Compare 1 Tim. 3:7. As alcoholic beverages ensnare the mind and give the intoxicated person a distorted view of life, one that is altogether out of focus, so the mind that opposes the truth becomes warped and loses proper perspective in regard to truth. His understanding of it is distorted by his refusal to recognize and accept it.
Recover themselves.
Literally, “to return to soberness,” that is, to return to a sound mind after the intoxication brought about by Satan’s pleasures and allurements.
Taken captive.
Gr. zōgreō, “to capture alive.”
By him at his will.
This phrase has been variously interpreted by the commentators:
(1) Both pronouns, “him” and “his,” refer to Satan.
(2) Both pronouns refer to God.
(3) “Taken captive” by Satan but now sobered to do God’s “will.”
(4) “Taken captive” by the “servant of the Lord” (v. 24) for the purpose of doing God’s “will.” Both the first and second possibilities are difficult to support in the Greek. The Greek construction seems to favor the third suggestion, although the last is also possible. Accordingly, the verse may read: “That they who have been taken captive by him [the devil] may be sobered [and thus extricated] from the snare of the devil for the purpose of [doing] that one’s [God’s] will.”