The Apostle Paul challenged the Corinthian Christians and exposed the deception that went counter to their devotion to Jesus. Within the Church, the Hellenistic (Greek) Jews questioned the sufficiency of the work of Jesus on the cross at Calvary for the Corinthian believers. They wanted to add items needed for Christian faith and infuse Jewish religious food laws and practices into Church life. To mount their argument, they even tried discrediting Apostle Paul’s wisdom and leadership in the Corinthian Church to the extent of decrying his lack of public speaking ability.

Clearly, arguments and counter arguments will not help but serve to drive these people to dig in their heels to keep to their stand. How to counter such hostile thoughts that fail to accept Jesus as the central focus of their new found Christian faith? For Paul, coming against “arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10:5), is to rely wholly on the divine work of conviction of the Holy Spirit. Only He can pull down the strongholds that confront them to impact a change in the person’s independent spirit through godly conviction.

While seeking to help others in their thoughts, we ourselves must pursue each sinful thought within us and surrender it to Jesus. Consider how, sometimes, we rationalise which part of the Bible to obey or not , to justify a decision that runs counter to the Bible. At times we hold on to resentment or unforgiveness, while outwardly appearing to be friendly and cooperative. Perhaps we indulge in self-pity and find it hard to let go negative thoughts. Indeed the hardest area of surrender to the Lord is that of our thought life. Jesus alone will break the power of these strangling thoughts in our life. Unless we set ourselves to capturing every thought to be obedient to Jesus, we are right back in it again.

Paul expresses ironically about being “ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete”. Punishment does not produce obedience; it is conviction that does that. After all, the obedience that God wants is not the outward conformity that we are often content with. Only when we repent from such ways, will we discover the healing of the Lord Jesus spreading throughout every area of our lives. This spiritual warfare that we are called on to engage in can be won by total dependance on the Bible and living lives of surrender (especially in our thought lives) to the leading and conviction of the Holy Spirit. “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”