Posted on: 22nd August 2024

One of the pieces in scripture that I keep recollecting is the section at the end of this verse in 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV, ‘We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.’ It is the idea of taking captive every thought.

Now Paul does not mean every thought, he means the afflictive thoughts. The question is though, how do we take our thoughts captive? One lens through which we can look at this verse is through mindfulness. Mindfulness is our God-given capacity for attention and awareness. God is mindful of us (Psalm 8), and we are made in his image.

From a mindful perspective this verse relativizes our thoughts. To take them captive we must be bigger than them. They are part of us, but they are not all of us. Secondly, we must be able to observe our thoughts if we are to take them captive. We know this intuitively. If I ask you to tell me what you are thinking you can tell me some of your thoughts. This is because you have a capacity to observe your thoughts.

If we are to take afflictive thoughts captive then clearly, they are not facts, they must be distorted versions of reality. Mindfulness adds that thoughts are just passing mental events and says that thoughts are not facts from a perspective of empirical research.

So how do we take our thoughts captive? When an afflictive thought comes in we observe it. We say to ourselves, ‘it’s not a fact, it’s just a passing mental event.’ We then let it go. In this way it loses its power over us. Let’s say it is an anxious thought. It comes into the train station of your mind, catches your attention and you drive off on that anxious train. What happens? You become the thought and are made more anxious.

But if you can stay in the train station (the observing part of your mind) you can witness the train coming in, ‘oh look, there’s the anxious train.’ You notice it but let it go. Because you’ve done that it will disappear. In this way you have taken the thought captive.

I used to think I was an anxious person. Then, one day, through the influence of mindfulness I realised I wasn’t an anxious person, but I did have anxious thoughts (which are not facts). In that moment I took my anxious thoughts captive and let them go.

The early contemplatives also told us to catch the first thought and not let it become a story in which we are the victim of the thought. It is more helpful to witness our thoughts, to not elaborate on them, than be a victim of them. Finally, in the moment, this enables us to respond wisely rather than react automatically. Thoughts are not facts…