Audio Transcript

We are reading the Navigators Bible Reading Plan together. And today in our reading, among other things, we read 2 Chronicles 13:1–16:14. It’s a big section with one line worth underlining and memorizing. It’s a line from the mouth of Hanani the seer, the father of the prophet Jehu. Hanani, speaking to king Asa in 2 Chronicles 16:9, gives us this promise: “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to give strong support to those whose heart is blameless toward him.” It’s a key text for life, one of sixteen essential Bible verses to have memorized to meet life’s hardest battles, according to you, Pastor John. That’s a list you gave us back in APJ 1798, summarized in the APJ book on pages 44–46.

So, the point is that God is eager to work for his people. That’s the main point of that line. As we meditate on this text today, after we read it together, explain three things for us. (1) God’s eyes in this verse. How are they roving and roaming? What theology do you draw from this? (2) God’s support. What comfort do you take from the “strong support” being promised? And (3) explain the qualification of who is “blameless toward [God]” or “whole toward [God],” as the ESV footnote puts it. The KJV translates this as a heart that is “perfect toward him.” The NIV says that it’s a heart “fully committed to him.” The Holman version says a heart that is “completely his.” A listener to the podcast, Sarah in the Philippines, has heard you teach on this text in the past, drawing a distinction between blameless and sinless as not being the same thing. But she needs you to explain the difference.

Well, I love this verse. I really love it because it has a special place in my affections, because my awareness of it came into my life while I was discovering (back in 1968–1969) the preciousness and the truth of the absolute sovereignty of God.

The reason it had this effect on me in those days was that it put the sovereignty of God in the service of his eagerness, like you said — the eagerness of God to help me if I simply trust him. Not to help me if I work for him, but if I trust him, he’s going to work for me. He’s going to be strong on my behalf if I look away from myself and look to my heavenly Father — his broad shoulders, his huge biceps, his strong back, and those bright eyes just full of eagerness to show himself powerful on behalf of those who simply trust in him. So, that was just an amazing picture for me. I don’t know how I had missed it for 22 years or so, but it certainly made the embrace of the sovereignty of God a more precious thing.

The verse says, “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro [they roam about] throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong [I’ll explain that translation in a minute] on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him” (2 Chronicles 16:9). So, let’s take your three questions.

1. Roaming Eyes

What about those eyes of the Lord roaming in the earth? The phrase “in the eyes of the Lord” in Hebrew occurs 92 times in the Old Testament. It’s really quite amazing. And there are other phrases with “the eyes of the Lord” that don’t include the word in — “in the eyes of the Lord.” And it has several meanings. It can refer to God’s omniscience, like in Proverbs 15:3: “The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good.” Or it can refer to his awareness and assessment of things, like 2 Chronicles 34:2: “[Josiah] did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” Or it can refer to God’s special approving and helping gaze, like Psalm 34:15: “The eyes of the Lord are toward the righteous and his ears toward their cry.”

Now, in 2 Chronicles 16:9 it’s referring to God’s intense attentiveness and eagerness to act in a certain way toward a certain kind of person. “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him.” And it’s a striking contrast to what many people feel. Many people think that if God has eyes and they’re running through the world, they’re scrutinizing the world on the lookout for something to punish. That’s the way a lot of people feel. The eyes of the Lord are snooping. They’re not looking for ways to help; they’re looking for ways to punish.

“God is on the prowl to show himself powerful for us, not against us, when we trust in him.”

That’s the kind of image of religion that H.L. Mencken had when he said that famous thing, remember? “Puritanism is the haunting fear that someone somewhere may be happy.” That’s rubbish. That’s rubbish both for Puritanism and it’s rubbish for the Bible. And this verse says that God’s eyes are roaming around, not looking for someone to make unhappy, but the opposite — namely, what? Now that leads to your second question.

2. Eager to Serve

So, what is he wanting to do? “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is whole toward him.” So, this peculiar form of the Hebrew word is reflexive: “show himself strong.” A reflexive verb in Hebrew — the hitpael here — means the action reflects back on the actor. It’s not wrong to translate it “gives strong support.” But the peculiar reflexive idea of God showing himself to be the kind of person who loves to give strong support would be missing if you only said it that way, I think.

