2 Corinthians 10:3-5
“For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” (NIV).
In these Scriptures, Paul is defending his call to minister for the Lord Jesus. The church at Corinth needed to understand that they were no longer of the world and that there was a way to fight their enemies without throwing a physical punch. The world has its methods of dealing with threats, and the church has its methods.
Saints of God do not walk as the world walks, because they have been changed from the inside out. Earlier in 2 Corinthians, Paul tells them in 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” All things have become new for the spirit of the saint, but the flesh of the saint is still greedy to satisfy itself. That satisfaction must be denied, and the flesh crucified every day because saints are in the world but not of the world. Saints do not wage war as the world does. The KJV says, “though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh.” In other words, even though we live in the flesh, we don’t lean on the flesh in fighting our battles.
Putting on the whole armor of God every day is what we have to do to be ready for the enemy’s attack, to defend ourselves, and to fight a good fight. The world fights with trickery and sinful tactics that will overwhelm saints if they don’t use what God gave them to stand with. Once the saint understands that they have the power of the Holy Ghost to fight for them, they will not worry about what the children of darkness have planned. “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, we have divine power to demolish strongholds.” Ultimately, we are not fighting flesh and blood, our sisters and brothers, those whom we can see, but we are fighting those who are in the spiritual world. Ephesians 6:12 explains, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” We do not fight against our neighbors, our coworkers, those who attack us for no cause, those whom we can see with our natural eyes, but we fight the spirits that are behind the scenes, orchestrating all the mischief that is going on.
We do all this to help people know that Jesus Christ died for the world to reconcile humanity back to God. It is the duty of the saint to let the world know that Jesus lives and is on the right hand of God in heaven, waiting for the last person God calls to salvation to say, yes, Lord, I want you to save me from my sin. This is why saints do not wage war as the world does. The saint wages war with prayer, obedience to God, reading the Word of God, showing love to the world and to each other, long-suffering, kindness, concern for the lost and the marginalized, and doing all the other commands God has given his children.
2 Corinthians 10:3–4 (KJV 1900)
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: 4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (KJV).
Saints should always be watchful and ready to use their most important weapon, which is faith in the God of the universe. 1 John 5:4-5 helps with this explanation, “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” Out of all the pieces of spiritual armor, faith is said to be above all. Ephesians 6:16 says, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Faith gives the saint the ability to tap into God’s spiritual power and bring it into this natural world, commanding any situation to conform to God’s will. Believers fight differently from the world.