Our Heavenly Father, we ask now that you speak to us through your Word, help us to think carefully upon it, that you would challenge us, you would encourage us, you would exhort us, and we might learn from you in Jesus' name, amen. I want to direct our thoughts this evening very briefly to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. So please turn in your Bible or on your device or wherever you are at home to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. In the book of 2 Corinthians, Paul is frequently having to defend himself and his apostolic ministry, and though he doesn't want to, and at times he says, I'm out of my mind to talk this way, on the one hand he wants to let his ministry stand for itself and he isn't there to try to prove a point, and yet at other times he finds the need not for his own reputation, but ultimately for the establishment of the gospel ministry, that he must say something in defense of himself. And when we come to chapter 10, Paul is taking a bit of a turn from the previous chapters, and he is seeking to defend his ministry in the face of many accusations. The heart of the accusation is this, that the Corinthians are impressed with these so-called super apostles, who seem to have great presence in gravitas about them. They're dynamic, and Paul they think is rather full of bravado in his letters, but when they meet him face to face he seems to be much less than they were hoping for. And so Paul is going to say something about the way in which he conducts himself, about the way in which he fights the fight of faith. And tucked in here in a verse or two are some exhortations that have everything to do with how we ought to think about Christian education, whether that's Christian education in the church, in the home, or in particular in our own school, covenant day school, or perhaps at another Christian school, or if you send your kids to another private school or a public school, and when we lived in Michigan, we did all three of those, and since our kids to public school for the last five years before we came here, and you are seeking to educate your children, Christianly, and compliment, and come alongside the school, knowing that public schools are restrained in what they can do. However you have chosen to educate your children. It is incumbent upon all of us that we would be interested in this business of Christian education, in particular as we think about our own school. So I want to read to you, just to give you the context, we'll start at verse one. I, Paul, myself, intrigued you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, he's using those words intentionally there because they've accused him of being sort of a mousey character in person. I, who am humble when face to face with you, but bold toward you when I am away, that's their chastisement of him. I beg of you that when I am present, I may not have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments in every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete. Here's what I want to do briefly is explain these verses and then offer very quickly for exhortations for us and for our school based on these verses. Paul lays out three steps in his battle plan. Have you noticed before how verses four, five, and six map on perfectly with the strategy in the ancient world to conquer a people? What do you do first when you are attacking a people or a citadel? Well, you destroy strongholds, their fortresses, their defenses. We see that in verse four and verse five. And what do you do after you destroy the stronghold? Well, you take captives, the end of verse five, and after you have torn down the defenses, you've taken captives than verse six, you are ready to punish rebels. Destroy strongholds, take prisoners, punish rebels. Step one in Paul's defense, and in the laying out of his apostolic ministry, he says is to destroy strongholds. Now, the Bible uses this military sort of language, as some people find it offensive, but it's right here. We can't avoid it. This is a term for defended fortifications. And of course, Paul is using it as an analogy. He's not talking about physical combat. That's what he says here. We are fighting warfare, not according to the flesh. He's not talking about demonic stronghold. Some Christians use that language, but quite clearly he tells us what he means by strongholds in verse four when we come to verse five. We destroy arguments. And every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God. So part of spiritual warfare for Paul is breaking through the objections that people raise in opposition to Christ. The world may fight with force and arms or manipulation or deception. Paul says we do not fight with coercion, but with persuasion. Now, coercion but persuasion, we are going to destroy arguments, strongholds. And then we take prisoners, again, not literal prisoners, but once you tear down those arguments and those opinions, you then take every thought captive. So he's using again this military imagery in not to tie up physical flesh and blood human beings, but once we have torn down those arguments and those opinions, then we are as it were tying up those thoughts to make them captive to Christ. So the key is not only to tear down defenses or to create plausibility structures or remove obstacles to faith in Christ, but to take those thoughts captive. That means we are eager to think our thoughts after God. It means starting with God in his revelation rather than ourselves. It means that we always test whatever conclusions we may reach from philosophy or the natural sciences or from literature. We believe that there is much to be learned from the world of common grace. And we test all of those things against what we see in special revelation about God. God is not a nice addendum to our life, but rather every thought is to be held captive to him. Destroy strongholds take prisoners, punish rebels. You see that in verse six. This is a difficult verse to interpret. What does it mean being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete? Well, surely Paul is not saying I'm going to punish you Corinthians after your obedience. It doesn't make sense. Once you obey, that's when I really crack the whip. Now part of their objection to Paul is that they don't think he's been strong enough and they don't think that he's done enough to sort of protect them. So I think what Paul means is this. I will punish those who oppose me. I will confront those guilty of sin. Don't worry. I will take care of the false apostles, but you need to show me that you are willing to do the right thing. You think I'm weak and powerless. Well, don't worry. I will discipline those who stand against the truth, but only after you stand against them yourself. So prove to me that you are on the side of Christ in the gospel, and then I will come and I will punish those who are not. That's what Paul is saying. When you browse yourselves to show that you are as passionate about these things as you want me to be, then yes, I will exercise discipline as I'm called