2 Corinthians 10

1. I, Paul, am begging you with the gentleness and the kindness of Christ. Some people say that I am easy on you when I am with you and hard when I am away.

Paul is asking them, with the same gentleness that Jesus used, to listen to what he says. It is hard to answer people this way after they talk bad to you, but it is the best way.

2. They think that we walk in the flesh. I plan to be very hard against them when I come. I beg you that when I come I will not need to use that same hard talk with you.

Paul is letting them know that the things he says are not his own ideas. He does not want to be hard on them but he can be if has to.

3. We do live in the world. But we do not fight in the same way that the world fights.

Paul wants them to see that there is a spiritual battle going on and it is not against people. Elisha had to show his servant the same kind of battle going on in the sky above them. 2 Kings 6:17

We do not fight against people, but against demonic territory, and powers, and spiritual forces in high places. Ephesians 6:12

4. We fight with weapons that are different from those the world uses. Our weapons have power from God. These weapons can destroy the enemy’s strong places. We destroy men’s arguments.

The devil builds strong places in your life if you keep on giving him a place to stand. If you do not stop giving him this permission then he will build a strong place to attack your mind. The only thing that can destroy this strong place is when you take back the permission that you gave to the devil.

People who do not agree with this say things like, “I am having a bad day. I am not feeling like myself today. I will get over this.” Talking this way means that you do not know that you are being attacked by a demon. Now you may say that you disagree, but if these kinds of thoughts keep coming you can be sure that they are from the devil. Daniel 10:12-13

5. And we destroy every imagination that raises itself against the knowledge of God. We take every thought as a prisoner and make it give up and obey Christ.

The battle is in the mind. This is where the devil brings his ideas. He gives you imaginations to take your mind off of what is real. He may say, “You need more money so make some notes to yourself to think about how you are going to get what you need. If you keep thinking about it, then it will happen."

Or he might say, “What if you were with some other person? Just think how good it would be.” You will say to yourself that you did not do anything wrong but you did do it in your mind.
The Bible says to stand against the devil’s attacks, but this warning will not help you if you do not even believe that you are being attacked.

The way out is to take every thought as a prisoner and question it. Is this an accusation against you? Would Jesus talk this way to you? Do these thoughts keep coming back again and again? God does not torture people. The devil is the accuser. Revelation 12:10

Does this thought go against the Word of God? How would you know if you never read the Word of God?

You can stop these thoughts by telling yourself the things that God has said to you in the Bible. The next thing you can say is, “I will not listen to imaginations. I take back any territory that I gave to the devil and I give it to God.

If there is anything in my life that is giving the devil permission to attack me, I am asking the Lord to show it to me so that He can take it out of my life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

For as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Proverbs 23:7

6 – 7

We are ready to punish anyone there who does not obey. But first we want you to obey completely. You must look at the facts before you. If anyone feels sure that he belongs to Christ, then he must remember that we belong to Christ just as he does.

Do not forget that when you disagree with a brother he is a Christian also! There are many Scriptures that tell us how to love and serve each other and they should make you careful about how you act towards each other.

8. It is true that we brag freely about the authority the Lord gave us. But He gave us this authority to strengthen you, not to hurt you. So I will not be ashamed of the bragging we do.

Paul says that he was sent to build up the church. His enemies came only to tear down the church.

9 – 10

I do not want you to think that I am trying to scare you with my letters. Some people say, “Paul’s letters are powerful and sound important. But when he is with us, he is weak. And his speaking is nothing.”

Church history tells us that Paul was not good looking and people made fun of the way he talked. The men who were causing trouble in the church said that Paul was nothing. If they could have been with Paul in his travels, they would have seen the truth.

11. They should know this: We are not there with you now, so we say these things in letters. But when we are there with you, we will show the same authority that we show in our letters
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Paul spoke and an evil man was struck blind. Paul spoke again and a girl was set free from a demon. It would not be a good idea to start a fight with such a man.

12. We do not dare to put ourselves in the same group with those who think that they are very important. We do not compare ourselves to them.

They use themselves to measure themselves, and they judge themselves by what they themselves are. This shows that they know nothing.

If you compare yourself with other men, you will always find a way to make yourself look good.

13 – 15

But we will not brag about things outside the work that was given us to do. We will limit our bragging to the work that God gave us. And this work includes our work with you.

We are not bragging too much. We would be bragging too much if we had not already come to you. But we have come to you with the Gospel of Christ.

We limit our bragging to the work that is ours. We do not brag in the work other men have done. We hope that your faith will continue to grow. And we hope that you will help our work to grow much larger.

Paul has tried to tell them many times that the proof of his ministry is the lives that have been changed. When God sends people to you and you share with them what He has done in your life, and you pass on some of God’s words to them, you will see that their lives are completely changed.

This is not something you can brag about, but you can only thank God that you were there to see it happen.

16. We want to tell the Gospel in the areas beyond your city. We do not want to brag about work that has already been done in another man’s area.

There are always people who steal members from another ministry. These kind of people do not know how to build a ministry of their own.

17 – 18

But, “If a person brags, he should brag only about the Lord.” It is not the one who says he is good who is accepted but the one that the Lord thinks is good.

We cannot help what other people say about our ministry and it is a waste of time to think about it. They do not know our history with the Lord. We are only interested in what God thinks of our ministry and He can use us or stop using us to let us know what He is thinking.