“We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.”
– 2 Corinthians 10:5
Recently, I became the “church librarian” at our church. As I stepped into the library for the first time in this new role and scanned the shelves, I was both excited and overwhelmed. Excited because I love books and was honored to have this opportunity to help out in our library. Overwhelmed because there were a lot of books to sift through.
As I began the process of curating our collection and thinking about what we should add to our library, I needed to consider what types of books would be good, enjoyable, or helpful for our church family.
Curating a collection of anything implies careful, intentional thought going into every selection. It also implies evaluating what is already present in the collection to determine if it should remain. Sometimes in the library, a book is not worth hanging onto and needs to be weeded. Maybe it is old and out of date. Maybe it is in poor condition. Maybe it seemed like a good book once but has since been proven to be unreliable or the author is no longer a trustworthy source. And sometimes, a book is just not what we need, so it gets weeded to make room for other, better books.
As Christians, we should be carefully curating the voices that are informing the library of our thoughts. Who or what are we allowing to speak into our lives on a daily basis?
In 2 Corinthians 10, Paul addresses the spiritual battle we are all in and tells us to “take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Taking every thought captive means that we are intentional about the things we allow our thoughts to dwell on. What am I looking at on my phone in my spare time? What do I read, watch, play, or listen to for fun? What kinds of music, podcasts, or radio stations am I listening to while I drive? What conversations am I a part of (actively or passively) when I’m at work? What kind of news am I watching in order to “stay informed”? What are the first thoughts in my mind when I wake up and the last thoughts in my mind when I go to bed?
Everything that I read, watch, or listen to is a voice. Every person I talk with or listen to is a voice. Every show I watch, every book I read, every politician or person on social media I follow, every newscaster I see gains space in my library of thoughts.
In our world today, we are truly over-sourced. Information is at our fingertips. We can stream just about any movie, show, podcast, or music on demand. We can download books, articles, and blogs in an instant. We can pose a question to Google, Siri, Alexa, or ChatGPT and have an answer immediately. We can tune into news channels 24/7 and stay “in tune” with what’s happening all day long. It is all too easy to drown in information and voices.
What are all of these voices doing to our thoughts? Are they pushing us toward Jesus or away from Him? Are they growing in us love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Or are they cultivating a spirit filled with impurity, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, envy, bitterness, malice, gossip, and the like?
Paul tells us clearly to take control of our thoughts. The verb he uses here is active and present, meaning we can’t be passive and assume it will just happen to us; rather, we have to purposefully choose to do this all the time. Every day. Every thought.
At the beginning of verse 5, Paul gives us an important piece of the puzzle for how to do this: “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God.” Any voice that speaks into my experience needs to be evaluated first by this criteria. Does this voice speak against Scripture and against our holy God? If so, then it needs to hold no sway over me. If something causes me to think in a way that Scripture tells me is sin, I need to weed that thing out of my head.
Sometimes the voices that need to be weeded aren’t obviously wrong, but are things that we allow to take up too much space in our heads. We get too caught up in someone else’s drama and let it consume us. We get so worried or concerned about the wrong that is happening politically or socially somewhere (locally, nationally, internationally) that we get trapped in a cycle of hate and bitterness toward those perpetuating the wrong. We get so engrossed in the show, book, musician, or podcast we love that we give more of ourselves to that entertainment than to our heavenly Father.
Whatever voices consistently take our eyes off of Jesus need to be taken captive. We need to weed out the voices that distract us and give their space to the one Voice that truly matters so that we can walk in obedience to Christ.
The clear winner for space in our library of thoughts is Scripture. God’s Word to us needs to have the most important space in our heads. We need to read it and study it often enough that it is there when we come up against the things of this world that detract from Him. We need to know the Bible well enough to be able to refute the lies of Satan. We need to trust God’s Word above every other voice and come to Him consistently with everything. Every day. Every thought. Take it captive, bring it to Him. Compare it to Scripture. Seek God’s wisdom.
Any voices we listen to that offer spiritual wisdom–any speaker, teacher, author, theologian, or musician from whom we learn–must be brought under the lens of Scripture. These men and women can truly offer so much for us in the way of encouragement and teaching and can be wonderful voices to add to our library of thoughts, as long as they stay consistent with Scripture.
We can still have other voices we listen to that are not necessarily growing us spiritually but are just a part of our lives. There can be good in those things, like finding the beauty in art forms, enjoying a funny movie or book, or playing silly games just for fun. But none of these voices should be the main thing, nor should they take away from the main One.
Take every thought captive. Every day. Every thought. We are in a spiritual battle and what we spend our time thinking about matters–may our thoughts lead us to obedience in Christ.
Taking It Further:
What voices have the most sway in your life? What kind of fruit are those voices producing? Do any of these voices get in the way of turning to Christ in obedience? Take some time to ask God to help you see if anything needs weeding today.