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EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE
I. Introduction
[1] Horse story – Farmer and Neighbor
A farmer was visiting with his neighbor, talking about an old horse that was in the corral. The horse was long in the tooth, far beyond his best years. The neighbor said “Well, if you want to sell him, I’ll take him off your hands and give you $300 for him. The farmer said “That’s more than he’s worth, but if you want the horse, I’ll let you have him for $300.
A day or two later, the farmer visited his neighbor and, rather sheepishly, said, “You know neighbor, it didn’t sit right with me selling that horse. I’ve had him since he was a foal, and it was like selling an old friend. I’ll give you $600 if you’ll sell him back to me.” The neighbor said, “I understand how you feel. You can have him back for $600.”
The next day the neighbor came back to the farmer and said, “I didn’t realize my kids had fallen in love with that gentle old horse, so they could ride him around the corral. They’re heartbroken. If you’ll sell him back to me again I’ll double your money and sweeten it a little. I’ll give you $1,500 and promise the horse will be well-treated and have a nice retirement home.” The farmer said, “Well, I don’t want to disappoint the kids just because I’m sentimental. Sure, I’ll sell him to you for $1,500.”
A short time later, the farmer drove to the neighbor’s house in a rush, dust flying behind his pickup. Leaving the door open and the engine running, he hurried up to the neighbor and said, “I’ve got to have that horse. I had forgotten that I had given that horse to my wife years ago and she considered him her horse. My marriage is in real trouble. I’ll double your money and sweeten it. Please sell him back to me for $3,500. For that amount you can get a better horse.” The neighbor said “Far be it from me to stand in the way of repairing a rift between you and your wife. Sure, the horse is hers for $3,500.
A couple of days later the neighbor hurried up to the farmer’s house and came running up the farmer, waving a check for $7,500. Out of breath, he started, “I’ll give you $7,500 for that horse…” The farmer held up his hand and stopped him. “The horse died.”
“DIED?!" sputtered the neighbor. "That’s awful! What a shame! We’ve both been making a living selling that horse."
Neighbor had a “thinking problem,” what a good friend of mine calls “stinkin’ thinkin’.”
Thoughts are vitally important to Christians – thoughts are the battlefield in the war for your soul!
They not only control our actions – our thoughts determine who we are.
[2] Proverbs 23:7 As he thinks in his heart, so is he. (KJV)
“as he thinks within himself” (NASB)
The Psalmist sees the self inside and the way we present that self to others as different things.
It is the true and undisguised thoughts inside him, that the person is.
For those without the law, their thoughts are the basis of God’s judgment:
[2a] …they [those who do not have the law] show the work of the Law written in their hearts, their conscience bearing witness and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them, on the day when, according to my gospel, God will judge the secrets of men through Christ Jesus. (Romans 2:15)
Look at the context of Prov 23:7. Who is “he” in this verse?
[2B]V6 – “Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, or desire his delicacies”
In the context, the one who is as he thinks in his heart is specifically the selfish man-he whose delicacies we are not to desire.
Note: the selfishness of a selfish man is something inside himself, as the word “self” in “selfish” so reveals.
We have-rightly I think-inferred that whatever thoughts live within a person, are the person’s true identity—not what he displays on the outside.
What do you think in your inner self?
The answer to that question is the same as the question: Who are you?
It may not be a very easy question to answer honestly.
II. The Mind and the Heart
I have read that in Hebrew there is no word that specifically means mind or brain.
When the Hebrew language of the Bible was in use, the physical heart was believed to be the center of a person’s consciousness, in fact…
[3]…the heart was thought to be the center of a person, possessing the mind's attributes.
Bible translators sometimes translated the word “heart” and sometimes “mind.”
The Hebrew word leb (pr. labe) Strong’s H3820 means “himself,” or (implied) “herself” and is used for the heart, mind, feelings, understanding, intellect.
In biblical terminology, it is the center of everything.
The physical heart does respond to things going on in the mind, such as accelerate when our minds are frightened, excited, or have feelings of strong love, and seems to be the origin of Valentine heart, our symbol for love [3a] is derived from the approximate shape of a physical heart.
So in the Old Testament, the heart can be pure, holy, courageous, clean, stubborn, hard, good, or not good.
As more nuanced languages developed, capable of more subtle refinements in expression, and the Old Testament was translated into those languages, the mind and the heart were presented as having separate and respective functions of intellect and feeling.
[4 w 4B] The heart’s job is to pump blood.
The organ cannot think or produce emotion, or decide whether we will do good or evil. The literal heart is not where the intellect is.
[4C&D]The heart's function is controlled entirely by the mind--primarily subconsciously but also responding to various stimuli through conscious thoughts.
[4E]Our thinking is the center of our identity, character, affections and desires, temptations, morality, and strength.
Because of that history, the heart is still a metaphor for the part of our minds where our feelings and affections reside, whereas we tend to think of the mind as the home of knowledge and reasoning.
But the mind is the home of our thoughts.
