Mighty With God

2 Cor. 10:1-6, "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh."

We can all agree with the first part, but can we agree with the second part? Christ was reproducing Himself in the once intolerant, legalistic Paul, who was now manifesting the life of Christ to the Corinthians with a self-forgetting humility and the forbearance of active love. But it was because the weapons of his warfare were not fleshly but mighty "with God", "before", "according to", or "for" Him.

There the shade of the dative here, "the dative of advantage." The flesh prides itself on its own resources in which it entrenches itself against God, who works "in" His children when dependent, least of all in His own when independent.

The enemy was seeking to bring back again fleshly wisdom, which like all that is of the first man (1 Cor. 15:45-49) attracts the natural and exalts itself against the knowledge of God. The enemy uses this fleshly warring to separate us, experientially, from Christ, and from Christ dead and risen (Eph. 1:17-23; 2:6).

If we war not according to the flesh, it must be by pulling down reasonings and every high thing exalted (or exalting itself) and leading captive every thought unto the obedience of Christ. We all must remember that one of the four things that sheep cannot do is lead themselves (Ps. 95:7; 22:2; 100:3; Jhn. 10:2-5,7-10,11,14,16).