2 Corinthians 10:5
[5] “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

The context of this verse is that the Corinthians had some people who were attacking Paul’s apostleship and influence at the church of Corinth. There needed to be some church discipline and the Corinthians needed to do this themselves. So Paul offered some guidance.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. [4] For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. [5] We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

We do not fight with fists and clubs and knives and guns (except under specific circumstances which are not being addressed here). We destroy arguments. We destroy ‘lofty opinions’ raised against the knowledge of God.

There are presuppositions, mental attitudes that prevent people from knowing God. In todays culture they are as thick as oil. It is the duty of Christians to be so immersed in Gods Word that our presuppositions (the things we hold to be true that underlie and found our ability to process facts). Having such a strong grasp of the Truth will prevent us from believing the many lies of our culture from the ‘right’ or the ‘left’.

And so, what that means, among many other things, is that we do not believe everything we think. Just because you can say (or write) something doesn’t make it true. Instead, we compare our thoughts and those of others captive, we compare it to what we know of the Bible. We so believe and therefore act that anyone around us will know that we are biblical (as opposed to for example: Christian Nationalist or flat earth or whatever other pseudo-intellectual garbage floating around on the virtual ether).

Because (well, because we are given Paul’s command and example here), even if some of the other ideas floating around are ‘correct’ it will benefit us far greater to be right with Scripture and therefore God than being ‘right’ with whatever is the soup du jour online today.

Take whatever you are tempted to be sidetracked with and compare it to the truth of Jesus. This includes the above but also just plain sinful thoughts about yourself, your circumstances, your ‘rights’, and see how they stack up against whatever it is that God says about himself, you, and the world.

Paul is not specific (though the context is clear—the arguments are aimed against the truth of Scripture esp. re the functioning of the church and the gospel). Paul is not specific because our thoughts can wonder in many directions that are not helpful (I just gave two easy types of examples: many others could be given). The point is: captivate your mind with Jesus and the things of this world will grow strangely dim…

Praise Jesus!!!