Strongholds (Part 1)

“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ….”  (2 Corinthians 10:4-5)

Strongholds are lies. They begin when our minds contradict the mind of Christ. If we persist in a lie, it becomes ingrained in our minds. We can blame the Devil, but we often build our own strongholds thought by thought. Psychologists say neurons that fire together, wire together. For instance, it is one thing to have an angry thought, but if you have enough angry thoughts, you will become an angry person. As you are reading this, ask yourself what dominates your consciousness? What thoughts happen by default during your days? Do you like what you see? Does your thinking imprison you or set you free?

God is at work to tear down strongholds in our lives. Yet, our greatest strongholds are often the ones we don’t know are there, or we reckon they aren’t a big deal. That’s what makes them so strong. If we read Jesus’s teachings, we will notice the sins we pound the pulpit about in our day weren’t Jesus’s greatest concerns. To the things He was against, we offer weak resistance or none at all. The people He made uncomfortable are comfortable in our churches, and sometimes they run the place. If we study Jesus’s preaching and deeds, it becomes apparent what He came to tear down, and He still seeks to tear down those same notions in our lives. 

The Gospel of Matthew contains one of God’s great battering rams for destroying the Devil’s keeps. We call it the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Here, the Lord identifies the great fortresses that stand against the Kingdom of God. The sins Jesus said have dire consequences might surprise us. Some of His harshest rebukes were for those who had a judgmental heart. If this was such a crime in the Lord’s eyes, why isn’t it in ours? In this article, we are going to examine the stronghold of judgement. It is one of the great bulwarks that keeps us from experiencing the Kingdom of God.

Why do we judge others?

“Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not consider the plank in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me remove the speck from your eye’; and look, a plank is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First, remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. “Do not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.” (Matt 7:1-5)

A stronghold is a basic human need with a lie wrapped around it. One of our greatest needs is worth. We want to be worthy, important, and relevant. In Jesus’s day, this basic human need was framed in terms of honor and shame. The worthy knew honor, and those who failed to measure up, shame. Through Christ, worth is a gift. Though there are consequences and rewards for our actions, at its core, worth is non-negotiable. With God, worth is not merely unconditional, it is infinite. Though Christ, the Lord has tied who we are to who He is and our honor to His honor. We call it the gift of righteousness.

What lie could the devil add to this most basic human need to create a judgmental heart? He might say, “Look at you! Consider the terrible things you have done. See the things you don’t have. Recall what you have failed to achieve. You don’t measure up.” He could just as easily say, “Look at you! You are better than others. You have more, and you are more. You measure up.” Both are lies, but they have the same root… self. If our enemy can get us to regard self as the measure of our value, he has a foothold that can become a fortress. Self is the source of every stronghold, especially this one.  

My daughter, who is a counselor, once told me if we are not careful, we can spend our whole lives looking for what we didn’t get in our childhood. I know she is right from experience. I grew up in a home with an alcoholic father. In such an environment, it is difficult to find worth. The words “Look at you!” were spoken often in my home to point out my every flaw. I realize now my dad was speaking the same lie that was spoken to him. “You don’t measure up!” Those words set up a cascade of lies in my life. I became judgmental, and especially so the more religious I became. I had a debilitating fear of shame. Today they would call it social anxiety. Back then, I was the shy kid. The need for worth leads some young people down some dark paths, such as drug abuse. It is understandable, because shame is a painful thing, and pain killers of all kinds are readily available.

Some go down a different path in search of worth. I thought If I could be perfect, people would value me, and I could find honor. I was the kid who did nothing wrong, got perfect grades, and had to excel at everything I did. When I became a believer, I had to be a better Christian than everybody else. I prayed longer and harder, studied more, did better deeds, and spent more time going to church than anybody I knew. In other words, I became a Pharisee. I trusted in myself that I was righteous and viewed others with contempt. Sadly, if you are a Pharisee, you are the last to know. You think you are first, but you are last. Such are strongholds. The most powerful are the ones we can’t see. We imagine we are on God’s side, but we are his opponents.

“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”

― Carl Gustav Jung 

We judge others to protect ourselves from judgement. It is ironic, but judging others is a form of self-preservation. In Matthew seven, Jesus alluded to an interesting psychological phenomenon. Today we call it projection. Jesus illustrated projection when He spoke of being aware of a speck in our neighbor’s eye while being unaware of the plank in our own eye. We project our own sins onto others. Psychologists say it is a defense mechanism. If I can project my sins onto you and condemn you for them, I don’t have to face them in myself. It saves me from having to diminish myself. It shields me from shame.

For example, have you ever met a rude person who points out rudeness in others? They seem oblivious to the log in their own eye but are aware of the speck in yours. This is projection. They are a person who is trying to save themselves. Military strongholds in the ancient world existed to protect something. Likewise, a judgmental heart is a fortress to protect our own worth.

