2 Corinthians 10:4

4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

 

“Nay more, the kingdom of Christ cannot be set up or established, otherwise than by throwing down everything in the world that is exalted. For nothing is more opposed to the spiritual wisdom of God and the wisdom of the flesh; nothing is more at variance with the grace of God then man’s natural ability, and so as to other things. Hence the only foundation of Christ’s kingdom is the abasement of men. And to this effect are those expressions in the prophets: “The moon shall be ashamed, and the sun shall be confounded, when the Lord shall begin to reign in that day”: Again, “The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the high looks of mortals shall be abased, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day.” (Isaiah 5:15 and 2:17) Because, in order that God alone may shine forth, it is necessary that the glory of the world should vanish away.”

 

John Calvin

 

“The word here rendered ‘strongholds’ means properly – fastness, fortresses, or strong fortifications. It is here beautifully used to denote the various obstacles, resembling a fortress, which exist, and which are designed and adapted to oppose the truth and the triumph of the Christian’s cause. All these obstacles are strongly fortified… the whole world is fortified against Christianity; and the nations of the earth have been engaged in little else, then in raising and strengthening such strongholds for the space of six thousand years. The Christian religion goes forth against all the combined and concentrated powers of the resistance of the whole world; and the warfare is to be waged against every strongly fortified place of error and of sin. These strong fortifications of error and of sin are to be battered down and laid in ruins by our spiritual weapons.”

 

Albert Barnes