Many of us may be familiar with what Paul said in 1 Corinthians 10:5, to "take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." Many of us, however, don't know how it works or looks like.

A wrong picture

Taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ sounds cool. But it gives us various pictures that could either encourage or discourage us, depending on how we perceive it.

Personally, I used to think of this as a very hard-to-do command, with Paul saying to "take every thought captive." We can picture this wrongly this way: Say you're a police officer in charge of the "thoughts department" and your task is to capture all thoughts. That's going to be very tiring, with all the thoughts and ideas jolting around our minds.

My friends, we need to see the whole picture. Paul said we are to take every thought captive TO make it obedient to Christ. It doesn't end with catching yourself when you think – it must push through to the most important thing, which is countering it with the cross: What Christ has said, done, and accomplished.

The right picture

Picture it this way: You're holding a very fine, sturdy filter called "Christ" in your hand. This filter represents all that Jesus Christ has said and done in His earthly ministry, what He has accomplished through the cross of Calvary.

Now what you do is you use that filter to sift all the thoughts, ideas, and beliefs that you have in your mind and heart. Whatever Jesus has said and done passes through the filter and is allowed in our minds, but all that is not founded in Him is left in the filter after sifting, and then thrown away as trash. After all, what is not of God shouldn't be believed in, followed, and lived out.

How to get this filter

My friends, many of us are having a hard time with our thoughts. We battle against sinful and hateful ideas, and find that this process of taking every thought captive is too much for us. It will be if we try to filter everything through our own ideas or standards. The best thing to do is to let the Word of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, help us weed things out. God's Word, empowered by the Holy Spirit, is our filter.

1 Corinthians 10:3-5 tells us, "We are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ."

Romans 12:2 tells us, "And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

Psalm 119:11 tells us, "I treasure your word in my heart, so that I won't sin against you."