See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ (Colossians 2:8).
We live in a world of ideas and philosophies, and whoever wins the mind is part of the way to winning the heart; it is much more difficult for the world to win the heart if they cannot enter through the gateway of the mind. One of the great needs today is to have Christians who are able to defend the faith and refute those who oppose it: either publicly, by debate or in print via books, articles or the Internet.The idea that we leave our mind behind when we become Christians is blatantly unbiblical. We are to be salt and light to the world; salt both preserves and prevents decay; it also adds flavor. Edmund Burke (1729-1797) once said 'The only necessity for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing' - passivity in the midst of evil is sin. Let us also remind ourselves that "All authority in heaven and on earth" has been given to Christ not to the devil (Mat 28:18). Think about that the next time you are asked to stop praying in your class room, to remove the Ten Commandments, or accept the Koran verses the Bible in a Court of Law.
It is the duty of every Christian to be prepared to "give an answer (apologia to defend or speak or plead for oneself before a tribunal or elsewhere) to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Pet 3:15-16 see also Col 4:5-6). Apologetics (from the Greek apologia, 1 Peter 3:15) refers to the branch of Christian theology that seeks to provide rational justification for the truth claim of Christianity. Paul also uses apologia in the sense of a legal defense (Acts 22:1, 25:16, 1 Cor 9:3, 2 Cor 7:11, 2 Tim 4:16). One of the qualities required of an overseer or bishop is that he must be able to "encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it" (Titus 1:7-9).
Paul talks about 'deceptive philosophy' in the Scripture above - if we allow ourselves to be deceived, we are accepting the wrong message as fact. If we are to 'see to it' and see through it, then we need to use our mind (our heart may give us a gut feeling that it is wrong, but our mind will tell us why it is wrong). We should also use our mind to avoid false teaching - the current failure to use our mind leaves us wide open to false teaching. 1 Th 5:21 tells us to 'test (discern, examine) everything' and to 'Hold on to the good'.
While the mandate of the Great Commission is to make disciples, we are still to plunder the kingdom of Satan and 'open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light' (Acts 26:18). We can see from Paul that he debated, reasoned, persuaded, and defended the gospel in order to accomplish this purpose (Acts 9:29, 17:2, 17:17, 18:4, 18:19).
It is time for Christians to stand up and be counted for God’s Kingdom. Never before will it count more than now. Time is short…
