For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. | 2 Corinthians 10:4–6
On Sunday, we looked at how Christians should wage war. This section has both very combative language mixed with talk of weakness and humility, which is not just an interesting juxtaposition. Paul is telling the Corinthians that God’s weapons of warfare are weak and foolish to the world. In this, he is echoing how he opened a previous letter to this church, where he said:
For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. | 1 Corinthians 1:22–25
In this very well known verse, Paul wants the church to know that if they apply their own means to God’s ends, they will be drawn into wordly fights: they will search for signs like the Jews, they will pursue wisdom like the Greeks, or (as Andrew pointed out) they will fight for power like Americans.
The specific fallacy that we apply to the gospel is: God expects us to be influential and in control. From this perspective, Christians are drawn into all sorts of battles and take on all sorts of tactics that God has not intended the church to use. So the term evangelical has become a political voting block rather than an ambassador of the good news of the gospel. Church success is measured by attendance, because this is how power is built. God’s blessings are measured by wealth and prosperity, rather than on faithfulness and maturity. While the desire to have political leaders who represent the Christian faith is nothing new, we presume it in a way that is unparalleled in church history. Even more, we focus on it and make it a primary issue in a way that obscures the larger purpose of God’s people.
We need to be aware of what our blind spots are. We need to remember that the gospel was not given to win culture battles, but to do the much larger work of reconciling the destructive effects of sin. As Paul tells the church in Ephesus:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. | Ephesians 6:12
God uses our efforts to defeat powers that we cannot see. In order to play our part in this, we need to make sure that we are waging the right war. The correct war is against every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God; it is a war against sinful ideology. Hearing that, it is easy to come to the conclusion that we fight by arguing and stop bad ideology with influence. Paul doesn’t say that we debate our opponents into submission, but that we destroy arguments and strongholds. The sort of language points to a power that we do not manifest. Paul wants us to know that God is going to use the little that we have to do more than just gain an upper hand. In the end, the opposition will be destroyed and everything left will be holy.
If you embrace this shift: from immediate to eternal, from earthly to heavenly, from influence to destruction, and from fleshly to divine power, it allows you to focus on what God is concerned with. What destroys strongholds is not a witty argument, but the truth of the gospel. The tools that we are given are not to overpower, but to reveal an alternative way of living; one that reveals God’s goodness and grace. We should speak the truth in love, not only because the Bible tells us to, but because it is the best expression of the God whom we represent. We do it trusting that He will use our ‘weak’ efforts to win a war that is greater and more important than what our headlines tell us to focus on.
This is also a perfect segue into ADVENT. This is the time of year when we celebrate that God came into the world as a baby. Even as the angels declared the glory, this baby looked weak and insignificant through the eyes of human beings. There is no better time to reflect on power in weakness than at Christmas. In the incarnation the greatest act of humility and grace is also the greatest act of power, as Jesus comes to reshape the entire trajectory of creation through sacrifice and love. This is also a great reminder that these are two of the most powerful weapons that we have to destroy strongholds.