2 Corinthians 10 Round Two: People Are Not Your Enemy

What if the person in front of you isn’t the real problem? Our walk through 2 Corinthians 10 reframes conflict, showing how Paul targets the forces behind the friction—strongholds, false arguments, and proud ideas—so we can stop fighting people and start dismantling lies. With a simple backyard story and a sharp look at the text, we explore practical ways to use God’s mighty weapons: prayer that confronts deception, Scripture that renews the mind, and obedience that turns truth into action.

We also unpack why comparison quietly sabotages calling. Paul refuses to measure himself by other leaders and stays within the lane God gave him. That focus frees us to build rather than boast, steward rather than compete. You’ll hear how authority in Christ serves to strengthen the church, how to recognize divisive claims without demeaning people, and why arguing point for point rarely changes the spiritual reality behind the words. Instead, we aim at the source and keep moving the mission forward.

If you feel stuck in constant warfare, this conversation offers a third way: not retreat and not endless skirmishes, but steady advance. We outline three common responses to attack and explain why only one leads to freedom. The key shift is posture—fighting from victory rather than for it. That confidence anchors your decisions, calms your reactions, and turns heated moments into ground-gaining steps. You’ll leave with clear next moves: capture harmful thoughts, resist comparison, set wise boundaries, and act on the truth you confess.

If this helped you see the real battle more clearly, subscribe, share it with a friend who needs encouragement, and leave a review so others can find the show. What stronghold are you dismantling this week?

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The More We Dig. The More We Find.

Scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation (NLT).
Copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation.
Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Transcript

