…bringing every thought into captivity
to the obedience of Christ… —2 Corinthians 10:5
Determinedly Discipline Other Things. This
is another difficult aspect of the strenuous nature of sainthood. Paul said,
according to the Moffatt translation of this verse, “…I take every project
prisoner to make it obey Christ….” So much Christian work today has never been
disciplined, but has simply come into being by impulse! In our Lord’s life
every project was disciplined to the will of His Father. There was never the
slightest tendency to follow the impulse of His own will as distinct from His
Father’s will— “the Son can do nothing of Himself…” (John 5:19). Then compare
this with what we do— we take “every thought” or project that comes to us by
impulse and jump into action immediately, instead of imprisoning and
disciplining ourselves to obey Christ.
Practical work for Christians is greatly
overemphasized today, and the saints who are “bringing every thought [and
project] into captivity” are criticized and told that they are not determined,
and that they lack zeal for God or zeal for the souls of others. But true
determination and zeal are found in obeying God, not in the inclination to
serve Him that arises from our own undisciplined human nature. It is
inconceivable, but true nevertheless, that saints are not “bringing every
thought [and project] into captivity,” but are simply doing work for God that has
been instigated by their own human nature, and has not been made spiritual
through determined discipline.
We have a tendency to forget that a person is
not only committed to Jesus Christ for salvation, but is also committed,
responsible, and accountable to Jesus Christ’s view of God, the world, and of
sin and the devil. This means that each person must recognize the
responsibility to “be transformed by the renewing of [his] mind….” (Romans 12:2).
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