“But I am afraid that, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 11:3
There’s a massive attempt these days to control what society does by shaping how it thinks. Anytime we, as believers, start to process information in secular terms, we’re in danger of being led astray from undivided devotion to Christ. That’s why the Bible continually stresses the importance of protecting how we think. The biggest spiritual battles are often fought on the battlefield of the mind.
The Corinthians were reasoning by their flesh—the same way Eve did when Satan convinced her to think differently about God and His Word. He had to change the way Eve thought in order to change what she thought. So he led her to doubt what God said before presenting an outright lie. Satan wanted Eve to process what she heard through the filter of her feelings, and what she saw by its outward appearance. That approach still works today.
Satan uses the world to wage war on the way we think. He wants us to process our circumstances through our pain, our past, and our preferences. You see, the enemy doesn’t need us to totally rebel against God to lead us astray; he only needs to keep us from wholehearted devotion.
For instance, do you begin to doubt God’s Word when you hear traditional marriage and family values denigrated? Do you just remain silent because your beliefs appear to be in the minority? That’s the first step in compromising your beliefs and your testimony for Christ. And the more we accept the world’s reasoning, the more our minds are led astray.
So, how do we win the battle for the mind? Well, overcoming secular reasoning is a matter of “taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). This requires not only recognizing rebellious thoughts, but surrendering our minds and emotions to Jesus daily. Has your mind become sullied with worldly thinking? Remember, how you think determines what you think, and what you think determines how you live.