Judgement is not just for protection; it is for gain. If self is the gauge of my worth, I must raise self to raise my value. I do this by lowering you. If I can devalue you, I can increase my value. If we conclude our worth has a finite measure, it can be measured and compared to others. We measure ourselves by others in search of honor and to avoid shame. If there are somebodies, there must be nobodies. If there are good, there must be bad. We can make up a thousand ways to count ourselves better than someone else. This duality invades our thoughts more than we know. We judge. We rate. How many stars? Thumbs up or thumbs down? It is ingrained in a world system where ego is king, and self is the measure of our honor and shame.

Change your measure.

We suppose strongholds protect and raise us up, but they are traps, prisons of our own making. No one ever found worth by judging another. The world’s honor cannot give it to us either. No amount of applause or pats on the back can give worth to one who counts themselves unworthy. The way to rest is not to exalt self, but to find a different standard of measure. As Paul put it… no longer I but Christ.

God gives us a new way to answer the question “Who am I?” The world looks to self to find the answer. The Spirit looks to Christ. The world is self-defined. Who I am, what I have, what I do, all these things make up identity. Also, we define our neighbor through self. Do they measure up to me? Or should I be ashamed because I don’t measure up to them?

Some say Jesus changed all that by accepting us the way we are. At the cross, Jesus took what was unacceptable in us upon Himself. We call this the gospel or the good news. Yet, to say God has received us the way we are is inadequate. The cross means we have a new way of measuring ourselves. Through Christ, the infinite defines the finite. We share in His identity. His worth has become our worth. Our value is infinite. It has no measure. The more we answer the question of identity through Christ and the less through self, the freer we become.  

The stronghold of judgement exists to protect our worth and to increase it. The first step to tearing it down is to expose it, to recognize its existence. It neither protects nor increases our worth. It is a prison keeping us from God’s freedom.

The truth sets us free, and truth is a Person. It is found in who Jesus is and what He has done. When He reveals Himself to us, strongholds based upon ego crumble. They are but an illusion. Where we once saw shame, we see the risen Lord. He has conquered our shame through the gift of Himself. He has broken our pride through that same gift and released us from the futility of contempt for others. The early church understood this concept well. An ancient sermon from a fellow named Melito (AD 195) describes this thought. Speaking of Christ, he writes:

But he rose from the dead

And mounted up to the heights of heaven.

When the Lord had clothed himself with humanity,

And had suffered for the sake of the sufferer,

And had been bound for the sake of the imprisoned,

and had been judged for the sake of the condemned,

and buried for the sake of the one who was buried,

he rose up from the dead,

and cried with a loud voice:

Who is he that contends with me?

Let him stand in opposition to me.

I set the condemned man free;

I give the dead man life;

I raised up one who had been entombed.

Who is my opponent?

I, he says, am the Christ.

I am the one who destroyed death,

And triumphed over the enemy,

And trampled Hades underfoot,

And bound the strong one,

And carried off man

To the heights of heaven.

I, he says, am the Christ.

Christ has become the new creation’s measure of worth and identity. We hear the term backsliding from the pulpit. We take it to mean going back to old behaviors, and it can have that meaning. Yet, in the book of Hebrews, it means something else. It meant going back to a finite measure of identity, to the old covenant measure of worth.

We answer the question, “Who am I?” every day. We chose our standard of measure. Will it be self or Christ? If we clothe ourselves with Christ, we will be impervious to the fiery darts of our adversary. He comes saying, “Look at you! You don’t measure up! You should be ashamed!” His missiles can only hit their mark if we live in the old standard of measure. If we are dead to that measure, crucified with Christ, his condemnation is powerless, like trying to assault a dead man.

We don’t live below in the realm of ego and the world anymore. We are above together with Christ. Looking down on ourselves is pointless. It is only by looking at Christ we can answer the question, “Who am I?”

We do not live in the measure of Christ alone. We are called to give infinite worth to others. The world takes away worth to gain it. We give worth to others to multiply our own. What a glorious calling! Part of seeing Christ is seeing Him in others. Their measure is Christ, even if they can’t comprehend it for themselves. We are the seeing ones. Like Christ, we see honor where the world sees shame. To what the world calls worthless, we give infinite value.   

“I am essentially spiritually dead unless I reach out to the fine quality that is dormant in others for it is only in the presence of the God who dwells in the innermost shrine of the other that the God who is hidden in me will consent to appear.” -Felix Adler

The cure for a judgmental heart is a glimpse of Jesus. The Sermon on the Mount was not just a series of commandments. It is a picture of who Christ is, and because it is a picture of Him, it is a picture of us as well. It is identity, not just laws. When we read it, we should never say it is unachievable. We should say, “This is who I am!” The stronghold of judgement is an illusion. It cannot stand against the one who is reality, Christ the Lord. To tear it down, we proclaim who He is. We awaken to our true worth, and in doing so, we see the worth of our neighbor.