…and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. NIVUK

In Romans 5:6,7 Paul writes:

 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. 

However, as we saw last time, Christianity starts with repentance, and repentance entails, we might say, taking captive enemy thought soldiers. But repentance is not a one-off thing, where you can exclaim, ‘There we are, done and dusted!’ Not at all. Repentance must become a lifestyle because hostile thought soldiers are constantly lifting their heads above the trenches, and seeking to invade our lives; lives which are now Christ’s territory. So we have to capture them, and bring them under the Lordship of Jesus. Every Christian will testify to the reality of this ongoing battle – one that does not diminish with the passing of years. It may change, but we may also find that in certain ways it intensifies.

So repentance must be proclaimed in evangelism. But the need for it is always right here among us in the church. Tom Hale writes helpfully, as always:

‘Let us ask ourselves: Have all our thoughts been ”Taken captive” and brought under the control of Christ? Perhaps outwardly we obey Christ; but do we obey Him in our thoughts?

Everyone agrees that to speak evil thoughts is wrong. But to keep such thoughts in our minds is also wrong. We can hide our thoughts from other men, but we cannot hide them from God.

But from time to time evil thoughts come suddenly into our minds. How can we get rid of these thoughts? We can ”take them captive.” That is, we can bring them under the control of Christ. Evil thoughts are Satan’s soldiers. We can overcome these with the spiritual weapons…For example, these evil thoughts-thoughts of anger, jealousy, greed, unrighteousness, worry, etc. – are like birds flying around our heads. We can’t stop the birds from flying over our head, but we can certainly stop them from building nests in our hair!’