to Christ, so that lawlessness is exchanged for obedience to Him. What weapons are sufficient to produce that result?

Merely human weapons must be perfectly futile. Fleshly weapons can no more subdue flesh than Satan can cast out Satan. Spiritual weapons alone can prevail; and they must be used in a way that is according to God, if they are to be effectual.

What spiritual weapons are at our disposal? In this passage the Apostle does not pause to specify, though the succeeding verses seem to show that he was specially thinking of those powers of discipline which were vested in him as an Apostle, powers peculiar to himself. There are however, spiritual weapons which all may use: those for instance, which were mentioned by the Apostles in Jerusalem when they said, "We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word" (Acts 6:4). Every saint can pray, and every saint can in some way speak forth the Word.

"Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" does not refer, as the context plainly shows, to the apostle's own thoughts, but rather to those of his adversaries, who were seeking at Corinth to corrupt the truth of Christianity. There were two forms of opposition with which the apostle had to contend: first, that springing from Judaizing teachers; and, secondly, that connected with philosophy — both of which were alike antagonistic to the truth. (See Col. 2.) It is to the latter, we apprehend, the apostle chiefly alludes in this scripture. His opponents, taking advantage of his absence, had sought to undermine his authority and influence, and had insinuated, among other things, that he "walked according to the flesh." (v. 2.) To this he replied by saying, "Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after [according to] the flesh." There is the widest difference possible between walking "in" the flesh, that is, in the body (compare Galatians 2:20), and "according to" the flesh, for this latter would mean to be governed by it. The apostle gives the reason for his distinction. "The weapons of our warfare," he says, "are not carnal [fleshly], but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" — seats of the enemy's power, like Jericho of old in its typical significance. He then avows the object of his warfare, which was to cast down "imaginations," the "reasonings," as the word is, of man's corrupt mind, in short, philosophy; and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, as man's intellect and fancied wisdom are ever doing, looking down with scarce concealed pity on those who receive the revelation God has been pleased to make in His word; and lastly, in his holy warfare, bringing into captivity every thought, from whatever quarter it may come, every activity of man's mind, to the obedience of Christ. Whether reasonings, high things, or thoughts — all alike are regarded as opposed to the knowledge of God, and hostile to Christ; and Paul, as a true soldier, sought to overcome them all, to reduce them into captivity to the authority of Christ. Not that any of these could serve Christ — that would be impossible; but his aim was to compel them by force and power, with his mighty weapons, to acknowledge the supremacy of his Lord and Master, and to place them as helpless captives at His feet.

Another phase of proper Christian conflict comes before us in 2 Corinthians 10:3-5. The conflict of Ephesians 6 is, as we have seen, mainly defensive: the only offensive weapon named being the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. Here the conflict is essentially of the aggressive, offensive order, and there are weapons: the word is plural, for there are more than one. These weapons are effectual to "the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations [or, reasonings, margin] and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." Here is a task which involves conflict indeed! To pull down strongholds of stone or iron is easy compared with dismantling strongholds of unbelief and of the powers of darkness, and casting down the vain reasonings of darkened yet proud and self-satisfied minds, so that the whole soul and mind, and every thought in that mind, is in subjection to God with a glad and ready obedience like the obedience of Christ.

Is this the objective of Christian warfare? Does the servant of Christ go forth into the world with the Word of God with such a task before him? Then we instinctively and at once feel that nothing but superhuman and miraculous power can avail. To pit mere human eloquence, or learning, or skill, or intellect against such strongholds; to attempt to wheedle men round the corner of their rebellion and self-will by those arts and sciences which appeal solely to the sentiments and emotions, is worse folly than that of attacking Gibraltar with a pea-shooter. Nothing but the power of God will do.

Yet the power of God works through His people to this end, and through weapons which are not carnal but mighty through God. What are these weapons? Well, see the apostles in Acts 6! Well clad in that spiritual armour which enabled them to turn aside the attempt of the "world rulers of this darkness" to divert them from their true service to "serving tables," they address themselves to their proper business saying, "We will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the Word." The ministry of the Word, or as 1 Corinthians 1:18-21 puts it, "the preaching" — "the preaching of the cross," is one great spiritual weapon. Prayer is another.

Again we say — His position here is ours. We stand out, severed from the world system, and delivered from satanic authority. The powers of darkness are against us. We need the whole armour of God to stand in the defensive attitude against these unseen forces of evil. And if grace is ours to take the offensive in the service of the Lord, we must still remember that "the weapons of our warfare are not carnal" (2 Cor. 10:4-5). The "strongholds" may be in human hearts; the "imaginations" or "reasonings" may be in human heads; but the pride that exalts itself against the knowledge of God is satanic in its origin and we are confronted with that.

2 Corinthians 10:1-6 shows us the power of spiritual weapons in the aggressive conflicts of the Gospel. Satanic powers have entrenched themselves in human minds and formed strongholds of human reasonings and lofty thoughts, which can only be overthrown by such weapons as are employed by the Spirit of God.

(Vv. 4, 5.) Not warring 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 used by God. Five smooth stones and a sling seemed feeble weapons with which to meet a full armoured giant, but one stone in the hands of a youth was mighty through God to bring down the giant. So the meekness and gentleness of Christ, used by a man whose bodily presence was insignificant, were "mighty through God" to pulling down the strongholds of Satan, bringing to nothing the proud reasonings of the human mind that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and in bringing every thought into submission to Christ.

