Paul begins to defend the charges that have been laid against him and his ministry. He appeals to them with the meekness and gentleness of Christ. When Jesus was accused of wrongs He didn’t commit, He didn’t retaliate or demand acquittal, instead, he was meek. And when Jesus confronted those who were in sin, He didn’t condemn them harshly, rather, He was gentle. Paul seems to have been accused of being bold in his letters but humble when in person. But Paul had already explained that this was intentional (2 Cor 2:1-4). Paul wrote difficult letters so that the recipients could deal with the issues that needed dealing with. Then, when Paul visited them in person, he could be gentle and loving in person. Paul was accused of having a bark that was worse than his bite but Paul pointed out that he didn’t wage war according to the flesh. The weapons of the world are things of human confidence like knowledge, eloquence, credentials, and showmanship to puff oneself up. They are also human tactics like slander and gossip used to tear others down. Paul didn’t rely on human devices to fulfill his ministry and defend himself (“walk according to the flesh”). He did admit that he was human (“walk in the flesh”) and as a result was frail and vulnerable to sickness, suffering, and mistreatment like everyone else. Instead, Paul’s weapons of warfare were spiritual with divine power to destroy strongholds. Paul’s focus was on proclaiming God’s truth through His word and prayer with the objective of breaking down the arguments and pretenses of his opponents. He focussed his godly weapons on tearing down ungodly arguments. His objective was to take every thought implanted by false reasoning and capture it to obedience to Christ. Paul wanted believers to move from disobedience brought about by listening to false teaching and move to obedience to Christ. Paul was ready to punish those who remained in disobedience but hoped he wouldn’t have to because the church as a whole would deal with the problem before he arrived.

What is your weapon of choice when facing opposition? Is it self-exaltation? Is it putting others down? Or is it using the Word of God and prayer focussed on ungodliness? Before we focus our Godly weapons on others, we would do well to take our own thoughts captive to obedience to Christ first.