2 Corinthians 10:1-8

Rachel Workman: 10 By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! ² I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. ³ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ 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. ⁶ And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.
Verse 10 really stands out to me. By the humility and gentleness of Christ. Christ humbled himself on a constant basis for me. And I can't seem to do it for a day. I do love how Paul said we take captive every thought and make it obedient to Christ. Again I fail here on a daily basis. If I would start with my thoughts then maybe my actions would change. 
⁷ You are judging by appearances.^[a] If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. ⁸ So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

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John Burnett:  10 By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! ² I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. ³ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  Verse 3 is so crucial in today’s church.  The church has compromised the gospel and the Bible because they are either afraid of what the world thinks of them.  The worlds version of a successful church is based butts in the seats and bucks in the offering plate.  Paul’s version of a successful church is determined by the truth being preached every time the doors open. 

⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵ 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. ⁶ And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.  Obedience to Christ in thought and deed is what we should strive for when we fail, we repent and ask the Holy Spirit to help us in our spiritual battle.  Verse 4 says that our weapons (prayer) have divine power to demolish the strongholds that sin has over our lives and demolish the arguments made to try and justify sin.

⁷ You are judging by appearances.^[a] If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. ⁸ So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.  Like Paul, I will never be ashamed of the gospel and will be bold in proclaiming it as the truth.

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Allen Michaels:  10 By the humility and gentleness of Christ, I appeal to you—I, Paul, who am “timid” when face to face with you, but “bold” toward you when away! ² I beg you that when I come I may not have to be as bold as I expect to be toward some people who think that we live by the standards of this world. ³ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. Paul agrees that we live in the world. The world fights in its own way. Paul will not agree to fight the war as they do. In the world’s way, you fight in your own power. You do not fight in the power of the Holy Spirit. The world fights in certain ways that would not be right for a Christian. ⁴ The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. Paul uses weapons to win in this battle. But they are not the weapons of the world. They are not swords or guns. The weapons that Paul uses have the power of God in them. In this verse the weapon is the preaching of the gospel. God sends his power into the world through this preaching. ⁵ 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. People’s thoughts will now be under the rule of Jesus Christ. Paul’s every thought is under control to obey Christ. He is that kind of person. ⁶ And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. We must remember that no matter who are opponents are they also belong to Christ just as we do.

⁷ You are judging by appearances. If anyone is confident that they belong to Christ, they should consider again that we belong to Christ just as much as they do. ⁸ So even if I boast somewhat freely about the authority the Lord gave us for building you up rather than tearing you down, I will not be ashamed of it.

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Tomorrow's reading for 2 Corinthians 10:9-18

⁹ I do not want to seem to be trying to frighten you with my letters. ¹⁰ For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.” ¹¹ Such people should realize that what we are in our letters when we are absent, we will be in our actions when we are present.
¹² We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves. When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise. ¹³ We, however, will not boast beyond proper limits, but will confine our boasting to the sphere of service God himself has assigned to us, a sphere that also includes you. ¹⁴ We are not going too far in our boasting, as would be the case if we had not come to you, for we did get as far as you with the gospel of Christ. ¹⁵ Neither do we go beyond our limits by boasting of work done by others. Our hope is that, as your faith continues to grow, our sphere of activity among you will greatly expand, ¹⁶ so that we can preach the gospel in the regions beyond you. For we do not want to boast about work already done in someone else’s territory. ¹⁷ But, “Let the one who boasts boast in the Lord.”^{[b] 18} For it is not the one who commends himself who is approved, but the one whom the Lord commends.