“The Case for Christ - Casting Down Imaginations’

‘Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that  exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’ 
(2 Cor 10:5)

Warfare - do we all know we are in a war, a war against an unseen, elusive enemy?

No - this is not about our current world situation! This is about the warfare Paul was addressing in this Corinthian letter. This is about temptations and the war involved in battling them.

What was taking place in Corinth?

According to verse 2 of 2 Cor 10, there were ‘some’ people who had given themselves up to the temptation of accusing Paul and his followers of resorting to worldly motives and standards for living the spiritual life in Christ.

It was just a vocal minority. But they were usurping the authority of the apostolic calling of God, as Paul represented it to them. And they were setting themselves up as being superior to God and to His calling of Paul.

They were among those who did not accept the fact that the grace of Christ is so sufficient that the ‘power of Christ’ could rest or enshrine itself in Paul’s ‘strengthlessness’, as Paul tried to explain it to them.

They were taken up with their own human delusions, their own intellectual pretensions, governed by their own carnal weapons.

But through the weaponry of the Holy Spirit, Paul was able to see through their claims and, therefore, he made the assertion here in 2 Corinthians 10.

‘The weapons of the war in which we Christians are engaged are not carnal’, he told them in no uncertain terms.

‘Even though we live in the world, we do not wage a spiritual war as the worldly-wise would like to wage a spiritual battle’, he said, in verse 3. ‘The wisdom of this world to battle spiritual warfare is foolishness with God’. The ‘speculations of the worldly-wise are vain’. (1 Cor 3:19-20)

‘No - this is a military operation in enemy territory! It is an elusive enemy. It is seeking to destroy every single divine plan to keep the universal allegiance to Christ from coming into fruition - from coming to that time ‘...for the manifestation of His glory’, as Peter said in 1 Pet 4:13.

This is what the battle is all about!’ 

‘So’, he went on to explain, ‘we have spiritual weapons that are mighty - divinely potent - through God. They are powerful enough to tear down every spiritual citadel in which Christ is set to establish His kingdom.’

And how is that to be done?

To start with, Christ has already won the battle! ‘Thanks be to God Who, through our union with Christ, leads us in one continual triumph!’ (2 Cor 2:14)

For - in His resurrection power, Jesus said of Himself: ‘Full authority has been committed unto Me...’. (Mt 28:18) 

Only He has the force and power to wage and win the war!
That is why carnal weapons are no match for this battle!

There must be a ‘casting down of imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God...’.

Yes - this is foremost for Christ’s church, so let me repeat it from various translations: ‘...we are engaged in confuting arguments and pulling down every barrier raised against the knowledge of God’.

Or, ‘Yes, we can pull down the conceits of men, and every barrier of pride which sets itself up against the true knowledge of God.’

And another: ‘Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God.’

‘We demolish misconceptions and delusions and all that rears its proud head against the kingdom of God.’ Or, ‘We are destroying speculations...’.

Those translations give us some idea of what the ‘imaginations’ might be and what the scope of ‘high things’ are in this world that exalt against the knowledge of God.

They are countless and unbelievable! Even if we could list them all, it would be an impossible task!

Now - what I am about to give you as an example is just a very, very mundane illustration that is currently being passed around, and this is only in the sphere of men’s inventions. 

Just last week, I was approached by one of the workers in our neighborhood. He asked me what I think of a picture he showed me of the smoke and fire from the Twin Towers. It was supposed to have a ‘face’ of the devil in it. You may have seen it also.

He was disappointed when I was not excited about it. And I told him why I was not impressed. We have no picture of what the devil looks like. The Scripture tells us he is an ‘angel of light’ - that is about all it gives us, in so far as trying to put a ‘face’ on him.

This imaginative fairy tale, of course, is nothing in comparison to what has been and now is being conceived as a part of the knowledge of the spiritual realm.

A concept like that comes out of our carnality concerning the ‘knowledge of God’ and leads us away from Christ Who, with the Holy Spirit, is responsible for teaching us spiritual realities.

So - the Christian’s spiritual weapon ‘casts down imaginations’ that are set against the true knowledge of God. It battles against ‘every high thing’, ‘every deceptive fantasy’, ‘every misleading reasoning’, ‘every speculation’, all that ‘rears its proud head’ against God in any way!