And that’s part of what makes this verse so precious and powerful. God’s eyes are roaming around — stalking, so to speak, to put a different twist on it — stalking, like in Psalm 23:6: “Goodness and mercy shall follow me [stalk me, pursue me] all the days of my life.” And they’re doing it in order to be on behalf of someone. He wants to show himself strong on behalf of someone, not against someone.

So, when I came to see 55 years ago that this inclination of God to show himself strong was for me and not against me, what I saw was that it was flowing out of his total self-sufficiency, where he has no need of my services at all. Instead, he wants to serve my good. And Acts 17:25 became part of that season of discovery: “[God is not] served by human hands, as though he needed anything.” So did Isaiah 64:4 in those days: “No eye has seen a God [like] you, who acts for those who wait for him.” The same thing is in Psalm 147:10–11: “His delight is not in the strength of the horse, nor his pleasure in the legs [strong legs] of a man, but the Lord takes pleasure . . . in those who hope in his steadfast love.”

That whole cluster of texts came alive for me as I was discovering the sovereignty of God and how his total and complete lack of need for me made him eager to serve me when I depend on him. It was just a glorious discovery.

3. Those with Whole Hearts

Which leads now to the last question you ask about: Who gets to qualify for this? Who is blameless — or who is whole? “The eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show himself strong” — on behalf of whom? — “those [my translation] whose heart is whole toward him.” I think translating it “those whose heart is blameless” is hard for English readers to grasp because almost everybody thinks of the term “blameless” as perfection, and if that were the case, he wouldn’t help anybody. There aren’t any perfect people except one.

The phrase “whole heart” was used, for example (just to show its limits), to contrast Solomon with David. “When Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not [whole]” — or wholly true — “to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father” (1 Kings 11:4). Oh my goodness. David was anything but perfect, but on the whole — no pun intended — he repented as he should and stayed true to the Lord. And so, he could be contrasted with Saul, who turned away from the Lord. David stayed with the Lord and was said to have a whole heart for God.

I think there’s a good picture of it in James 1:8, when it talks about doubting and praying for wisdom. It says that when we pray for wisdom, we should not be “double-minded.” What does that mean? I take it to mean that part of us says, “God is good; God is reliable; God will help me,” and part of us is saying, “No, God is not good; he probably is not going to do any good at all when I pray.” A whole heart says, “I trust God to be wholly good to me. He’s going to give me all the strong help I need to do his will. My heart’s not split in half. I’m whole toward God. Half of me is not saying God is unreliable while half is saying he is reliable.”

I think that’s what a whole heart is, and that’s the point here in 2 Chronicles 16:9. Asa — this is the king who has been good and doesn’t end so well in his life — was helped in his victory over the Ethiopians and the Libyans, it says, “because you relied on the Lord” (2 Chronicles 16:8). Your heart was right toward God. You looked away from yourself, and you depended on me. I gave you the victory. I showed myself strong on your behalf.

So, conclusion: Let’s ask God to shape our whole mindset, our whole disposition, toward God. He is on the prowl to show himself powerful for us, not against us, when we trust in him.

Audio Transcript

Well, we start the week with a weighty question: Will God judge a person for being born into a Muslim family and nation? A very real question for global listeners, like one young woman who sent us today’s question. “Hello, Pastor John! I love listening to episodes of Ask Pastor John. They are helping me grow in the faith. Keep pressing on! My story is a long one, but I’ll keep it short. I was born into a Muslim family in an Islamic country in North Africa. I still live here. Unlike my family, I became a Christian and accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior and treasure.

“My question for you is this: Will my unbelieving family go to hell? They don’t know anything about the good news of Jesus Christ! And I can’t tell them about him because they will not listen. They call me crazy. And it’s not safe to tell anybody in my country. You may get killed for that. Leaving Islam to become a Christian is illegal here! So, will my family go to hell because they’re Muslim? And how is that their fault since they were born that way? And will God judge me for not sharing the gospel with them? And if all things go by God’s plan, does that mean it was meant for them to be Muslims? Or is this by chance? What should I do? I know God is just, but I am deeply worried for my family. Thank you.”