[5]A. Good and Bad Thinking
[6]1. Bad thinking and where it leads
[animations per bullet]
• Every temptation begins with a thought, and every sin begins with a temptation. Therefore sin always originates as thought. We had better learn to control our “thought life” to avoid falling into the snare of our own thoughts.
That’s where Satan does his best work.
Matt 9:4 Why do you think evil in your hearts? (Remember, this is not the organ, but the affections of the mind.)
• Thinking God is small, weak, and not very aware. Thinking that with God’s power, we could do better than he does.
One physical therapist recently said: “When God created us, he didn’t think it through. He should have thought of the effects of aging.” It is not unusual for people to think their thinking is superior to God’s.
• Think of self more highly than we ought
(Thinking that we are superior to others – thinking others are small, insignificant, or lacking understanding, or just don’t matter as much as we do)
Romans 12:3 For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned.
• Thinking ill of others. Possibly the most tempting bad thought is to think ill of others. Their defects are always easy to identify, and those thoughts produce the satisfying feeling of elevating ourselves over them.
The easiest role is that of the critic – and usually it is the least useful.
• Guessing why God acts as he does. Job’s friends only offered their thoughts. They were wrong, and useless. Smart-alec Elihu’s thoughts--though seeming reasonable--weren’t any closer to the truth.
We might wonder why so many pages of our bibles are filled with wrong-headed thoughts about Job’s suffering, but that is another “why” not far removed from Job’s own “Why?” for which God rebuked him.
But Job’s friends’ thoughts are like wrong-headed thoughts we may have, many of which are calculated to make us appear in a better standing than our companions.
[7]2. Different thinking - first/last, strong/weak, etc.
It became necessary for people to think in a new way.
When I entered into the field of computers, which was far less mature than it is today, I had to learn binary and hexadecimal arithmetic. 1+1=10 in binary, 9+6 in hexadecimal is 1A. (Base 16). To me it was an entirely new and different way of thinking.
[8 with animations]
I even wrote some of my early programs in the computers own native instruction set, then called “machine language,” which was entirely numeric, and upon being read into the computer, became all zeros and ones. To debug a program I had to learn to think like the computer and interpret those digits into higher meaning.
[9]Machine language program in decimal & binary.
[10]Binary program looks like this - all zeros and ones
At the lowest level, your computer and smartphone look like this inside.
Because of difficulty of bridging the gap between this and the traditional way of thinking, IBM Corporation used to give out THINK signs in offices where they sold or leased their computers.
[11] THINK (IBM signs)
[12]In Christ, all things are new, including our thinking.
2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.
Christianity requires a new and different kind of thinking. Christianity tells me:
• 1 Cor 3:18; (if any man thinks he is wise, he must become foolish)
• 1 Cor 10:12; (let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall—don’t be deceived by your own thoughts)
• 1 Cor 14:20 (do not be children in your thinking, yet in evil be infants)
• A widow who gave a fraction of a cent gave more than the rich who put more into the treasury
• My left hand must not know what my right hand is doing.
• I find that the Prince of Peace did not come to bring peace, but a sword.
• To love Christ, I must hate my father and mother and brothers and sisters.
• I must not pray and give alms to be seen by men, and yet let my light shine so that others may see my good works and glorify God.
• I am blessed if I am poor in spirit, and mourn, and am hungry and thirsty
[13]3. Good Thinking
What is there about good thinking that makes it good?
What is the standard by which thinking is measured?
If not too highly than we ought, then how should we think about ourselves?
• That we are hopeless reprobates, knowing nothing, doing no worthwhile thing? No, but now our hope is not in ourselves, but in Christ…
As the Pharisee who praised himself in prayer? “God is so lucky to have me.”
(No, that’s bad thinking “more highly of himself than he ought”)
Any good that I am is the result of Christ’s work within me.
• You are more precious to God’s heart than your thoughts can fathom. To fully grasp it would bring us to tears.
• We have been bought with a price, the highest price ever paid for anything.
In the world’s commerce, when something is bought and sold, the price is its value to both the seller and the buyer. If the price is too low, the seller won’t sell it. At a fair price, the buyer would rather have the item than whatever he paid to get it.
You are valuable enough for the Son of God to die for.
• Your mind was designed and lovingly made by the living God.
The same God who created the universe built your mind.
It is the uppermost physical part of being “fearfully and wonderfully made,” in the image of the creator.
To the extent of our capacity for thinking, our thoughts are capable of being aligned with those of our creator. In fact, that is our charge.
• Soberly
These are sobering thoughts—not to be considered lightly.
1 Peter 1:13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
[14]III. Control your thoughts
This is the nub of today’s message and the key to living in a way that pleases God.
A. Power of the mind - The mind is more powerful than we know.
Sometimes spectacular healing is thought to have produced by the mind.
People say, “Think positive thoughts.”
Some believe that when God answers prayer for a cure, he does so by operating within our mind, not just on the operating table, or through the avenue of treatments.
B. And yet our own thoughts are difficult to control.
The tongue seems to have a mind of its own.
