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Transcript 518A
Subjecting Our Thoughts to Christ
HC: Good evening. Welcome to Open Forum.
CALLER: Yes. There's a verse in the New Testament, I think, about bringing your thoughts into captivity to Jesus Christ. Could you explain a little what that means? Does that mean that any bad thought, any types of thoughts that are not Christian, you should once and for all give to God and forget them? Or what exactly does that verse mean?
HC: What does it mean when the Bible says that we're to bring our thoughts into captivity to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Actually, sin begins in our minds, to a very high degree. When we are saved, we of course in our souls don't want to sin anymore, but we have a body that lusts after sin. And our body, therefore, in its sensual desires begins to think about sin. And so in our thought life we will fuss with sin, we'll play with sin. We'll let it grow there until finally it may even bring us to overt sin.
Now to bring our thoughts into captivity means that we give ourselves no quarter. We're not going to let our thoughts run rampant with sin. We want our thought life also to serve the Lord Jesus Christ.
The same idea is worded in a somewhat different fashion in the beautiful language of Philippians 4: 8, where God says, "Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, if there be any praise, think on these things." You see what really ought to be happening. That is to bring your thoughts into captivity to the Lord Jesus Christ.
CALLER: So you yourself have the responsibility to control what thoughts to think about and what thoughts shouldn't come into your mind, right?
HC: The question is, do we have the control over what comes into our mind? And certainly we do. We have been freed from the bondage of sin. We don't have to sin. We are free to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we are making decisions all the time. Are we going to let our thoughts wander into sinful paths? Or are we going to recognize that this is moving in the wrong direction, so that we begin to cry out to God, "Oh God, have mercy on me. Cleanse my thoughts. Strengthen me that my thoughts might not go in this direction." And we actually repent of this by beginning to think of other things.
CALLER: Because it's true that Satan does have the power to plant thoughts in your mind, right?
HC: Does Satan have the power to plant thoughts in your mind? No, Satan does not have that power. We're talking of course about someone who is born again. Someone who is unsaved is still a slave of Satan, and that could happen. But in the case of someone who is born again Satan has nothing on us at all. He cannot control our thinking. He cannot plant thoughts there. The thoughts are there because we still have a body that lusts after sin.
Now Satan can come at us from the outside. He can come through a friend who is unsaved, who will try to entice us into sin. He can come at us at any place through the world, trying to entice us into sin. And if we pay attention, then of course that thought will be planted there that is sinful. And it can easily be planted there because we still have the nature that lusts after sin. But we can never blame Satan for our sins. The sin is ours altogether.
CALLER: Having the thought and dwelling on it would be two different things. I thought that Satan could plant a thought, and . . .
HC: No. Satan cannot plant thoughts. We plant the thought when Satan comes and tempts us. When Satan comes from the outside and entices us, then in our old nature we are interested, and the sinful though is planted.
CALLER: Okay.
HC: Thank you for calling and sharing.
CALLER: Thank you. Good night.