I hear six questions, which is overwhelming.

Will my unbelieving family go to hell?
Will my family go to hell because they’re Muslim?
Is it their fault since they were born Muslim?
Will God judge me for not sharing the gospel with them?
Is their Muslim situation God’s purpose or by chance?
What should I do?

And we have ten minutes.

So, at the risk of oversimplification, I will try to say something biblical and, I hope, helpful about each of those questions.

1. Will my unbelieving family go to hell?

John said, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him” (John 3:36). Peter put it like this: “There is salvation in no one else [but Jesus], for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). Paul put it like this: “[Christ will return] in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not . . . obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).

There is a principle in the Bible that human beings will be punished by God in accord with the knowledge that they have access to. We see this in Romans 1:19–20:

What can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived . . . in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

And that word so is really crucial because it shows the ground of accountability. His argument is that everybody has sufficient knowledge to be held accountable to respond with worship and trust toward God, but nobody does. We’re all such sinners that we suppress truth apart from the saving work of the Holy Spirit in the hearing of the gospel of Jesus.

2. Will my family go to hell because they’re Muslim?

Since, for millions of people, the word Muslim encompasses so much that is cultural and political and ethnic, I think a proper way to answer that question is to say this: to the degree that the word Muslim signifies the rejection of Jesus Christ as the eternal Son of God, crucified for sinners, raised from the dead — to that degree will the word Muslim imply lostness. People who reject Christ’s offer of himself as God’s crucified sacrifice and substitute for sinners as a way to be reconciled with God will go to hell.

3. Is it their fault since they were born Muslim?

Nobody is born Muslim or Hindu or Christian; we are born sinners. We have a corrupt nature that, without salvation and transformation through Christ, is in rebellion against God. We become Muslim, we become Christian, we become Hindu or Buddhist by the truth or error that our hearts embrace or reject as we grow up.

“Nobody is born Muslim or Hindu or Christian; we are born sinners.”

At the final judgment day, God will not say to anybody, “You perish because you were born Muslim.” Nor will he say, “You are saved because you were born Christian.” We will give an account of how we have responded to the truth of God as we have access to it. Jesus Christ, crucified and risen for sinners, is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

4. Will God judge me for not sharing the gospel with them?

The reason this question is difficult, not only for this woman in her situation but for all of us in all of our situations, is that there are always more people that we could talk to about Jesus. We can talk to people instead of sleeping — stay up another hour, get up another hour early. We can talk to people instead of eating — skipping meals. We can talk to people instead of reading a book at night. Love wants to share the gospel. Faith trusts Jesus for the power to share the gospel. But the path of love and the path of faith have limits.

What are they? God said through Ezekiel,

If the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, so that the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any one of them, that person is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand [who didn’t blow the trumpet]. (Ezekiel 33:6)

So, there is a kind of lovelessness, a kind of indifference to people’s lostness, that will receive God’s judgment. But whom we should talk to and how many times we should talk to them and how many of them we should talk to is a matter of genuine love and God’s guidance.

5. Is their Muslim situation God’s purpose or by chance?

At this point, I think it’s fair to say that Muslims and I believe the same thing, or at least similar things — namely, nothing happens by chance. Muslims believe that; I believe that. There’s no such thing as chance given the sovereignty of God, not ultimately. From our human perspective, given the limits of what we can see, there are coincidences and flukes and random acts and accidents and luck. But in relation to God, nothing is by chance. “[God] works all things according to the counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11) — all things.

6. What should I do?

The apostle Paul prayed the way he did in Philippians 1:9–11, I think, precisely because of some of the ambiguities that this woman lives with and, in some measure, we all live with. He didn’t just pray that we would be loving people — he did pray that, taught that — but also that our love would have a Spirit-given discernment and insight to know how to love, how love should act.