Welcome And Theme Setup

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Welcome to the Bible Breakdown Podcast. Every day, we take one chapter of the Bible, dig deeper, and discover that the more we dig, the more we find. You can find out more at the BibleBreakdown.com. Now let's grow in God's Word together. Well, everybody. Welcome back to the Bible Breakdown Podcast with your host, Pastor Brandon. Today, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. And the title of today is People Are Not Your Enemy. People are not your enemy. To which some of you would be like, uh-uh. I got a list of them. I'm not saying that people don't appear to be your enemy, but I want you to think about what's behind those people. For instance, not too long ago, my daughters, it was during summer, and my daughters got a hoe got a hold of a water hose. And one of my daughters, uh, she's pretty good about understanding boundaries and getting in trouble. My other daughter, she would rather aggravate than breathe air. Okay, that's just that is her love language, is her love language is to aggravate you, not to receive aggravation, right? So you can tell where this is going. She grabbed a water hose and she started thinking that everybody there needed a bath. So she started just spraying everybody. And while she's spraying me, at first I'm like, haha, that's not funny. And then after a while, we have an issue. Like, I need you to stop. Well, when she finished spraying me, I did not one time get mad at the water. I didn't get mad at the hose. I got mad at the one holding the hose of water. And that's what I want you to see in this chapter. Paul is actually looking a little bit deeper than we do in some of our conflict. And he's saying, Why are you gonna get mad? Why are you getting mad at the tool when you should get mad at the source? And that's a powerful thought when we really think about it. We're gonna get into that just a moment. But as always, if you like what we're doing here, make sure you like, share, and subscribe to the YouTube channel. We're on the road to 1,000. We are getting there so quickly. So thank you so much for helping us. Man, I can't wait to see what we can do when we get to that level. Also, if you are listening to the podcast, always you're my favorite podcast listeners to get over it. No, I'm having some fun. But leave us a five-star review. It helps us a lot. And then gather with us at the Facebook group at the Bible Breakdown Discussion, where we are just learning about God's word one chapter at a time. And it is blessing my soul to see how many of you are taking spiritual next steps because you're connecting with God's Word. And I feel like I'm getting a chance to pastor you in a way as we are looking at God's word together. And I love it so very much. So thank you for giving me this opportunity. It is my honor. All right, get your Bibles and open it with me to 2 Corinthians chapter 10. Remember that this church has been through a lot. This is the Las Vegas of the first century Roman world. There's all these different people. 1 Corinthians was all about, you know, unity in the midst of diversity and some kind of some family therapy there, having to come back together again. Well, they've been through a lot and they've repented of their sin and now they need to forgive one another, come back to one another, and focus on the real enemy. The overall theme of 2 Corinthians is God is the God of all comfort. And this one is to realize who the real enemy is. Like I was telling you in the intro that when my daughter was spraying me with that water hose, yes, I was upset at the water, but the water was the vehicle of the aggravation of my daughter. Well, what Paul is going to talk to us about is to realize who the real enemy is. To realize that, yes, those people may have cut us off in traffic, may have broken our heart, may have stolen from us, may have done these different things. But who is controlling them? Who is manipulating them? Hurting people hurt people. Broken people live in a way to not be broken anymore. And the only way they know how to deal with this world is to break other people in order to save themselves. It's not because they're villains sometimes, many times, it's because they're broken and they're pushing away other people. That many times the problem is not the problem. It's what's behind the problem. And that's what Paul's going to talk about. And I want us to think about this because for most of us, that person is not really the one that we should be fighting against. Let's read this together. 2 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 1 says this. Now I, Paul, appealed to you with the gentleness and kindness of Christ. Paul's, every time Paul says, I'm going to try to be gentle with you, he's about to open up a can on somebody. So that's just something you need to know about the apostle Paul. Whenever he says, I'm going to be gentle and I'm going to be kind, go and put your helmet on. He's about to beat beat up on somebody, right? Here we go. Let's read it again. Now, I, Paul, appeal to you with gentleness and kindness, though I realize you think I am timid in person and bold only when I write to you from far away. Well, I am begging you now so that when I come, I won't have to be bold with those who think that we act from human motives. Here we go, Paul. Verse three: we are human, but we don't wage war as humans do. We use God's mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ. And after you have become fully obedient, we will punish everyone who remains disobedient. So what he just said was is we're human, but we don't wage war as humans do. So we realize that there's so much going on in the spiritual world that we can't see. So we don't just look at that person who's coming against us, we look at what's behind that person: a demonic influence, a stronghold in their life, an evil imagination, a false argument. You know, something, there's always something behind the thing. So he's like, we're not just fighting that person. That person is not my enemy. It's the lie they believe about that. It's the lie that I might believe about that. I might have a false assumption. And so I realize that I'm always fighting from a place of victory, but I'm fighting on two fronts. I'm fighting physically and I'm fighting spiritually. The real fight is the spiritual fight. Verse 70 says this look at the obvious facts. Those who say they belong to Christ must recognize that we belong to Christ as much as they do. I may seem to be boasting too much about the authority given to us by the Lord, but our authority builds you up. It doesn't tear you down, so I will not be ashamed of using my authority. I'm not trying to frighten you by my letters. For some say Paul's letters are demanding