Even My Thoughts Are Yours
1 Corinthians 10:5
“We demolish arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
I don’t know about you, but I am the type of person who thinks a lot and doesn’t necessarily speak all of them. I usually rush past the thoughts that come and go. One moment I’ll be thinking about ways that I can get myself to preach the gospel in unreached areas and please the Lord in gentleness and submissive ways. But in the next moment I feel self-pity after a hard day, and convince myself I deserve an extra treat or even feeling jealousy over someone else’s life!
Thoughts… they come ever so easily, don’t they? With or without our consent. And they can control so much of our attitudes and behaviors. Thoughts bring joyous memories of times with families and friends. They bring scripture to mind in times of heartache or need or evangelism. But they also can bring the other stuff… Thoughts can bring jealousy and anger. They can bring memories of past hurts or mess ups.
There are so many things our thoughts can bring about. These, like everything, needs to be controlled or ruled by something, or they, themselves will rule over our minds and hearts. So let me ask you. Do you let those thoughts rule and run wherever they may lead you?
If this is the case, your thoughts will twist and turn you into a web of lies and confusion, taking you away from community and folding you into yourself. Letting your own thoughts rule can make you pretty selfish. But what if we gave those thoughts to someone else to rule? Christ!
Our thoughts can be in His control is we demolish all those that oppose Christ and instead make every thought obedient to Him. What does this look like though? What does it mean?
Christ says to demolish. Demolish means to completely knock down, destroy. And what are we asked to demolish and destroy? The arguments and lofty (prideful) opinions that go against God. All the things that are not kind, lovely, peaceable, gentle, humble, etc. The thoughts that are centered so much on us that we drag others down to make ourselves look good. Or make us secure and comfortable without think about those around us. The thoughts that are centered on things of this earth and not on our faith or hope or love. All the thoughts that oppose Christ, we must demolish. And from this point, we make every thought obedient to our Lord and King, Jesus Christ. We train our minds to think about our Father, to cast aside selfishness and sin, and put on instead, the fruits of the spirit.
When selfish and evil thoughts that oppose Chrit come, as they do so often, let’s try our hardest to literally transform them to conform to Christ. To completely reject them and renew our minds in the Spirit of truth, quoting scripture, being thankful, and continuing in prayer, rather than letting ourselves be transformed by the world and our sinful flesh.
I pray that in doing this, we would joyfully grow in the knowledge of God and give more of ourselves to Christ, transforming us ever more to His likeness.