“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.” 2 Corinthians 10:4-5

The meaning of this verse has long eluded me. How does a person take a thought captive? Moreover, why does it matter? Thoughts are just etherial, existing only in my own mind, not a tangible thing that harms others, right? Thoughts aren’t a physical being that I could catch and imprison. What does this verse even mean? Why didn’t Paul tell us how to do this? Setting aside my frustration at the man who was the most prolific contributor to the New Testament because he left out this one instruction, this verse has befuddled many people, not just me. Jennie Allen wrote her best-selling book Get Out of Your Head on this very topic. I read her book, and this blog utilizes techniques I learned from it. Let’s look first at the why, and then we’ll examine the how.

How can my thoughts hurt me?

Have you ever heard the saying, “Attitude is everything”? It’s a rather glib, dismissive saying, but our thoughts actually do dictate so much about how we experience life. In Get Out of Your Head we learn about how our thoughts can harm us. Read this short list of facts from Chapter 1, page 6 below:

• Did you know that an estimated 60 to 80 percent of visits to primary care physicians have a stress-related component?
• Did you know that research shows that “75 to 98 percent of mental, physical, and behavioral illness comes from one’s thought life”?
• Did you know that, with what we know about the brain today, when Scripture is talking about the heart, it really could be talking about the mind and the emotions we experience in our brains?

Your thoughts can color how you experience events, emotions, and every aspect of your life.

How can my thoughts hurt others?

Nearly every sin begins as a thought. I know that’s probably going to ruffle some feathers, but it’s true. Your thoughts can become harmful to others in actuality.

If we believe the words of Christ in the Sermon on the Mount, we learn what a large quantity of sin is actually thought sin. Jesus goes over and over the laws with “you have heard it said…” and follows it up with “but I tell you…” and gives us a more stringent version of the law. He continues this until we begin to understand that truly, no one can be justified by the law, because none of us is capable of fully obeying it. Here’s a brief rundown of some of the thought sins Jesus discusses:

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder,^[a] and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ ²² But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister^[b][c] will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’^[d] is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.” Matthew 5:21-22

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’^[e]28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28

We are also warned not to worry¹, not to judge others², and told we are evil³. All in all it’s a real pick-me-up of a sermon (she wrote, sarcastically). Basically, if anyone believed they were doing pretty well at keeping the law, they should be disabused of that fanciful notion after reading the Sermon on the Mount. Thankfully, we don’t have to be justified by the law, because we can accept the free gift of salvation offered to us by Christ. After salvation comes the process of sanctification, wherein God continues to make us more like him. That’s the point where we want to begin learning to take our thoughts captive. I have written extensively on this blog about anger, so I won’t rehash it here but you can start with this blog post if you’d like to read more on the topic of anger.

When fantasies can be harmful

Even some of the thoughts that are never meant to leave our heads can be harmful to us and to others.

In the sitcom How I Met Your Mother the main character, Ted, has a close friend, Marshall, and Marshall is married to Lily. At one point Marshall and his other close friend, Barney, are discussing fantasies about women, and Marshall states that he can’t have a fantasy about another woman without first imagining that his wife has died.

Barney finds this idea repellent, but a New York Post article from 2012 states that 52% of married respondents fantasize about the death of their spouse. This same article surmises that it may actually be beneficial to your marriage because fear of loss may create feelings of gratitude, but I’m not so sure how universal the fear-of-loss/feeling-of-gratitude response is. I fear this sort of fantasization may lean more toward opening a door for sin to enter through.

But if it’s just a fantasy, how can that lead to sin?

The concept of thought sin leading to action sin is all over the bible. Proverbs 4:23 says, “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.” In Genesis 4:7 God is speaking to Cain when he was angry that God accepted his brother, Abel’s sacrifice, but not his own. God knows Cain’s thoughts and He says: “If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it.” Cain doesn’t rule over his thoughts, and he kills his brother because of his anger, but it didn’t have to be that way. James 4:7-8 says “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”

God created imagination, and so many incredible things have come from it, music, poetry, literature, but if you’re having daydreams like Marshall, you should recognize that only satan will send you a fantasy that begins with death. Our father wants us to have life, not death. It’s important to distinguish here between fleeting temptation, and intentionally fantasizing. Having a momentary flash of a thought of someone who is not your spouse is not the same as building an imaginary romantic scenario with them in your brain. The pastor of my church recently quoted Martin Luther: “A bird may alight on your head, but you don’t have to allow it to build a nest in your hair.”

How Satan uses your thoughts against you

In John 10 we find Jesus speaking to the Pharisees about shepherds and sheep, but of course, it goes much deeper than just a conversation about keeping livestock. Jesus is fond of speaking in metaphors, and John 10 is a perfect example. Jesus states that he is the shepherd who keeps the sheep safe, as well as the gate through which the sheep find safety. He cautions them against thieves, ie anyone who enters the sheep pen by any means other than through the gate. In John 10:10 he says:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”
‭‭John‬ ‭10‬:‭10‬ ‭NIV‬‬

Who is the thief? Jesus answers this question in the first verse of the chapter:

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.” John 10:1

Tyler Kenney of Ligonier Ministries explains more about the thief:

As for the thieves, their ranks include anyone who approaches God’s people without license or love. The thief doesn’t enter by the door, with the gate-keeper’s approval, but “climbs in by another way” (John 10:1). He hops the fence because he doesn’t have the right to be there, and he comes to do harm. He doesn’t care for the sheep. His purpose is to “steal and kill and destroy” (John 10:10).

