Verse 4
(For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds).
What were Paul's weapons? "We learn from 1 Thessalonians 5:8; Ephesians 6:11-16, that they were the energies of spiritual powers given by the Eternal Spirit."[4]
Casting down of strongholds ... "This phrase is essentially military";[5] and the imagery is that of a bitter and relentless warfare. The strongholds were those entrenched and fortified positions of institutionalized sin which dominated the Corinthian culture, and indeed the whole social fabric of the ancient Roman Empire. Satan had organized evil on a worldwide scale; and the teachings of Jesus Christ were leveled against every form of wickedness, no matter how securely it was embedded in the gross culture of that era.
Mighty before God ... Paul's meaning here is that he had the proper ammunition to blow up and destroy the entrenched positions of the devil. History demonstrated that Paul's evaluation of the weapons at his disposal was correct.
[4] E. H. Plumptre, Ellicott's Commentary (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Publishing House, 1959), Vol. III, p. 397.
[5] Ibid.
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