Every fortified height, all ‘confuting arguments’, every pretension, every foolish thought, every human scheme, every barrier of pride, all of our spiritual conceits, every devilish design; in short, ‘playing God’ - everything that sets itself, glorifies and elevates itself is against God.

They are all obstacles, barriers, to the emancipating knowledge of God in Christ. They all counter Christ. And God Himself demands they be cast down! 

All of them are unseen, elusive enemies that come in ‘all manner of spirit’. Our text calls them ‘strongholds’. They are all set for demolition!

But how are these strongholds to fall? 

The only way it can be done is to put away worldly ways and weapons - they are ‘carnal’, we are told in verse 4.

But - ‘...armed with faith and love for a breastplate’, and ‘...with the helmet of our salvation’, we ‘fight the good fight of faith’ and we ‘lay hold of eternal life’.

And how do we do that?

We place full and unreserved reliance upon the spiritual ‘Defense’ of Christ within - ‘...by the Word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and [the armor of righteousness] on the left...’. 

‘For it is righteousness that exalts...’ but ‘sin is a reproach, it is a people’s ruin.’ Yes - it is righteousness that exalts!

Christ, our Righteousness, wages in us a victorious campaign against all sin and all those things that would defeat God’s full design of Christ’s universal Lordship.

He is the One Who is divinely powerful enough to demolish all those seemingly inaccessible bunkers where sin barricades itself.

With everything that is going on in our day, and with all of the easy ‘fix-it’ devices, it is sometimes easy to lose sight of that one main hope of life - the hope of the glory of God in Christ Jesus. But this is the only way in which the glory of God in Christ Jesus will gain control.

And when it comes to the force of the truth of Jesus Christ, we are all tempted to retreat to other defenses. And do you know why?

This is strong meat! This is not child’s play! Read Heb 4:12 and 5:13-14 to check this for yourself.    

I know that to be true! The strongholds we put up can become subtle temptations to take Christ out of the picture altogether and make Him only an icon or an image to worship, a temporary conscience-soother!

But - this is the victory Paul sought to win in this conflict in the church. And it was really no different in Paul’s day than it is in ours. 

Perhaps we need to ask ourselves: ‘Is it really wise to trust myself when I do not have the actual experience of Christ’s dealing with me first? Do I have all the facts of Christ as He confronts me about what I am doing or saying now?’

How many times have I heard in my own heart, when I am restless and am tempted to retreat to my ways, God’s word of ‘be still, and know that I am God’?

How many times must I surrender to Christ as He searches out my motives that spring from my own mind?

His Word speaks and says ‘Why?’. ‘Why do you imagine such a vain thing? Why do you devise such empty schemes, utter folly? Why do you cherish such vain dreams and futile plots? ‘Why? Why?’ is the constant question to the heart. (Ps 2:1)

My ways and thoughts - your ways and thoughts - are only proud obstacles and arguments to God’s ways and thoughts.

There is only one way to deal with those reasonings and motives that are barriers to the knowledge of God.

It is through the message of Christ, of what God has done in and through Him in the Cross, in His resurrection, in His ascension, and in His present ministry with men. 

And that takes an unerring and unending yieldedness to that message to break through our webs of delusions that block our sight of the knowledge of God. 

We may try counterarguments all the way along. We can put up smokescreens. We can go hide in our own little caves somewhere. But they are only barbed-wired defenses that do not get to our fortified bunkers.

Remember - the knowledge of God is the knowledge of a Person. And that can only be reached through the fullness of His truth and by the fullness of His grace. 

Only His power gives perfect, true sight! Try anything else and you are doomed to failure - please believe me!

He has created the power in you to seek the knowledge of God and He awakens the ability to react to it.

And how will He do that?

He starts with the thoughts that first are to be brought captive to Him.

‘Thought’, if we take the general meaning of it, means ‘ideas that germinate in our minds, giving rise to desire, actions, and delusions.’

This does not mean curbing our minds to do no thinking at all or trying to force all thoughts toward a spiritual level.

