2 Cor 10:5 (AKJV) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. Let’s continue breaking down and unpacking 2 Corinthians 10:5 as we look at this last procedure. And, let’s continue seeing how resistive we get when the belt of truth tries to block off some of the things that are wrong that we watch, read, hear, feel, and want to do.

Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ: This is the powerful moment when we finally lay our mind and our brain down at the feet of Jesus. For much of our lives we have given our mind and our brain over to being trained by one school of thought after another.

Even though some of us have given some segments of our brain to store various aspects of the Bible, our respect, allegiance, priority, commitment, faith, and dedication aren’t always locked into Jesus’ Truth. Our belt of truth often holds a secondary position to other concepts. “Every thought” is an all-inclusive statement. Jesus and His Truth are combined in such a way that He won’t let the belt of truth take second place in His people’s lives. If our thoughts are contrary to His Truth, we set ourselves up for failure in that area of our life. While we are living The Truth in other areas, we will still fail in that area of erroneous thought.

What is compartmentalizing and how does it happen? Jesus sees our hearts as having compartments in them. Our will has opened up some compartments to Him. And, in those areas, our belt of truth is in a quality condition. In other compartments the doors are still closed. Those are areas where our belt of truth is weak or missing. To use the belt of truth in “every thought” we have to allow Jesus to help us identify those compartments and get them open to Him.

The one thing we can count on concerning Jesus is, He will not breach our will. If we don’t want Him involved in that compartment of our thoughts, He will stay out. Bringing “every thought to the obedience of Christ,” is asking us to throw open the door to every compartment. If we so desire, Jesus will come into all those areas and heal them. If we want Him to, He is willing to bring them under His scrutiny and influence. When that happens, we are going to have a high quality belt of truth covering all areas of potential temptation.

Let’s spend some time with Jesus and a man that THOUGHT he was keeping all the Biblical commandments. He failed to allow Jesus to lead him into the very area where he was asking for help. Jesus was the answer to his question; the man came to the right person; and, Jesus gave him the right answer. Sadly, the man was unable to respond positively to Jesus’ wonderful help.

Let’s take a hard look at this man’s situation and then spend some time praying that Jesus will help us not fail like this man did. We may not feel like we are as rich as this man was; but, when we look at all the third world countries, WE ARE RICH. In Matthew 19:23 (NIV) Jesus said to His disciples, “I tell you the truth, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” And we can think, that certainly isn’t me; but, approximately 5 billion people in this world are currently living on less than $10 a week.

Mat 19:16-17 (NIV) Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?” “Why do you ask Me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One Who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments.” What are the commandments? They are specific ways to not do bad things to people and to make sure we are only doing good things to them. However, it isn’t us that determines what that good is. We have a Bible compartment; and, a worldview compartment. In the Bible compartment we know what Jesus wants. And, in the worldview compartment we do business, marriage, friendship, and deal with enemies the way of the world. That keeps us from taking advantage of our belt of truth.

Mat 19:18-19 (NIV) “Which ones?” the man inquired. Jesus replied, “‘Do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother,’ and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’” Jesus decides whether or not we are obeying these commands, not us. If we accept His authority, our belt of truth protects us from world opinions and training.

This man may not have murdered anyone; but, had he hurt them through character assassination? Jesus said in Matthew 5:21-22a (NIV) “You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment.” Only Jesus has the power and authority to interpret the truths of the law.

Mat 19:20-21 (NIV) “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?” Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me.” In his Bible compartment, this man really thought he had kept them. But, in his worldview compartment his business and financial dealings were failing massively. We need to take advantage of our belt of truth all day long.

One of the commandments Jesus referred to was: “love your neighbor as yourself.” It wasn’t wrong, bad, or evil that this man had a lot of money; but, the fact that he was hoarding it was. He was being a lake that was allowing finances to flow in but wasn’t allowing much to flow out. Jesus wanted him to be a river; He would have blessed and prospered him; but, Jesus wanted a lot of that money to help people in need. That is Jesus’ training on how to use the belt of truth all day long.

Mat 19:22 (NIV) When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth. Like this man, we can think we are really being good to people; but, that is because we are compartmentalizing. We have an opinion as to what being good is; but, Jesus has a different principle. If this man had asked Jesus one more question, He would have taught him and empowered him to fulfill this last assignment He gave him. The belt of truth helps us resist the world’s idea of what good and bad are. The more we keep asking Jesus questions, the more we allow Him to teach us and empower us to use the belt of truth. He would have helped this man and will help us to love our neighbor as our self. That is what using the belt of truth looks like.

Another aspect of putting on, keeping on, and developing a high quality belt of truth, is to study the Scriptures that deal with The Truth. Let’s take a look at a list of Scriptures that will be helpful with identifying, putting on, keeping on, and using the belt of truth.