Spiritual Warfare is our way of fighting spiritual battles in the world. However, take note of this verse, because, as with everything else for Christ-followers, we are to conduct ourselves in Jesus’ way, not our own.

“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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.”

2 Corinthians 10:3-5

Worldly Fighting is not Spiritual Warfare

First of all, this verse distinguishes forever the Christian view of what sort of fighting we do to promote the Kingdom of God. The above verses are preceded by this statement in verses 1-2: “By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am ‘timid’ when face to face with you, but ‘bold’ toward you when away! I beg you that when I come, I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world.”

Humility. Gentleness. Two key words that define the rest of this, as well as the rebuke here to those who think that as Christians we should take up earthly methods to “fight” for the Kingdom of Jesus.

This is pertinent today because if you look around at the atmosphere on social media, politics, etc., you will often see it is actually Christians leading the support of “worldly methods” to supposedly promote Christ’s Kingdom. Can Christ’s Kingdom be won by worldly methods? No, no, no. The New Testament says “No.” Jesus said “No.” The Apostles said, “No.” Worldly fighting only shows that those who use these methods have no idea of what the Kingdom of Christ is all about.

What do I mean by worldly methods?

I think we all know, but here are some:

• Boasting
• Pride
• Vengeance taking, rather than leaving that to the Lord
• Physical violence
• Threats
• Name-calling
• Falsehood telling
• Trust in worldly governments and trust in man
• Prayerlessness and lack of faith that God answers prayer and leads us
• Judging by outward appearances
• Prejudice and contempt toward others, instead of a heart of love and self-sacrifice
• Lack of compassion toward the weak and hurting
• Selfishness and a self-orientation of our thoughts
• Commending oneself rather than commending others
• Not following the “Love list” in 1 Cor. 13:4-8 “ Love is patient, love is kind….”
• Not thinking, speaking, and acting on the list of Philippians 4:8 “Whatsoever things….”
• Mislabling intensions as godly when they are worldy.

Spiritual Warfare: How Should I Then Live?

The above verses are often construed to be about “demolishing strongholds…arguments…pretensions” out there somewhere in the Public sphere, or the kingdoms of this world. That can be so, through prayer.

However, notice that the Apostle Paul goes on telling us to “take every thought captive to Christ.” He continues in the chapter to speak about individuals and their inner life. These are not instructions on how to fight using worldly efforts. Paul ends chapter 10 with vs 12-18: “ But, let the one who boasts boast in the Lord. For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.”

Furthermore, in the very next chapter, 2 Cor. 11, Paul follows with vs 3-4:

“But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.  For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the Spirit you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.”

Paul sees how off-center these people have gotten in their thinking. He rebukes those who have forgotten that our faith has to do with maintaining the integrity of our individual walk with Jesus. This is an exhortation for us to show Jesus everyday in our lives and thoughts. We must uphold Him as the center in all the things we value.

Applying This to Spiritual Warfare

We need to focus on allowing the Spirit of God the free rein into our thoughts and lives. We need to let the Holy Spirit use the spiritual tool of the word of God (See Ephesians 6:10-18 for the Verses on the Armor of God) to go deep into our thoughts and demolish the strongholds, pretensions, non-biblical viewpoints, in our own lives.

Everyday, we need to lay ourselves at the feet of Jesus to let Him seek us out in our inner self and to convict us of the ways in which we need to repent of worldly thoughts and selfish, not Christlike, patterns in our lives.

Above all, we need this. If we don’t apply this to our own walk, we are hardly fit for a spiritual battle to bring people into the Kingdom of Jesus. What good is a worldly kingdom, one which will pass away without accomplishing a change in hearts for Christ.