[B]rothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things. (Phil 4:

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. (2 Cor 10:4-6)

When I look at real crime scenarios, especially ones that involve sexual offenses, the common denominator is fantasy. The perpetrators of these horrific crimes all fantasize about the crime extensively before they commit it. Depending on how mature the fantasy appears, the police will know the approximate age of the offender and what (if any) prior offenses to look for.

The most dangerous criminal, aside from ex-law enforcement officers, is the sexual sadist. The sexual sadist has the most developed fantasy, and has fantasized about the crime until the fantasy matures. He has thought through almost every angle, usually well enough to lead no evidence at the first crime. Often police think that this isn’t the first offense because of how well-developed the fantasy is. This leads officials on a wild goose chase trying to locate previous crimes that don’t exist. Sexual sadists get their crimes right the first time, usually have no priors, and will always kill again.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution ran an article about daydreaming. Daydreaming can be good. Sometimes a temporary escape from reality is the best way to handle stress. However, in this article was a single line that made my blood run cold in light of the above information. The advice was to never censor your daydreams, because anything you dream about is okay because it is only a dream.

The two Bible verses above serve to show the contrast between worldly wisdom and biblical wisdom. Worldly wisdom tells us to let our thoughts run free and to think about whatever we want to. Don’t censor yourself, the world tells us, these are your thoughts, your fantasies, and your dreams. Whatever you daydream about is fine.

This advice is going to create more sexual sadists.

Instead, let’s take our cue from the Bible. Let’s take our daydreams captive for Christ. The enemy will use our thoughts and our daydreams against us. Instead of letting him, focus our thoughts on everything that is just, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and praiseworthy. In other words,

. . . forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. Only let us hold true to what we have attained. (Phil 3:13-16)