2 Corinthians 10:5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

It was not until I attended college that I learned this verse, despite having been raised in a Christian home and attending church fairly regularly for much of my school years. That said, I don’t believe I was ever taught to take thoughts captive. Nor did I realize (until I began researching this verse further) that this is about spiritual warfare. After reading the whole chapter, it became quite evident that it is spiritual warfare and made me wonder how I ever missed such an obvious fact.

This verse, along with Philippians 4:8, have been verses I have used in combination, to help train my thinking. When stress or anxiety begin to weigh heavy on me, I stop and say, “No.” (Taking the negative thought captive.) I follow with, “This is not true. It is not right. It is not excellent or praiseworthy.” (Points from Philippians 4:8.) This process helps me to stop the negative thoughts that lead to frustration, insecurity, doubt, stress, fear, worry, and anxiety.

But there is more to it than stopping the negative. The first half of our verse speaks of demolishing arguments and pretensions, and the best way to do that is to counter with truth, better to counter with His Truth directly from the Word. We have discussed the need to replace negative thoughts with positive truth filled statements and this is why. It demolishes those arguments entirely.

It is also important to remember that this is a spiritual battle for our minds. The enemy wants to steal our joy, kill our self confidence, and destroy our walk with God and fights on every level he can. We need to wage war on a spiritual level as much as any other way. Verse 10:3 says we do not fight according to the flesh. We battle spiritually. When we are attacked in the mind we begin to believe lies and then we sink into the despair of depression and anxiety. We must don our spiritual armor (Ephesians 6:11-12) and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

How do you address the spiritual battle of the mind? If you don’t have a process, consider memorizing both 2 Corinthians 10:5 and Philippians 4:8. But more so than simply memorizing them, apply them to your thought processes and demolish the lies of the enemy.

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