2 Cor 10:4: Tearing down forts
"The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to 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." Paul said that in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5.
His Corinthian critics egged on by Jewish interlopers went the way of the world and thought that good looks, educated speech, loads of personal charisma, visible "success" and having your name up in lights was "really livin'". Paul sniffed at all that as trivia and talked about making war and changing worlds! You mean "war as in bombs and bullets, siege towers and battering rams?" He would have sniffed at that as well. "That's not war! I'm talking about real war where truth attacks lies, where gospel brings down moral and religious walls fifty feet thick and where the Story brings centuries-old evil stories groveling on their knees before Jesus Christ." And listen, he had no time for tiny church squabbles; they were cosmic-sized evils he attacked and galactic foundations he was blowing up.
Is this really what he was doing or is this just more preacher rhetoric? That's what he was doing and that's what he says we're to be engaged in, armed with the gospel of God about Jesus Christ.
Let me tell you again what G.K. Chesterton said about Marcus Aurelius, the Roman Emperor and Stoic. He thought Aurelius was virtuous, sincere, generous and open-minded. He even admired his writings but he said there was something about the scholar-emperor that was lacking. And what was that? "He does not command me to perform the impossible," said Chesterton.
He was nothing like Jesus in this regard. Even his writings had that same, "Now, let's makes sure we don't go to an extreme" tone. No one was stretched. No one was told. "Oh, stop that! That's beneath you. Follow me and I'll give you something to match what you were made for." Chesterton compared the Stoic emperor's words with Christ and said:
The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius.
Yes: he was soliloquising,
not making something.
Do not the words of Jesus ring
Like nails knocked into a board
In his Father's workshop?
My suspicion is that most vibrant young people would say that the Christ they hear about from churches in general and preachers in particular doesn't command them to do the impossible or believe the incredible. And that's a real shame because the real Christ, the Christ we haven't domesticated does just that! Young people don't need to put up with this and they shouldn't do it. They shouldn't let the bland churches and bored preachers leave them bloodless! They ought to go straight to the words of Christ himself and feel their blood stir. There's nothing anemic about Jesus Christ and if in coming to Christ we find our thinking is tamer, our dreams are more reasonable, our convictions are more moderate then we've come to the wrong Christ!
The real Jesus Christ is a tearer down of worlds and a builder of a new creation. He neither wimps nor whines and goes striding down the centuries looking for people who will risk putting their minds and hearts and bodies and energies in his hands. God help us, by the time some churches and preachers and books are done with us we can't even dream outrageous dreams in the name of Christ. There's no sense in us that we're at war with a world spirit that is anti-God, anti-Christ and anti-life! If we aren't dead when they're done with us we're at least sound asleep and all the happy songs and new worship formats in creation won't keep vibrant young people from a ho-hum existence unless by chance the youthful Christ gate-crashes our "happy hour" worship party.
©2004 Jim McGuiggan. All materials are free to be copied and used as long as money is not being made.
Many thanks to brother Ed Healy, for allowing me to post from his website, the abiding word.com.