2 CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 10

[Kevin Young]

This week we will reading chapter 10 of 2 Corinthians. After reading the chapter, please post your thoughts, questions, and insights. I love you all, God bless.

[sassy1506]

Yay! I wasn't expecting this to be up! We love you too!

2 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.

This reminds me of my friend's youth group. When we get into the stuff people should be taking seriously, some of them just sit in the back and talk. It takes constant reminders from the youth leaders and other kids to get them to pay attention. Even then, they're not actually listening.

6 And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

And THIS makes me think of little kids. I have a friend who's nine years older than her little brother. When we used to hang out more, she'd complain that she was always getting yelled at for retaliating when he'd pull her hair or pinch her. He was 2, she was 11. She knew what she was doing, he didn't. Little kids don't get in trouble as much, 'cause they don't know better. If they keep doing the same things even after they know better, they get punished.

7 You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do.

Yep, even the one everyone calls a goth and weirdo can belong to Christ. She's writing this right now.

11 Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.

Exactly. I sorta have trouble with this. I mean, I can speak and play music and everything for a crowd, but I have a lot of trouble doing it one-on-one. However, I feel totally comfortable witnessing over email or facebook chats.

18 For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends

I really like this one . . . people who brag about themselves always seem to be saying "I'm better than you" and that really gets on my nerves. If you just sit back and let God do His thing, it's always better.

[Ric]

I edited some of this in hopes that it'd come across more clearly and less abrasive.

3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 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.

I have a bit of experience in the "art" of war, and trust me - I'd rather spend all day getting shot at and blown up by RPGs and IEDs as to have the power of God against me. All we can do is kill people... God can destroy the evil mind, drive out the demons, and make the islamic terrorist into a born-again believer in Jesus. Consider what a true stronghold is. To me, it's something that consumes your mind and makes you captive to it, and your actions follow suit, i.e. terror cells and militant islamist groups.

If we truly ARE a peace-loving nation, of course we must be a hard target(read: don't mess with us, people. We will HURT yall.), but we must also PRAY WHOLEHEARTEDLY for our enemies. For if God renews their minds and they commit themselves to Christ, they will lay down their weapons and we suddenly have no need to kill them.

Paul taught nothing but Christ and Him crucified. Anything else(denominations, rituals, traditions, etc) is Jesus AND.... We should never add anything to Christ, for it only brings arguments to the table. Arguments start with US, not God. Why should He have to argue? He doesn't need to prove anything! On the contrary, when we find ourselves feeling the need to argue, we should take that thought captive - pause, pray, hand the situation over to God, and follow His advice.

When Paul speaks of pretensions, am I right that a pretension is more or less a pre-assessment of someone, something, or somewhere? If so, then how many of us have already pre-assessed someone because of their clothing, haircut, weight, etc? Don't ever forget that where we may see a fat kid with serious acne and body odor, God sees a beautiful soul made to be in His likeness. Whose lens should we be looking through if we claim to belong to Christ?

12 We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.

I'll lay it down like this. I'm a licensed minister of the Congregational Holiness Church. I've preached, I've led worship, I've sang till my voice was gone. I've been the youth leader at three different churches. I've led Bible study. Does that mean I deserve any special treatment? Not really. If anything, that all means that I'd BETTER get it right whenever I say something that has to do with the Kingdom, because if I mess it up or twist it or bend it a little, then I'm in danger of God's wrath because I should know better.

We aren't the yardstick. JESUS is.

[Kevin Young]

  3We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. 4*We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. 5We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. 6And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient.

I have always looked at this verse as a verse that I could apply to my own life. You know, thinking I should capture every rebellious thought that I have and make it obedient to Christ. And it probably can mean that. But for the first time, I think I noticed that Paul is not using his words that way. He is actually saying that he combats OTHER PEOPLE'S THOUGHTS and uses God's mighty weapons to knock down OTHER PEOPLE'S STRONGHOLDS OF HUMAN REASONING and DESTROY OTHER PEOPLE'S FALSE ARGUMENTS. I have never seen this before. Very interesting. Paul said that "We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God." He was ready to fight with others that weren't preaching the truth or that weren't thinking about God in the right way. And he was going to use the mighty weapons of God for the fight as opposed to worldly weapons.

I honestly have to rethink this whole verse, because this is very new for me today.

17As the Scriptures say, "If you want to boast, boast only about the LORD."

This is a great verse that reminds me of how my attitude should be in Christ.

[Ric]

I honestly have to rethink this whole verse, because this is very new for me today.

Me too, now! I remember Paul already had that very frame of mind. He called Peter out over what he was doing, after all.

6And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient.

A model of the final Judgement?