to do. Destroy strongholds take prisoners' punish rebels. What might this mean for us as we think about Christian education in the church and the home and in our very own school? Very quickly. Number one, our approach to education ought to have an apologetic function. That is, especially as kids get into middle school and high school, especially juniors and seniors, we ought to be giving the best arguments that are out there against a biblical worldview. Of course, as a Christian school, we don't just leave them there to tear down but then to build back up. It ought to be that if our children are going to go off to elite secular universities and encounter objections to Christianity there that they would say, you know what, in my Christian school and in my church, I've encountered all these things. I knew that these objections were out there. That's not going to be at the same level. You have to understand where children are at and their aptitude and their learning. But part of Christian education is giving not just the right conclusions but providing the right arguments to get to those conclusions. So it isn't just enough to say as Bible Christian people, here's what we believe about sex and marriage. Here's what we believe about abortion. Here's why we believe racism is a sin. You can't just give the right conclusions. You need to show the arguments that have led to those conclusions. So our education ought to have an apologetic function. Second, our approach to education should aim to destroy arguments not people. There ought to be a striking difference between the way we approach education and the way discourse, so-called, happens online. It was Spurgeon who said that the minister ought to deal with soft words and hard arguments. And isn't it the case that most people today have just the opposite? They have very hard harsh words and actually very soft arguments. And so contrary to popular opinion, we in the church hold forth the importance of reason. It has been throughout history, often, the church and sometimes no one else who has been willing to say, we believe in the proper role of reason, the instrumental role, not the foundational role. Reason is important. We see it in the scriptures for two years, Paul reasoned daily in the lecture hall of tyrannis. He reasoned with Felix in Jerusalem. He pleaded with Festus, quote, I am speaking true and rational words. The truth of the Bible will at times be beyond rational comprehension. You can't fully understand or articulate the mystery of the divine and human nature of Christ or of the Godhead three and one. But the truths of the Bible are never nonsensical. They are beyond reason, but they are never contrary to reason. They are never irrational. Our approach to education should deal with the best arguments and reasons. Third, our approach to education must do more than put Christianity as a sort of piety on top. It should build our ideas on Christian doctrine from the bottom up. We must always be pressing back to first things, to first principles, refusing to let alien categories set the terms of the debate. And this can often happen, and it happens on both the left and the right. Christian education may adopt the conclusions of the world and look for a few verses on top of it, rather than doing the hard work. Going all the way down, read widely, think deeply, slow down, learn from the best of the Christian tradition. I can tell you that these are the values and the aims and the goals of covenant day school. And I would hope and presume that many of the other Christian schools in our area, we want to do more than just have the same kind of education environment plus a chapel or the same education plus the teachers pray. We want to do more than that. We want to build from the bottom up, from the richest understanding of the Bible, the best of our Christian tradition, and then see how that applies and helps us then through that lens read everything else. And then finally, our approach to education should be about more than thinking Christianly. It must be about obeying Christ. James K. A. Smith, who I don't always agree with, Professor Calvin, but has written, I think, perceptively, something of a critique against some of the worldview thinking that can dominate Christian educational institutions. I still believe in Christian worldview thinking, but his basic argument goes like this. All of us are formed by habits. We're formed by liturgies, whether formal worship liturgies, or the liturgies of sporting events, or sort of habits of the heart that are formed and shaped by the media we consume. His point is that our spiritual formation is not always as intellectual and academic as we would like to think, that if I just get the right worldview planks, everything else follows. And so while I don't always agree with his assessment, I think he is certainly right about that, that we are formed not just by you get the 10 right doctrines in place, and you'll be a mature Christian, but we're formed by the sort of habits, the patterns, the rhythms, the ways in which our parents and our church and our school make things look normal to us. And so the goal of Christian education is not simply to come out to be able to correctly answer a doctrinal test, but to come out ready to obey Christ, isn't that what Paul says? Take every thought captive, not just to get your ideas right, but verse 5 to obey Christ. Not just the checking of boxes or the ticking off of certain ideas, but to cultivate habits of intellectual formation, habits of the heart. That we want students as they graduate, to say my parents, my church, my schooling has equipped me intellectually and inspired me affectionately to love Jesus more, and to obey him more completely. I think this ties in so well with the passage from this morning about the Nazarens who were, or those from Nazareth who were so familiar with Jesus that they did not believe in him. The goal in Christian education, whether in the home or school or church, is not just to have people who have had a lifelong familiarity with Jesus. There is such a danger that people would have just an inoculation, a little bit of Jesus, and not the real thing. No, the goal must be, the prayer must be, the curriculum, the aim must be that students would leave. Graduate more amazed with Jesus, more committed to Jesus, more passionate about Jesus, more eager to think their thoughts after Jesus. Take every thought captive to obey Christ. Well, we will have time to pray and let's do that now as we turn. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, and we pray that you would work it deep into our hearts. As we turn now fully in the remainder of the service to praying through song and to be led in prayer, remind us that we are not simply listening to men come to a pulpit and say something with their eyes closed. But we are called to join with them in our hearts, and that through Jesus you, Father, listen to us, and you are eager to respond and act on our behalf when we pray in faith. So hear us, we ask in Jesus name a man.