Here’s what he prays, and this is what I think you should do. She said, “What should I do?” I think you should pray this earnestly and expect God to answer it for you. “[I pray] that your love may abound more and more . . .” So, you pray, “God, help my love for my family to abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that I may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.”

That’s the only way that I know how to walk in such difficult situations with a heart of obedience and peace.

What is Look at the Book?

You look at a Bible text on the screen. You listen to John Piper. You watch his pen “draw out” meaning. You see for yourself whether the meaning is really there. And (we pray!) all that God is for you in Christ explodes with faith, and joy, and love.

Audio Transcript

Pastor John, as you well know, contemporary worship songs get criticized for their repetition. A lot of them do repeat refrains over and over. So, I think the overall critique is fair and should be addressed. But then, as we read along together in the Navigators Bible Reading Plan, we open our Bibles to Psalm 136 today — and it’s loaded with repetition! Psalm 136 is unlike any other chapter in the whole Bible, echoing the very same phrase 26 times: “For his steadfast love endures forever.” The psalm has never appeared in over two thousand APJ episodes, so it’s overdue I guess. What’s the point of Psalm 136? Why so much repetition? And what does it mean for our debates over repetition in our worship songs today?

I really enjoyed thinking about this psalm. We’ve read this antiphonally at church many times, with the congregation doing that refrain and the leader doing the narrative. But before I get into the substance, here are a few style observations about worship songs.

Rare Repetition

First, this peculiar psalm is really there. Let’s just say that. It’s there. It’s in the Bible. It’s got 26 repetitions of the English phrase “for his steadfast love endures forever” — or sometimes translated, “for his mercy endures forever” or “his lovingkindness endures forever.” So, it sounds like this:

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good,     for his steadfast love endures forever.Give thanks to the God of gods,     for his steadfast love endures forever.Give thanks to the Lord of lords,     for his steadfast love endures forever;to him who alone does great wonders,     for his steadfast love endures forever. (Psalm 136:1–4)

And onward for 26 repetitions.

Second, it’s rare. There are a lot of psalms. It’s not like every psalm reads like this. There’s nothing like it again. It’s the rarity of it that gives it such force. If all the psalms did this, we would be worn out. Something unusual is happening here stylistically. It’s so unusual for the psalms, in fact, that we’re driven — which is what you asked — to ask, Why? Why is he doing this?

“Moods in worship should be awakened and sustained primarily by truth, assisted by music.”

Third, the English refrain “for his steadfast love endures forever” has ten syllables in it. The Hebrew has only six — kî lə·‘ō·w·lām ḥas·dōw. That’s a cumulative difference or increase of 104 syllables in English in the psalm as a whole. That might make it a slightly different experience. We just need to keep that in mind. It might have been a little easier to have the refrain kî lə·‘ō·w·lām ḥas·dōw rather than “for his steadfast love endures forever.” That’s a significant sound difference.

Songs with Substance

Fourth, repetition by itself is not the problem with contemporary worship songs. That’s not the problem. Old, great hymns use repetition, like “And Can It Be.” Five times:

Amazing love! how can it be?That Thou, my God, should die for me!

The issue’s not repetition per se but whether there is enough substance, enough rich content of truth about God woven into the repetitions to justify them, to warrant them. That’s the issue. There’s a difference between repetitions that are called forth by the repeated crescendo of new, glorious truth, and repetitions that serve as a kind of mantra without sufficient truth that is simply used to sustain or intensify a mood. Moods in worship should be awakened and sustained primarily by truth, assisted by music — not primarily by music with a little truth thrown in to justify the singing.

So, what strikes us about Psalm 136 is not just that “for his steadfast love endures forever” occurs 26 times, but that these 26 statements are woven into a truth-laden narrative of the history of Israel. Give thanks: he’s God over all gods. He created everything in the universe. He struck down the Egyptians and delivered Israel. He struck down the kings of the Amorites and gave Israel the land. He picked them up from distress and delivered their foes. He gives them food, and in fact, “He gives food to all flesh” (Psalm 136:25). Give thanks: he’s the God of heaven.