No - the point is about the temptation of yielding to the sin that ascribes as coming from God our concepts, our ideas, and our plans that are coming out of our own mind - about things that excuse our sin and abuse our freedom in Christ. 

It is about the temptation of trying to attract people to our way of thinking about God through the many alluring enticements of our day.

It is about the temptation to add to the teachings of God’s Word in trying to improve upon them, to accommodate them to popular theories. 

In short, it is about the temptation of the wrong ideas of God and of what He is ‘saying’ to us, the wrong ideas about Christ, the wrong ideas about others. They are all the root of the wrong kinds of actions. The list is probably endless so I will stop here. 

They are all disorders in our thinking about God. And - they cannot be overcome just by force or by positive thinking or in any other way.

And, please realize, this disorder is coming from within - it is not something on the outside of us where the dealing is taking place.

Paul challenged the Corinthians with the words: ‘Awake to righteousness and sin not, for some of you are ignorant, are without the true knowledge of God.’
 
That was a sobering, solemn challenge to their inner beings!

Every tendency that ends up in disobeying Christ in any matter that exalts itself is subject to His captivity.

It means that all those temptations to follow our own sinfulness are held hostage to the ‘obedience of Christ’ and His Word.

Christ in you is the hope of that glory that is to exalt the true knowledge of God. And that delusion and deceptive fantasy that makes us defect from or to disobey Christ and His ways must be restrained, must be stopped, and, instead, be given over to Christ.

Paul wrote: ‘Be strong in the Lord...be empowering yourselves...find strength in your union with the Lord, and in the conquering power which His supreme might imparts.’

Keep everything within the circle of the truth of Christ and His holiness and you are on the right path. You need not worry or fear in that course of life.

By your own decision, accept His inner guidance and the force of His constraining love - I repeat, the force of His constraining love. That will stop sinfulness in its tracks!

‘Set your affections on things above and not on things of the earth.’ ‘Give your heart to the heavenly things. Let your thoughts dwell on things that are above, not on the passing things of the earth...for you are hidden with Christ in God.’ (Col 3:1-3)

Submit all judgments and understanding to the obedience of Christ. Hang all those things on only His understanding and on His reasoning. So, that, whatsoever we say or do, we ‘...do it all to the glory of God.’

Get away from that common habit of ‘doing your own thing’ and then asking God to help you carry it through.

Sad to say, but, sometimes we enclose ourselves in a barrier of ‘self-help’ where we think we know of something better to apply to our life’s situation than to apply Christ.

That is dangerous ground! And to that we have to ask the question here: ‘Do you think you know better about God than God knows about Himself?’

Beware! Beware - for you are facing the temptation to ‘play God’! This is why it is so important to let the good news of Christ take over and to let faith in Him spring into action to generate the power of the Holy Spirit Who helps.

So - thank God that Christ is in you to undermine and to overturn everything opposed to the truth of God. 

Yes - we feel helpless and hopeless when we are made conscious of what sin really is and all of its ugliness and we want to hide in the nearest cave.

But - it is then that we know that we do not know better than God does about life - and that is a good thing!

It is then that we are beginning to know of the power of Christ operating within the innermost being right down to the very core of it - yes, to the ‘joints and marrow’ - where we will never again think that we know better than God does.

It is then that we learn to sit at the feet of Jesus, to seek Him out each day for guidance, for Him to keep His check upon our raging emotions, on our sinful lusts, on our imaginative speculations. It is only in that place that He is free to teach us the fullness of the knowledge of God!

God’s Word does not lie - what it teaches of God in the face of Jesus Christ is the fullness of truth about Himself.

It is going to be a wondrous thing when, one day, obedience to Christ will be universal, ‘when the time comes for the manifestation of His glory.’ 

But let the fullness of His truth first live in each one of us - and, that - believe me - is no small thing! It takes a lifetime and more! 

Yes - ‘...the time is ripe - it is come - for judgment to begin at the house of God’ where we Christians do not fashion spiritual weapons of our own making. 

But where we ‘cast down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’.

With this, I close tonight. May the Lord bless this truth to our very innermost beings to continue His work in us.

Amen! So be it! 

Let us pray!