Not carnal, but mighty in God

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, - 2 Corinthians 10v4

Paul’s opponents at Corinth were constantly looking for reasons to be critical of him. Apparently, here they were accusing him of being carnal in his methods and his ministries. He mentioned to them that they should not mistake his meek and gentle spirit for weakness. It is clear that Paul did not want to deal with this in an angry and “bold” manner.

I will get to the later verses in the next couple of days, but it is obvious here that his critics had a huge problem. They we so focused on the outward that they saw everything Paul did for the Lord as being carnal and flesh. Paul let them know straight up that he was fleshly – “Of course I walk after the flesh. As long as I am alive I will have to live in the flesh.’ But then he drove the point home – the tools of warfare that we use are nor carnal, but mighty in God to pull down the strongholds of opposition.

There is a lot more I want to address here, but for today I was encouraged to know that Paul faced the same troubles that we face today as we seek to serve the Lord. People are not going to always like it. They are going to find fault, nit-pick, and criticise all that we do because too often they are only focused on the fleshly. People are going to refuse to see that God is tearing down strongholds because they are so worried about what they perceive as fleshly.

Praise the Lord for Paul’s perception and for the Holy Spirit recording these truth for us.