How to Take Every Thought Captive: Two Aspects to Consider

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. – 2 Corinthians 10:5, ESV

What does this mean?

The Message paraphrase provides some insight:

The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fairly. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way – never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture.

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We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity. – 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, The Message

According to the Message’s author, Eugene Peterson, we take every thought captive by weighing, “every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.”

We encounter hundreds (if not thousands) of thoughts in a day. From the moment we wake up we are bombarded with ideas, thoughts, concerns, and choices. Even before we open our eyes the litany of thoughts in our head can be overwhelming. It can feel unmanageable, but we are not without hope.

We have all seen the turnstiles used to let people onto the subway. People swipe their cards or pay the fee, and they are let in. What if someone tries to slip through without paying or whose card has expired? The turnstiles don’t work.

Taking our thoughts captive is like letting each thought pass through a turnstile. If it is good, beneficial, or helpful to our day, then the arms will turn, and it can go. However, if it is bad, destructive, anxious, evil, mean, unhelpful, impulsive, lustful, covetous, idolatrous, or hateful, then the arms stay locked, and we get to re-evaluate it.

If we look at what Paul is saying in the call to take our thoughts captive, we see the reality that we exist with someone who is unmistakably evil. Take the worst Marvel villain, the harshest dictator, the most uncaring, evil, heartless, diabolical person you can think of – mash them all together, multiply it by fifty, and it still is probably not even enough to get close to a fraction of who Satan is.

The Bible tells us Satan is cunning and clever. He lies, manipulates, falsely accuses, and deceives. He is a lion looking for prey. He is called the father of lies. He can disguise himself, sometimes even as an angel of light.

What do we do to stand up against this cunning and cruel master manipulator? How do we stand a chance of blocking his lies out of the turnstile of our minds?

Two parts to taking every thought captive

There are two parts to Paul’s call to take every thought captive. The first is to become aware of what we think. We have to engage with our brains. So much happens in our brains we are unaware of. There are dozens of ideas and thoughts that we never check into. Some thoughts are so automatic we don’t know we are thinking them until we are down the spiral. To take our thoughts captive, we have to know what we are thinking.

The second step is we have to evaluate our thoughts against what we know about who God is. Paul tells the church in Ephesus that he prays God will, “give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him, having the eyes of your hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which he has called you” (Ephesians 1:17-18, ESV)

To truly take a thought captive, we need to lean into the discernment God gives. To fully understand and take hold of that judgment, we need knowledge, and a heart attuned to who He is. This is you and God, on your knees, with your Bible. It is asking questions, wrestling through tough issues, and listening to the Spirit of wisdom God gives to all who believe in Him.

God has given us the Holy Spirit to help communicate with us. God left the Holy Spirit so we could speak with Him. It helps us discern what is right and true. It carries our worries and prayers to God when we do not know what to say. It is that tap on our conscience when we wrestle with something hard.

The Spirit of wisdom does not come via a pastor, an influencer, a news station, or even a Bible study. It comes through His Word. God gave us the Bible to tell us who He is and what He loves. To help us grow in our discernment individually, we spend time with Him and put forth the effort of having our hearts enlightened.

That is not to say a Bible study cannot help. A pastor might have some wisdom, but we should take all we hear and are told and run it through what God says for himself.

It is easy to watch training videos of runners. You can watch marathons on television during the Olympics. That is not the same as putting shoes on and getting in the miles yourself. It is the same with learning for ourselves who God is and what He stands for. A pastor can help, but we eventually need to investigate for ourselves.

Ready to take every thought captive

Are you ready to take every thought captive? You’ve set up your turnstile. You are seeking God’s knowledge and heart for yourself. You are becoming more aware of your thoughts during the day, not letting them linger unaccounted for.

What happens when a “loose thought and emotion and impulse” gets caught in the turnstile? We take it captive and start to ask questions! Is it true? Is it accurate according to who God says He is? Remember, we are up against an expert in disguise. He lies and manipulates, still sounding sweet while still being wrong. The chords of his lies can sound good, but the logic falls flat. This is where discernment comes in.

Satan knows where we are vulnerable. He knows what we are anxious about. He knows our regrets, our fears, our worries. He uses all of it to his advantage. 1 Peter 5:7 tells us to, “cast all your anxieties on (God), because He cares for you.” The Greek word here for cast means to place or throw upon.

Imagine God standing in a boat. Each anxiety is a rock. To cast an anxiety means to turn it over to God. We are giving Him the rocks of our fears, hurt, and anger. Each rock is a thought we’ve taken captive. We caught it in the turnstile, identified it as a lie, and are now giving it to God.

We cannot give God our anxiety and then ask for it back. Once we’ve cast it, it’s gone! It would be silly to leave an anxious thought on the pier for God to pick up only to sneak down later and grab it back.

However, we do just that all the time! We pray about something and immediately worry about it again. We tell ourselves we won’t obsess over a person, a situation, something we want, or a job. The thought comes back, we don’t set the turnstile, so the thought gets back in. We toss God our anxiety with a string attached to it.

Taking every thought captive is hard. And it’s only step one. When we take a thought captive, we have to replace it with something else. This is another thing discernment helps with. When we study the Word for ourselves, asking the Spirit of wisdom for help, we learn who God is and we learn verses or situations in the Bible to help combat those loose thoughts.

When anxiety about a job comes up, take it captive, and replace it with a verse on God’s provision, how He will take care of our needs, or how we are to cast our anxieties on him. When the news makes us want to run for the hills, we take that rock of anger and angst and hurt to God and then we read the Psalms. We look to the Garden of Gethsemane. We read the Sermon on the Mount.

Taking our thoughts captive only works if we replace the thought with something positive and true. Taking our thoughts captive works when we replace the anxiety, the fear, the anger, or the painful memory, with something straight from God’s Word itself.

The Message helps us again:

Summing it all up, friends, I’d say you’ll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious – the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies – Philippians 4:8, The Message

That is what should get through the turnstile. Any other thought needs to be reexamined in the light of what our times with God have taught us.

Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. – Philippians 4:8, ESV

Getting help

Sometimes when we take every thought captive, we uncover deep-rooted hurts. It may even be difficult to believe the truth of God’s words over the lies of the enemy because of patterns of behavior established long ago. If you would like to work through some of these to reduce their power in your life, seeking out the help of a Christian counselor will facilitate a path of healing.

Please reach out to our offices today and we will schedule an appointment with one of the many astute Christian counselors in our directory.