and forceful, but in person he is weak and his speeches are worthless. Those people should realize that our actions when we arrive in person will be as forceful as what we say in our letters from far away. So what he's doing is he's saying, these people with all their bad things, those are the problem. Are the words the what's behind those words? So we're going to deal with that. It's not the people, it's the claims that they're making. Verse 12. Oh, don't worry. We wouldn't dare say that we are as wonderful as these other men who tell you how important they are, but they are only comparing themselves with each other, using themselves as the standard of measurement. How ignant, how ignorant. Verse 13. We will not boast about the things done outside of our area of authority. We will only boast about the things that has happened within the boundaries of what the work that God has given us, which includes our working with you. We are not reaching beyond these boundaries when we claim authority over you as if we had never visited you. For we are the first to travel all the way to Corinth with the good news of Christ. Nor do we boast and claim credit for the work someone else has done. Instead, we hope that your faith will grow so that your boundaries of our work among you will be extended. Then we will be able to go and preach the good news in other places far beyond you, where no one else is working. Then there will be no question of our boasting about the work done in someone else's territory. As the scriptures say, if you want to boast, boast only about the Lord. When people commend themselves, it doesn't count for much. It is important, the important thing is that the Lord is for the Lord to commend them. In other words, Paul is saying, there's a whole lot of people saying a whole lot of things, but the weapons that we wage are not carnal. In other words, I'm not gonna sit here and go tit for tat with them, and I'm not gonna fuss with them, I'm not gonna fight with them, because I know what's behind them. I know that there is a uh a spirit of confusion. There's there's these different things where the enemy is trying to create division. And so I'm not gonna mess with these people. They're just pawns being used by the enemy. And here's the thing there's times when we become pawns of the enemy, when we get wrapped up in gossip and dissension and backbiting and all the different things. And so what Paul is saying is, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna sit here and fuss and fight with him. I'm gonna see the enemy that's behind them, and I'm gonna declare victory. I'm gonna keep on doing what I know how to do, and that's how it's gonna work. Because here's one of the things is one of the things we got to think about. When the enemy comes to attack us, we really have one of three things we can do. Number one is we can get afraid and run away. That's not the right one. Number two is we can just stop working for the Lord and bind every spirit all the time and just cast out, and I'm just just bind, bind, bind. Why just we're always in this warfare mentality and we never actually take ground because we're so busy fighting. Can I tell you to a certain extent, that's fine with the enemy? Because if you're so busy being preoccupied with him, you can't ever actually move forward in God. So if the enemy can't make you bad, he'll just make you busy. The third one is to say, you know what? In the name of Jesus, I am not gonna come against the person. I'm gonna come against the spirit of the person, and I'm gonna move forward. And that's how you take ground. That's what Paul's saying. I'm just gonna realize that this is not them, this is the enemy, and I'm gonna move forward. And when you begin to see that we don't live in a position where we're fighting for victory, but fighting from victory, then life begins to take on a whole new meaning. We're not living in a warfare mentality from a position of not sure. We're living in a warfare mentality, but that we've already received the victory. And so we're taking ground as a conquering army of God, not as one that's not so sure. And when we begin to realize the authority that we have through Christ and for his good purposes, then we start to realize that God truly is the God of all comfort. So my question for you today is are you running from the enemy? Are you spending all of your time battling the enemy? Or are you realizing that victory is already yours? So you bind the devil in Jesus' name, but then you move forward. I want you to think on that. And and if you're in a position where you find yourself constantly running and fighting and fearful and all of that, the Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear and intimidation, but of power, love, and of a sound mind. And so maybe your prayer today is the music is going to start in just a moment of reflex reflection is God, help me to have more confidence in where I stand and in who I am in you. Maybe you're the person who's always on that war path. You're always binding the devil in Jesus' name. And I'm not against that, but it's just if you find yourself only fighting, then what may be happening is the enemy is always just throwing things at you. Because if he can keep you busy, then he can stop you from actually moving forward into that freedom. So maybe your prayer needs to be for the third one. God, I pray you will help me to understand who I am in you to the point that I stop giving in to all the tricks of the enemy and I start taking ground in Jesus' name. That is the key to victory is to realize that the enemy doesn't belong in the same uh universe as my Jesus and your Jesus. So when I stand on the authority of Christ, no enemy can stand against him. And because we are his, that authority has been given to us. Let's pray together. God, thank you so much for today. Thank you for your goodness and your mercy. I pray that everybody who is listening or watching this podcast, Lord, that you will invest and help them know who they are in you. Lord, the most powerful thing on in the universe is a Christ follower who knows who they are in you because then their power comes from you. And you truly are the most powerful thing ever. And when we connect with you and you start to move through us, nothing is impossible because of you. And we're thankful for that and that you are the God of all comfort. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Don't forget God's word, it says in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, God is the source of all comfort, and he comforts us in all of our troubles so that we can comfort others. Who do you need to share this with today so that they can be comforted the way you are comforted? I love you. I'll see you tomorrow for 2 Corinthians chapter eleven.