Not that his action would be fleshly; for though he walked in flesh, this is, in bodily condition, his warfare was not according to flesh, the mere selfish, vain principles that unregenerate man understands. Paul had higher weapons than those fleshly: they were in fact the opposite of self-assurance and pretentious pride; and yet "mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds." In fact, it is these very things - the haughtiness and pride of man, the determined exalting of the flesh - that God's weapons cast down. Men's imaginations, or reasonings, the rationalistic wisdom of philosophy, "and every high thing," that which man considers high, but is merely pretense, everything that seeks self-exaltation, which after all is really "against the knowledge of God;" all of this is brought to nothing by "the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." Moreover, God's warfare does not stop on this negative note: it is also that which can bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Precious, wonderful weapons indeed!

Look we on now to Christianity, and again these thoughts and imaginations of man's heart come before us (2 Cor. 10:4-5); for, be it as left alone in lawlessness, or under and after divine judgment, or when brought upon Christian ground, man as man is unchanged, no matter what be his dispensation or the character of his calling. But see how the Spirit of God deals in holy peremptoriness with these hidden activities of man's heart in the case of believers. Does grace give license to the flesh and its works? By no means. On the contrary, not satisfied with rigorously controlling all that is overt, we have here the deepest springs of fleshly activity touched in the core. The "strongholds" are to be scaled and pulled down; the "imaginations" with every high thing in their train are to be cast down, and "every thought" is to be brought down, "into captivity to the obedience of Christ."

Verse 5. "Casting down imaginations and every high thing," etc. This is in truth the language of a "strong man armed," and, in its breadth and boldness of expression, may recall to our minds his earlier words (ante, chap. 1:4). If we compare with this passage what is written in Eph. 6:12, we shall find that what is there referred to its energizing Source, is here contemplated in its operative form and power. Repression of the natural will, which is the seat and vehicle of Satan's machinations, is the true aim of spiritual warfare. God's rights are thus asserted and maintained by faith against the pretended rights of men. And this explains the peculiar cast of the apostle's language here; since independent "reasonings" or "imaginations" (logismoi) are for ever inconsistent with a genuine subjection of heart and mind to God. Where is the disputer of this world? is a question asked at the outset by the Spirit, when declaring in the face of all men the gospel of Christ crucified (1 Cor. 1:20). God's church is a sanctuary, not of human thought, but of divine truth. And if love be, as it is, the vital distinction of God's children from the world which knows not God, and the open seal of their discipleship (John 13:35; 1 John 3:14), obedience to what is written should also be part of their reproach in the estimation of a self-worshipping and speculative generation. A freethinking saint is a contradiction in terms, for it is by the truth of God that we are sanctified. Of such it is written, that they sit down at His feet and live upon His words. (Deut. 8:3, 33:3).

To think his own thoughts, and utter his own imaginations, instead of hearkening to the voice of God, is the manner of the natural man. Now a believer has not ceased to be a man; and although called with another calling, and begotten by the grace that saves them to a new and better hope, it is certain that the chief besetment of God's saints, while in the body, is a practical forgetting that they are their own no longer if in Christ. But if obedience be not the habit of a Christian's walk, he becomes in effect an adversary to the truth which he confesses, and the action of the Spirit is against him, until he has ceased from his perverseness, and is again learning in submissive silence to know that he is God's (Ps. 46:10).And inasmuch as ignorance of God is the root and occasion of all presumptuous sin (1 Cor. 2:8), the apostle marks here, in general terms, as the objects of his spiritual antagonism, whatever elevates itself against the knowledge of God. Under this comprehensive category may be classed, besides the standing contradictions of Jewish self-righteousness and the philosophic vanities of Gentilism, a host of those "original ideas," "new and suggestive thoughts," etc. of which our own times are so fruitful, and which, when heedlessly accepted and allowed apart from the controlling sanction of the word, so often tickle men's religious fancies, and for a while may even undermine the faith of God's elect (2 Tim. 4:3-4). But as there is no true wisdom that does not come down from above, and light finds entrance only by the word of God, so is there no true moral honesty but in an absolute surrender of our thoughts and purposes to Christ. For He is our Life and our Lord: both ourselves and our imaginings are alike His own. There can be no safe compromise between subjection and independence in the mind of a believer. The Spirit lusts and wars against the flesh for ever; and mental liberty, we must remember, is not less a part of our natural disobedience than carnal wilfulness (Eph. 2:3). His victory is attested, not by a change in our natural dispositions, but by every thought of ours being captivated and directed by the ruling mind of Christ.

Well has it been said, "repression of the natural will, which is the seat and vehicle of Satan's machinations, is the true aim of spiritual warfare." Mere fleshly, independent "reasonings" and "imaginations" are inconsistent with a real subjection to God. The natural man thinks his own thoughts and follows his own imaginations, but not so the believer: he abandons his own thoughts and imaginations; he casts down all that exalteth itself against the true knowledge of God, and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. The Corinthians had not done this; they walked in a carnal way and the enemy got an advantage over them. And so it is largely today among God's people.