…the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ…. (2 Corinthians 10: 3-5, ESV)
It’s virtually impossible to overestimate the importance of proper swing thoughts. Alas, sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t. For many golfers, sadly, a new swing thought rarely survives one round. Turns out, the swing thought we hoped would cure all ends up in the graveyard of a million other swing theories. Consider fan favorite Jordan Spieth. Somewhere in the process of tinkering with his swing, a nefarious thought or two snuck in and wreaked havoc on a mystical run of championship golf. In life, as in golf, ideas have consequences.
Notice in the text today our warfare is against “arguments,” “opinions,” and erroneous “thoughts.” After telling us we have divine power to destroy “strongholds,” Paul identifies them as categories of the mind. In short, living lives that honor our King goes beyond moral integrity, faithful church attendance, and well-ordered home lives. As important as these are, lives that glorify God are lives dedicated to thinking about the world and our place in it as he does. The Christian life is not only about forgiveness of sin or life in the hereafter; it provides a complete worldview, because it’s the true story of the whole world. As such, it stands in opposition to all other philosophies (e.g., Marxism, nihilism, humanism, existentialism) and religions (e.g., Hinduism, Secularism, Buddhism, Islam).
Here’s the fundamental, unchanging, spiritual swing thought: Love God and neighbor with all your mind as well as all your heart.
As James Orr’s words remind us:
He who with his whole heart believes in Jesus as the Son of God is thereby committed to much else besides. He is committed to a view of God, to a view of man, to a view of sin, to a view of Redemption, to a view of the purpose of God in creation and history, to a view of human destiny, found only in Christianity. This forms a… “Christian view of the world,” which stands in marked contrast within theories wrought out from a purely philosophical or scientific standpoint….
Elsewhere, Paul details our weapons of warfare (see Ephesians 6:10–20). In this text, however, he tells us why we’ve been given such powerful instruments: we are to engage in spiritual warfare against worldviews contrary to the one found in Scripture. Tragically, Western culture, long recognized as being founded on a Christian view of the world, has embraced philosophical ideas that are contrary to the one found in Scripture—ideas which are wreaking havoc in our personal and public lives. Again, to combat this, Paul calls those in Christ to engage the battle of ideas with the truth of a Christ-centered world and life view.
Remember, the darkness we see in the larger culture is neither inevitable nor permanent. As revival and reformation led to the transformation of nations in the past (e.g., Nineveh, Rome, Scotland, 18th Century America), revival and reformation can lead to the transformation of nations (including our own) in the present. How? Here’s the fundamental, unchanging, spiritual swing thought: Love God and neighbor with all your mind as well as all your heart.
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Dennis Darville
March 24, 2021
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The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.
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