So, there’s the main impression you get. The steadfast love of God relates to everything, from the highest heaven of heavens to the nitty-gritty feeding of the birds and the animals. From wilderness wanderings to the destruction of kings, everything relates to the steadfast love of God. That can’t be missed if you’re paying attention.

Logic of Steadfast Love

But here’s what I had not thought of before that I think is so significant. He could have simplified. The psalmist could have simplified the refrain by saying, “His steadfast love endures forever.” That’s not what he said. In every single one of the 26 repetitions, he says, “Because his steadfast love endures forever. Because his steadfast love endures forever. Because his steadfast love endures forever.” He made the logic explicit 26 times. That’s cumbersome! It really is! When you use a “for” or “because” — I see that often in contemporary worship songs, where the logic seems belabored, and I say, “Just take that out and make it simpler. It would flow better.” The Hebrew word kî (“because” or “for”) is thrust forward, number one in every phrase, every time, 26 times.

In other words, all of creation, all of God’s superiority over other pretending gods, all of his destruction in Egypt, all of his patience in the wilderness, all of his victory over kings, all of his mercies in distress, all of his food provisions for creatures — all of it is not just vaguely related to the steadfast love of God; it is because of the steadfast love of God. In other words, the psalmist made the refrain more cumbersome with the word “because” in order not to short-circuit the theological depth that was being driven home — namely, everything God does in creation and history and redemption and consummation is flowing ultimately from his free goodness and mercy and love toward his people.

Mercy in Every Work

What makes this especially striking is that this includes his punitive justice against the enemies in Egypt and against the kings of the Amorites. According to this psalm, even when God is bringing destructive justice against his enemies, he has not ceased to act from his steadfast love. So, here’s the way Jonathan Edwards put it in his comment on this psalm (he just has one brief comment in his notes on Scripture):

The psalm confirms to me that an ultimate end of the creation of the world and of all God’s works is his goodness, or the communication of his good, to his creatures. For this psalm sufficiently teaches that all God’s works, from the beginning of the world to the end of it, are works of mercy to his people, yea, even the works of his vindictive justice and wrath, as appears by the Psalms 136:10, Psalms 136:15, Psalms 136:17–22. (Works of Jonathan Edwards, 24:537)

So, I conclude that the substance here in this psalm is so profound as to warrant 26 repetitions to force us, as it were, to dwell on the logic, on the fact that everything God does is because — because — his steadfast love endures forever.

Audio Transcript

Happy Monday. Welcome back to a new week on the podcast, week number six hundred of APJ. Remarkable. And today we are praying, “Lord, let your word smash our bad theology. May the Bible turn into rubble every lofty thought about you and your ways that is false. Purge from us every error we believe.” A prayer like that was vividly answered by God in a season of your life, Pastor John. And that story is a theme on the podcast too.

When you came to discover God’s sovereignty in salvation, such a revelation shattered your assumptions. So, we’re not talking hypotheticals here today when we read Paul say, “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). These are moments when everything we thought was true crumbles to the ground. You’ll see how this worked in Pastor John’s life in the episodes I pulled together from the podcast in the APJ book (on pages 23 and 24).

So, how do we cultivate the mental discipline and fortitude that would position us to experience this for ourselves? This is huge. And it’s a wonderful question from a listener named Sarah. Sarah writes in to ask this: “Pastor John, hello to you! What does it mean to ‘take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ’? And how can I take this command and apply it to my incorrect or sinful thoughts, that I may obey Christ and have more joy in him?”

Well, here’s the text. Let’s read it and then we’ll see if we can figure this out. Second Corinthians 10:4–5, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh” — that is, they’re not merely human; this is not a mere battle between one philosopher with some human wisdom against another philosopher with human wisdom. “But [the weapons of our warfare] have divine power to destroy strongholds.”

And then he defines this powerful, stronghold-destroying activity in two steps. First, “We destroy arguments and every lofty [or proud] opinion raised against the knowledge of God.” And second, we then “take every thought captive.” So, you move in a battle and you destroy the fortress, and then you take captives. “We . . . take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

So, Sarah asks, how can she take 2 Corinthians 10:5, taking every thought captive, and apply it to herself to be more obedient to Christ in her thought life?

