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Let the Bible Smash Your Bad Theology · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Happy Monday, Welcome back to a new week on the podcast, Week number
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  six hundred of APJA remarkable, and today we are praying, Lord, let
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  your word smash our theology. Our bad theology made the Bible turn into rubble.
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  Every lofty thought about you and your ways that is false. Purge from
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  us every error that we believe. A prayer like that was vividly answered by
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  God in a season of your life, Pastor John, and that story is
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  a theme on the podcast too. When you came to discover God's sovereignty and
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  salvation, such a revelation shattered your assumptions. And so we're not talking about
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  hypotheticals here today. When we read Paul say that we destroy arguments and every
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  lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to
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  obey Christ. That's two Corinthians ten, verse five. These are moments when
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  everything we thought was true crumbles to the ground. And you'll see how this
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  worked in Pastor John's life in the episodes I pulled together from the podcast and
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  the Ask Pestor John book on pages twenty three and twenty four. So how
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  do we cultivate the mental discipline and fortitude that would position us to experience this
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  for ourselves. This is huge, and it's a wonderful question from a listener
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  named Sarah. Sarah writes, end to ask this pastor John, Hello to
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  you, what does it mean to take captive every thought to make it obedient
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  to Christ? And how can I take this command and apply it to my
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  incorrect or sinful thoughts that I may obey Christ and have more joy in him.
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  Well, here's the text. Let's read it, and then we'll see
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  if we can figure this out. Tewod Corinthians ten and two, verses four
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  and five. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh.
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  That is, they're not merely human. This is not a mere battle between
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  one philosopher with some human wisdom against another philosoph with the human wisdom. But
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  the weapons of our warfare have divine power to destroy strongholds. And then he
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  defines this powerful stronghold destroying activity in two steps verse five. First we destroy
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  arguments and every lofty or proud opinion raised against the knowledge of God. And
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  second we then take every thought captive. So like you move in a battle
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  and you destroy the fortress, and then you take captives we take every thought
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  captive to obey Christ. So Sarah asks, how can she take verse five
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  taking every thought captive and apply it to herself to be more obedient to Christ
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  in her thought life. The first thing I think think that needs to be
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  said that when we apply this to ourselves, we have to make sure we're
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  in the right place in the text, when Paul says first he's destroying arguments
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  and arrogant opinions against God, and second that he is taking thoughts or minds
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  captive, we need to realize it's the minds and thoughts of others. He's
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  not talking about taking his own thoughts captive. It's the thoughts of others.
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  I'm moving into these rascals in Krinth who are so boastful in their philosophical prowess
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  that I am going to demolish them, not by counter philosophy, but by
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  divine power. I'm gonna show power and they're going to collapse in their thinking,
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  and then I'm going to take their thoughts captive so that they now obey
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  Christ. So he's the warrior and the enemy is these people whose minds and
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  arguments are proud and lifted up against God. And when Paul defeats those minds
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  and arguments in the power of the Holy Spirit. Their thoughts and their minds
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  are taken captive, and they become people with the mind of Christ, or
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  obedient to Christ. So I think Sarah might be misreading just slightly. I'm
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  going to come around and say she's on the right track, but this might
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  be misreading the verse When she says, how can I take this command and
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  apply it to my incorrect, sinful thoughts? It's not a command. It's
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  a statement about what Paul is doing to his opponents. He's demolishing their worldview
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  and then taking their defeated thoughts captive for Christ, so that they become thinkers
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  rightly, they're obedient in the way they think about Christ. So verse five
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  is not a command to do this ourselves. But Sarah's question is still a
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  very good question. There is a way to apply this to our We just
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  have to get ourselves in the right place. And the place we belong in
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  is the group whose opinions and thoughts Paul is trying to demolish. That's where
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  we belong. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of
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  God, and we take every thought captive. So when John Piper reads that,
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  or when Sarah reads it, I should say, or she should say,
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  Okay, Paul, here, I am. Do your demolishing work on
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  me. Do your captive taking work on me. Destroy in my mind any
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  faults or proud thoughts that I have about God. Which means really two things.
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  I think that Sarah and I and anybody else any Christian should do one.
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  We should listen to Paul and submit all our thoughts and ideas and feelings
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  about God about life, submit them to Paul's teaching, God's apostle for scrutiny.
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  And if anything is out of sync with Paul's teaching, we should let
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  it be destroyed. I have experienced this very painfully. I mean, if
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  you put your mind and thoughts really at the disposal of the Apostolic teaching and
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  say anything in my thinking that needs to be destroyed, destroy it, it
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  can utterly undo you. There have been seasons in my life where I have
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  wept over the dismantling of what felt like really important structures in my brain.
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  So I think that's the first thing we do. We listen to Paul.
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  We submit everything we think, all of our ideas all our worldview, all
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  our viewpoints to God, and we say, Paul, let your word dismantle
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  me if necessary. The second thing we should do is we should ask the
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  Holy Spirit to work. Because Paul said, we don't fight with mere human
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  fleshly arguments. Our ministry has power, so we should expose ourselves to that
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  power. Verse four says the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh,
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  but have divined power. In other words, he's tearing down arguments and
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  God belittling ideas, but he's not doing it merely by argument. So when
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  I come to the Bible, there's a lot of study I do. And
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  I love to study, and I love to assess arguments and figure them out.
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  But I should also be crying out, Oh God, I know that
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  mere intellect will not dismantle the deeply rooted errors of my mind. So I
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  avail myself. I open myself to the Holy Spirit, and I seek your
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  face, Paul said in Roman's Face fifteen eighteen, For I will not venture
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  to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the gentiles
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  to obedience. Now, I think that's the same obedience as in Two Corinthians
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  ten four and five when he brings our thoughts into obedience to Christ. And
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  here he says, I won't speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished.
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  So that's what I'm getting at when I say, expose yourself, lay yourself
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  open to the risen Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit, through the
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  words of the apostle Paul, so that everything can be dismantled. And then
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  your brain, your mind, your thoughts can be taken captive, and everything
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  brought into conformity to Christ. Hey man, thank you best John. And
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  so we ask, Paul, let your word dismantle me if necessary. Again,
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  something John Piper painfully experienced in is twenty when he came to see God's
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  sovereignty in our salvation, and that truth demolished his bad theology, and what
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  he got was a better one, a truer one from scripture. And for
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  more on this season of Pastor John's life, seed the Asbestor John Book on
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  pages twenty three and twenty four. Well repetitious worship songs. This is one
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  big critique of contemporary worship songs. They're just too repetitious. And then we
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  open up God's Hymn Book to some one thirty six, and there's repetition all
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  over it. Why well we look at some one thirty six next time,
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  because it's in our reading coming up later in the week. I'm your host,
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  Tony RANKI see Thursday