James 1:26 If anyone thinks he is religious and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his heart, this person's religion is worthless. (self-deception)
The tongue is hard to tame because the mind is hard to control. To the extent we have control over that pesky tongue, it is the mind’s job to exercise that control.
Thoughts are hard to capture and equally hard to “uncapture.”
It is hard to unthink a thing.
• You get an irritating song on your mind for days.
• Some problem gets on your mind, interferes with sleep or makes it impossible.
• Worry refuses to go away. It is a waste of the mind, but we have a hard time not dreading some potential eventuality. We can tell ourselves to think about something else, but the mind finds its way back.
• If I say “don’t think pink,” the color pink will flash into your mind. The harder you try to blow it away, the more stubbornly it will fix itself in your mind.
• Bad dreams, etc…are not within our direct control.
The way we think about something affects its rightness or wrongness.
• Rom 14:14 …it is unclean to one who thinks it unclean
• James 4:17 To him who knows to do good and does it not, to him it is sin.
But in distinguishing right from wrong, our minds can contort themselves like pretzels.
Our own thinking will always be persuasive within our own minds, less so to others’.
Train your mind to avoid thinking something is true simply because you wish it to be.
The threat of the subconscious driving conscious thought is reflected in an insight I heard from my high school history teacher from some earlier source. It went something like this (possibly remembered faulty from about 60 years ago):
[15]When we think a thing, the thing we think is not the thing we think we think, but only the thing that makes us think the thing we think we think.
For the Christian, this is false, or should be.
I learned a great lesson from that bit of apparent foolishness.
And still, when I wanted a new car, I can come up with an abundance of reasons why I should have it.
Train yourself to recognize what you want to think, and strain it out of your thoughts.
The mind must consciously consider each thought on its own merit, not the pull of subconscious desires on it.
C. As rebellious as our minds are, in ways that matter most our thinking is controllable.
Though hard to tame, we must understand our own thoughts and where they come from, and know and avoid the things that send them in a bad direction.
Triggers for unwanted and inappropriate desires come in through the mind.
[16]2 Cor 10:5-6 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.
We conform to the living sacrifice in Rom 12:1 by the renewing of the mind.
[16a]Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.
[16b]C. “Take every thought captive” is the equivalent of “renewing of the mind.”
The mind is the residence of our power to reason, remember, plan, and decide.
It houses our emotions – good ones and bad ones--anger, sadness, negativity, anxiety, impure, worry, resentment, self-pity, pride, jealousy…
In order to take our thoughts captive we need to know our own mind and something of how it works, including how it can deceive itself.
Our minds (thoughts) will accept or reject truth and lies – even the lies we tell ourselves.
It may not be possible to lead a life completely free from evil thoughts.
To do so would be to live free from temptation.
But we can avoid triggers (places and activities) for unwanted and inappropriate desires come in through the mind.
Some bad thoughts fly into your mind unbidden.
Who we are has much to do with how we handle those unwelcome thoughts, for they are a weapon for Satan in the war for the soul.
IV. Thought or Action?
[17]Is our religion one of thought or action?
Matt 7:24-25 "Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.
It seems out of whack to say Christ's teachings and the disciples' are a matter of the mind until we realize that the mind is the center of our being. Therefore Paul says, “we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (or “to obey Christ.”)
Faith
Faith is the anchoring doctrine of the Christian religion.
Faith is within the mind – in thought. We believe or disbelieve in our minds.
But faith without action is not faith, but an imposter masquerading as faith.
Faith and faithfulness are borne out in action.
Faith is the foundation on which all the Christian virtues listed by Peter are built.
Obedience originates in the mind; i.e., in thought.
Sermon on the mount is - in its entirety - a message to the “inside” of a person.
This was the Pharisees’ failing. They failed to clean themselves inside.
Matt 23:26-28 Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness. Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Washing and painting the outside wasn’t enough to deflect Jesus’ remonstration.
It is what is inside that matters most.
What is inside eventually is displayed on the outside, for the inside governs the outside.
[18]Train photo shows the engine as the mind, with cars representing Actions following
[19 ]V. Pride or principle (that is a matter for the mind)
Many years ago, when I was a young man, I was very angry about some conflict I had with my boss at work. I was sharing my anger with an older co-worker and friend. He listened to my rant, and asked: “Is it pride or principle? If it’s pride, swallow it. If it’s principle, you have to address it.”
We can twist matters of pride to the point they look to our minds like principle.
In doing so, we become like mental pretzels, but we do it because it feels better to think of our indignation as being rooted in principle than in pride.
It seems more “righteous.”
Some things are principle, but we can fool ourselves by trying to elevate plain, simple pride.
If our thinking is undisciplined, we may revert to treating something as principle so we can stay angry and feed our pride, not swallow it. If I say it’s principle, I don’t have to swallow my pride.
Pride resides in the mind.
Pride must be addressed on its own principle, not the thing that has wounded it.
To take every thought captive I must understand myself on the inside, and address it there, not merely in the way it displays itself.
Because on the inside - our thoughts - is where we live.
And as we think, we are.
