The discipline to take every thought captive is probably the most difficult task to master in the Christian life.  Living in the information age, we are inundated with lots of information, and truth be told, most of it is not helpful.  You must consider that we have three enemies constantly fighting against us if you are going to be successful taking every thought captive.  First, our sinful nature, second is the world and third are our spiritual enemies, so it can be a difficult task.

Sometimes we accept and embrace information because it is what we want to hear.  Our sinful nature can justify just about anything and we happily go along.  We in America also live in a self-help culture in which every form of worldly wisdom is calling us to focus on ourselves and put ourselves first.  We are constantly told that we deserve stuff, that we need to work on our self-esteem, our self-image, to believe in ourselves.  Whether it is the self-esteem movement, the human potential movement, the New Age movement or modern psychology, we are bombarded with worldly wisdom that always seeks to take our focus off of Christ and tries to redefine our identity in Christ (Col.2:8).  Then we have our spiritual warfare (Eph. 6:10-20).  This is when the enemy of Christ (and us) will seek to destroy our faith, question our loyalty, point out our sin, our shortcomings, our mistakes.  This is when we beat ourselves up because we sometimes don’t distinguish the differences between guilt and conviction, a period of doubt verses an abandonment of faith or a moment of weakness rather than a pattern of sin.

When we are told to put on THE FULL ARMOR OF GOD, it is because every aspect of that armor is necessary to wage war against the three enemies mentioned above.  We need the breastplate of righteousness to guard our hearts because our hearts can easily be led astray which can result in actions that do lead us away from growing in holiness.  We also need to stand firm in the Gospel of Peace so that we can be stable when life’s storms blow hard.  We must be  firm in our resolve that God is in control and that peace that comes from our identity in Christ and the security of our eternal future puts the temporary trials in perspective.  The shield of faith also works hand in hand with the gospel of peace for us to stand firm and extinguish the flaming arrows that come from the three enemies above (Eph. 6:16).   The helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit are also absolutely critical to this discipline to take every thought captive because we must be grounded in the Word of God  to filter and extinguish the flaming arrows of worldly wisdom and temptation.  The Enemy seeks to destroy our relationship with God, take our focus off of Christ, lead us into discouragement, temptation and every impure thing rather than God (Philippians 4:8-9).

Now consider the following passage from Mark 8:

³¹ And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. ³² And He was stating the matter plainly. And Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. ³³ But turning around and seeing His disciples, He rebuked Peter and *said, “Get behind Me, Satan; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s.”

Imagine if Jesus, instead of calling us to die to ourselves (v.34-38), had continued the conversation with Conventional wisdom:

Peter: Whoa, relax Jesus, I am just looking out for you, take it easy!

Jesus: You’re right Peter, I am sorry.  I know that you have my best interest at heart.

Disciples:  What’s going on?

Peter: Jesus called me Satan because I told him I was not going to stand by and watch him get killed…and something about God’s will.

Disciples: Well that seems a little harsh Jesus, Peter’s just looking out for you, we all are.

Jesus: You’re right guys, I am sorry.  That was over the line.  I guess I am just a little worked up about the whole crucifixion and resurrection thing that I was telling you about.

Disciples: No worries, we won’t let that happen. 

How often have we done this with our friends, family, coworkers, neighbors or classmates?  Set the truth of God aside for what is comfortable, practical, “well-meaning.”  I can recall specific instances when I have been on both sides of the conversation, whether I was just trying to make someone feel better or believing the well meaning lies that make me feel better.  Of course we must speak the truth in love, but I think it is important to make sure we don’t sacrifice the truth.  I am so thankful that Jesus did not subscribe to conventional wisdom or else we would all be screwed and hell bound. 

It is so important that we take everything we hear, everything we are told, and everything we read and put it through the filter of the Bible regardless of how good it makes us feel.  We are given a lot of information that sounds good, but we cannot be unaware that pragmatic worldly wisdom cannot help us know God (1Cor. 1:21) and if we are going to walk with Jesus, we must live by the truth that the foolishness of God is the power of God to us, even if that means that we walk with God alone (1Corinthians 1:17-31)!