If you spend any time in church or a bible study or a small group, you will inevitable receive the advice to take every thought captive.  It is advice that is usually given when somebody is struggling with sin or being tempted to sin.  The scripture comes from 2Corinthians 10:5 which instructs us to destroy speculation and every lofty thought raised up against the knowledge of God, and to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.  Two things that I have observed over the years is that men tend to quote this to a brother struggling with lust.  The second thing that is common is that people rarely quote the second half of the verse.  Quoting the first part of the verse is a neat admonition, but it is powerless without the second part of the verse.

When it comes to taking every thought captive, the sinful thoughts are usually obvious to anyone who knows God.  The hard part is guarding against the thoughts that lay the foundation for sin.  The small compromises that lead us down a road of compromise, one tiny step at a time.  Jesus spoke to this in Matthew 5…”you have heard it said, ‘Do not commit murder’ but I say do not be angry”…”you have heard it said ‘Do not commit adultery’, but I say do not even look at a woman to lust.”  Every sin starts with an unconstrained thought that, if allowed to exist, are nurtured and eventually acted upon and extended on others.  Sometimes we reason in our minds that it is harmless.  “Go ahead and flirt, you’re married, not dead”…”have another drink, live a little”…”you have been wronged”…”wow, check her out” and so on.  Over time, when sin is finally birthed, there will be those people in our lives who will send more thoughts our way to make everything okay…”what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him”…”you got drunk, big deal, everyone does it”…”he had it coming”…”it’s just sex, get over yourself.”  It is not uncommon that the baby steps that culminate in sin are often justified as no big deal, especially by unbelievers in the church.

“…do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect” – Romans 12:2

The ability to have any success in taking every thought captive is rooted in spiritual disciplines, specifically to know the Word of God, to pray, to mediate and to journal (Psalm 119:1-16).  Other disciplines will support these, but you have no means of distinguishing a God pleasing thought from a thought of darkness if you do not scrutinize it under the light of scripture.  The desire to even think this comes from the Holy Spirit and prayer (John 16:8-9).  As we have communion with God through His word and prayer, the Holy Spirit in us prays for us with groaning too deep for words (Romans 8:26).

The discipline to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ has a huge impact in the process of spiritual growth.  It must start with the renewing of our mind (Romans 12:2) by the constant reading and mediation on God’s word.  Over the last few years, I have had other Christians offer me advice to deal with the storms of life, and in several instances, the advice was comforting.  The problem was that all of the advice prescribed worldly wisdom that compromised or nullified my position as a child of God (Romans 8:16) or that God had purpose in my life trials (James 1:2-12).  It also nullified the sovereignty of God (Psalms 38 & 139) as if I was left on my own, leaving God hopeful that I would figure it out within myself.  There are many other examples, but my point is that we can never take counsel that compromises the attributes of God or our identity in Christ or we will find ourselves down a path of looking for love, peace and hope in all the wrong places.