Tyler Kenney, Ligonier Ministries, 2023

Certainly, the devil falls into that category.

The enemy of the Lord is the enemy of His children. In John 8, Jesus refers to satan as the father of lies:

“You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.” John 8:44

When you make a trade with Satan, you always end up with less than you had before. He’s not holding any cards you want, but he is an expert at temptation, so he can make even garbage seem appealing.

Did you know that food photography rarely utilizes actual food? The mouthwatering images of fluffy pancakes on commercials are actually being coated in motor oil, not syrup. Sesame seeds are glued onto hamburger buns, and that ice cream cone? It’s two scoops of mashed potatoes covered in Elmer’s glue to create realistic drips.

That’s what the Devil is offering you when he tempts you. Remember who you’re dealing with, he comes only to steal, kill, and destroy, and he is the father of lies, so if what he is offering you looks good, you can bet it’s actually poison.

Renner Ministries has a great article on how satan steals, kills, and destroys covertly, like a pickpocket working a crowd of tourists who won’t know their wallet is missing until they go to pay for lunch.

Jesus uses this word to let us know the devil is very cunning in the way he steals from people. He knows that if he does it outright, his actions will be recognized; therefore, he steals from people in such a deceptive way that he often accomplishes his evil goal before they even know he has stolen from them!

One way that this theft begins is within our own thought lives. When you indulge in sinful fantasies, it’s like breaking the sheep pen yourself to allow the thief inside.

I even wonder sometimes if this type of fantasization could be the seed behind the horrifying familicide cases like Scott Peterson and Chris Watts. In 2019 EJ Dickson interviewed Dr. Neil Websdale, director of the Family Violence Institute at Northern Arizona about the Chris Watts case. Websdale stated, “The research is clear: these guys have secret lives, to be candid. They fantasize. They plan. They strategize, sometimes. They keep it to themselves.”

Envy, covetousness (wanting what others have), lust, greed, wrath (rage), these all begin in the mind. You can let your animal brain take over, and, like Cain, allow your sinful thought to become a sin in action, or you can catch that thought – take it captive – and make it submit to Christ. This is no easy task, but I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength⁴.

You might be thinking, but what if I’m not thinking about a real person I know, but a celebrity crush or character in a book? It actually doesn’t matter if the person you’re thinking about is real, or if you know them in real life, because the sin is not about the person, but the fantasy. The fantasy creates an unrealistic scenario which breeds very real discontentment in your real-life relationship. In a 2008 article Today’s Christian Woman states:

“Studies show that people who fantasize about someone other than their spouse are seven times more likely to commit adultery than those who haven’t fantasized.”

Today’s Christian Woman, Linda LaMar Jewell, 2008

Another type of thought that we should try to take captive is worry. Ever since I was a kid I have had catastrophic ideation about the people I love. A frightening thought would creep in, what if this terrible thing happens to this person I love? From there, my brain would spiral with all the ways I would try to prevent that from happening in real life, or how I would render aid in that scenario.

Philippians 4:6-7 says “Don’t worry about anything, but pray about everything. With thankful hearts offer up your prayers and requests to God. ⁷ Then, because you belong to Christ Jesus, God will bless you with peace that no one can completely understand. And this peace will control the way you think and feel.” (CEV)

If you struggle with anxiety, I don’t want this to come across as flippant. I know that you can’t simply turn it off and skip off into the sunset, but I want to encourage you, when you feel anxious, especially if you get caught up in catastrophic ideation, to try to take those thoughts captive. If you’re envisioning a terrifying scene, say it out loud. Here is one funny example of how to put this into practice:

@joewellscomic

♬ original sound – Joe Wells

Recognize when you’re spiraling, and pray and ask God to help you. In fact, pray when you’re not spiraling, that God would help you spot the spiral when it starts.

As a means of prevention, in Philippians 4:8 Paul tells us how we should be guarding our own thoughts: “Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”

I try to use this verse as a litmus test on my thoughts. Is this thought true? Is it noble? Is it right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, praiseworthy? Usually, I don’t get past true. It may seem impossible now, but, with practice, you can begin to spot destructive thoughts. Once you spot them, you can grab onto them and examine them. Is it based in truth, or not? If not, you can just discard it. This is like a scary movie my brain has turned on for no reason, it’s not real, it’s not based on a real threat that is actually happening in this moment. If it is based on a real threat that is not happening in this moment, that’s something you can turn over to God. You can say, God, this thing scares me, but I know you’re bigger than this. Please give me peace about living with this frightening thing.

Taking your thoughts captive begins with prayer, obedience and submission to God. It’s not easy, but with God’s help, we can do it.

Footnotes:

1. Matthew 6:25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?” ↩︎
2. Matthew 7:1-2 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.” ↩︎
3. Matthew 7:9-11 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” ↩︎
4. Philippians 4:13 “For I can do everything through Christ, who gives me strength.” ↩︎