Capturing Whose Thoughts?

The first thing I think that needs to be said is that when we apply this to ourselves, we have to make sure we’re in the right place in the text. When Paul says, first, that he’s destroying arguments and arrogant opinions against God and, second, that he is taking thoughts or minds captive, we need to realize it’s the minds and thoughts of others. He’s not talking about taking his own thoughts captive; it’s the thoughts of others. “I’m moving in to these rascals in Corinth who are so boastful in their philosophical prowess that I am going to demolish them not by counter-philosophy, but by divine power. I’m going to show power, and they’re going to collapse in their thinking, and then I’m going to take their thoughts captive so that they now obey Christ.”

So, he’s the warrior, and the enemy is these people whose minds and arguments are proud and lifted up against God. And when Paul defeats those minds and arguments in the power of the Holy Spirit, their thoughts and their minds are taken captive, and they become people with the mind of Christ or obedient to Christ.

“Lay yourself open to the risen Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit through the words of the apostle Paul.”

I think Sarah might be misreading just slightly. I’m going to come around and say she’s on the right track, but she just might be misreading the verse when she says, “How can I take this command and apply it to my incorrect, sinful thoughts?” It’s not a command. It’s a statement about what Paul is doing to his opponents. He’s demolishing their worldview and then taking their defeated thoughts captive for Christ so that they become right thinkers — they’re obedient in the way they think about Christ. So, 2 Corinthians 10:5 is not a command to do this ourselves, but Sarah’s question is still a very good question.

Humble Captives of Christ

There is a way to apply this to ourselves. We just have to get ourselves in the right place. And the place we belong in is the group whose opinions and thoughts Paul is trying to demolish. That’s where we belong. “We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive.” So, when John Piper reads that, or when Sarah reads it, I should say, or she should say, “Okay, Paul, here I am. Do your demolishing work on me. Do your captive-taking work on me. Destroy in my mind any faults or proud thoughts that I have about God.”

This means really two things, I think, that Sarah and I and anybody else, any Christian, should do.

1. Submit every thought.

First, we should listen to Paul, and submit all our thoughts and ideas and feelings about God and about life. We should submit them to Paul’s teaching, God’s apostle, for scrutiny. And if anything is out of sync with Paul’s teaching, we should let it be destroyed.

I have experienced this very painfully. I mean, if you put your mind and thoughts really at the disposal of the apostolic teaching and say, “Anything in my thinking that needs to be destroyed, destroy it,” it can utterly undo you. There have been seasons in my life where I have wept over the dismantling of what felt like really important structures in my brain. So, I think that’s the first thing we do. We listen to Paul. We submit everything we think — all our ideas, all our worldview, all our viewpoints — to God, and we say, “Paul, let your word dismantle me if necessary.”

2. Pray for power.

The second thing we should do is we should ask the Holy Spirit to work, because Paul said, “We don’t fight with mere human, fleshly arguments; our ministry has power.” So, we should expose ourselves to that power. Second Corinthians 10:4 says, “The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power.” In other words, he’s tearing down arguments and God-belittling ideas, but he’s not doing it merely by argument. So, when I come to the Bible, there’s a lot of study I do, and I love to study, and I love to assess arguments and figure them out, but I should also be crying out, “O God, I know that mere intellect will not dismantle the deeply rooted errors of my mind. So, I avail myself, I open myself to the Holy Spirit, and I seek your face.”

Paul said in Romans 15:18, “I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring the Gentiles to obedience.” Now, I think that’s the same obedience as in 2 Corinthians 10:4–5, when he brings our thoughts into obedience to Christ. And here he says, “I won’t speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished.” So, that’s what I’m getting at when I say to expose yourself, lay yourself open to the risen Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit through the words of the apostle Paul, so that everything can be dismantled, and then your brain, your mind, your thoughts can be taken captive, and everything brought into conformity to Christ.