by Pastor Tim Thomas
“I’m afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s clever lies, your thoughts may be corrupted and you may lose your single-hearted devotion and pure love for Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3 TPT).
In context, the Apostle Paul is writing to the Corinthians about how false teaching was corrupting the truth that they learned from him. However, in making that point, he tosses out two ideas to support his point that are like hidden treasure for us right now.
First, we learn that a life of faith is meant to exhibit “single-hearted devotion and pure love for Christ”. Paul considers that to be the standard for a life of faith. Single-hearted means your heart is focused on one thing, and in this case, that “thing” is Jesus. More precisely, he is saying that we are to live in such a way that our every thought, word, and deed is to spring from a deep, pure, and passionate love for Christ. It is a high standard, and yet a standard worthy of one who has shown such an incredible love for each of us.
Can we not spur one another on to live by such a standard? Imagine how revived the Church would be if it were filled with folks that had a laser-like focus on pouring out their love for Christ in every place and in every moment! Such devotion could change not only the atmosphere in the place one lives, it could change the whole world!
The second treasure Paul reveals to us is that the devil aims to use his clever lies to infect our minds and cause us to lose our single-hearted devotion to Christ. If the devil is going to focus his energy on corrupting our minds so that we cannot focus on continuously pouring out love for Christ, think how important it must be for us to do exactly that. The devil is afraid of what would happen if we succeed!
But we should not simply take note of the importance of our faithful devotion, but to understand and take to heart that there is a spiritual war being waged for our minds and hearts – for our ability to be single-mindedly in love with Christ. If there is such a war, then we must enter into war using powerful spiritual weapons designed to tear down strongholds. We must use our prayer time to cry out to God, asking him to release spiritual power to set us free from the distractions that the devil would send our way. And we must also be vigilant not to invite or embrace those distractions.
The world we live in has become so full of distractions, it will take great effort on our part to set ourselves free – and not only us, but our family, friends, and brothers and sisters in the Lord. Just take note how often we pull out our phones to browse social media or listen to music or a podcast. We used to allow ourselves to have time with our thoughts, but now that time is being filled by things that are meant to excite us and keep us distracted. Phones, of course, are just one of the distractions. I do not have all the answers, but I do know these two things:
1) The devil is actively trying to corrupt our minds through distraction.
2) Jesus desires and deserves our single-hearted devotion and pure love.
Will you enter into this epic battle – this heroic quest – to defeat the devil and obtain the victory in and for our most precious Lord and Savior?