the renewed mind pt2

The battle for our minds has already been won, praise God! But it’s still raging …

So what’s our part in the battle, if we already have the mind of Christ? Is the renewing of our mind solely the work of the Holy Spirit?

As we saw in the previous article, ‘we have the mind of Christ‘ (1 Cor. 2:16). The renewed mind is part of the new man (or better, the new humanity, the new creation), but we note from other Scriptures that we are instructed to ‘let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus’ (Phil. 2:5), and to be ‘renewed in the spirit of your mind’ (Eph. 4:23). Is this a contradiction? Or yet another mystery we won’t understand this side of heaven?

Certainly not! The confusion is in the English language where we have a single word to represent at least 19 shades of meaning in Greek. Thankfully we have the work of scholars like James Strong and W. E. Vine, whose concordances will shed light into our minds through the work of the Holy Spirit, illuminating the Scriptures!

The word for ‘mind’ in Phil.2:5 would be better translated as ‘mode of thinking’ as it indicates the exercise of the mind (Strongs G5426). The word for mind in the other two verses quoted above relates to the mind as an object – the place where the thinking takes place, the intellect (Strongs G3563).

Eph. 4:23 tells us that there is a spiritual element to the mind which needs to be renewed, as part of the process of sanctification which is the outworking of the Gospel received and applied to the heart and life. This ties in with Romans 12:1-2 ‘I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, [same word as in Eph. 4:23] in order to prove [test, discern, approve – an activity of the mind] what is that good and pleasing and perfect will of God’. 1

Worship with the mind

We are to worship God ‘with all our heart … soul … mind’ – yet another word for mind which means “deep thought, properly the faculty (mind or its disposition), by implication its exercise: – imagination, mind, understanding” (Strongs G1271). Do we worship God with our minds engaged with God?

One of the dangers of modern ‘worship’ is that of ‘mindless’ repetition of phrases with very little Bible truth in them – but it has ever been thus! As the Lord Jesus Himself said to His generation in Matt. 15:8 (quoting Isa. 29:13), ‘This people draws near to Me with their mouth, and honours Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me. But in vain they worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.’

A mature mind

We must ‘go on to maturity’ (Heb. 6:1 ESV) and this is the result of having our ‘powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.’ (previous verse), and yes, that involves work – studying the Scriptures – in ’church’, on our own, with the help of others, using books and commentaries, and, dare we say it, magazines like Sword!

Messianic author J. P McKee says: “When one is new in the faith, we are to be trained in what the NIV says are “the first principles of God’s Word.” These are the basic essentials of learning how to relate to God, loving God, loving one another, serving one another, learning about the characters and people of the Bible. … We learn how to pray. We learn how to demonstrate God’s grace and His mercy to others in the world we live. We learn how to make sacrifices and give Him complete control over our lives. These are the essential things in the faith, and I pray that each one of us has a firm basis in them in our relationship with the Lord.

”However, a critical part of growing in our faith is being able to move beyond these things. These things are certainly not to be negated by moving beyond them, but as we strive for spiritual adulthood the challenges that will be delivered to us will get increasingly more difficult. When we strive for adulthood we should not have to go through the essentials of faith over and over again, specifically because the Holy Spirit has supernaturally empowered us with discernment and reasoning abilities to handle complex situations. These complex situations require us to have a mind and thought life that are focused on the Lord and on performing His work ably in the world in which we live.” 2

Let battle commence!

Part of our spiritual warfare is ‘bringing into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ’ (2 Cor. 10:5). In context, Paul is saying that he will oppose the troublemakers at Corinth with spiritual arguments in his apostolic authority. But, as the centurion in Matt. 8:9 knew, in order to have authority, you must be under authority. This is reminiscent of the story of the seven sons of Sceva in Acts 19, who when trying to exorcise evil spirits ‘by the Jesus whom Paul preaches’ (19:13), were rebuked by the demon ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I recognize, but who are you?’ If we haven’t brought our own thinking into captivity to be obedient to Christ, we’re not going to be much help to anyone else, and certainly can’t expect to have authority in the spiritual sphere of our warfare. For example, if you have a problem with controlling your appetite, you probably won’t be able to effectively 12 counsel someone who is struggling with over-eating. Similarly in other areas such as gossip, critical spirit, etc.

We’re not on our own!

But thank God that we are not on our own here! Timothy seems to have struggled with timidity and holding back in his gifting (something I have struggled with over the years), which would make fulfilling his pastoral responsibilities a little tricky! Paul assures Timothy that God has given us a spirit‘of power and of love and of a sound mind‘ (2 Tim. 1:7). He uses a word for ‘sound mind’ (self-control in some versions) that has at its root the idea of the mind/feelings being saved or safe, under control (elsewhere translated ‘sober’), restored and fit for its God-given purpose.

But, although that is a gift from God, he still needs to be reminded and encouraged to stir up the gift, not to be ashamed, and to be ready to share in the afflictions of the gospel – but, again, it is ‘according to the power of God’ (2 Tim. 1:8) – which he says in v.7 has already been imparted to us, and in v.9 that this was God’s purpose in eternity, and demonstrated in Christ’s abolition of death and bringing life and immortality to light through the gospel! (v.10)

As we study verses like these and realise the blessings that have been imparted to us through our participation in Christ (2 Cor. 5:17; Phil. 3:10), the process of transforming our mind is under way. Going back to the verses in Eph. 4 mentioned above, the renewing of our mind is an essential step in the process of ‘putting on the new self’ (ESV) which was ‘created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness’. Paul’s instructions to the Philippians to ‘work out your own salvation’ (Phil. 2:12 KJV), is preceded by a passage encouraging them to be of one mind in unity and humility, and is followed by the assurance that it is God working in them anyway.

Are you aware of the fight going on for your mind? Are you aware of your part in the battle? Are you aware of the weapons at your disposal? Paul prays that we might have ‘the eyes of your understanding enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe’ (Eph 1:18-19a ESV – modified)

Glorious!

This is indeed glorious! And Paul says that this transformation of our thinking is ‘according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.’ (Eph 1:19b-21 ESV)

Our Lord Jesus is Head of the New Creation, and we are complete in Him (Col. 2:10) with His power at work in us. You are already part of that New Creation – the old has gone, the new has come! (2 Cor. 5:17) We are fighting from a place of victory. The war has already been won!

In the Lord’s will, we’ll explore the epistle to the Ephesians further, and see how the whole epistle is geared to this great purpose of renewing our minds, and to challenge us as to how much our minds are being renewed – or corrupted – “in the Lions’ dens” of this world and modern ‘churchianity’.

1 Unless otherwise noted, all Bible quotations in this article are taken from either ‘The Modern King James Version’ or ‘The Literal Translation of the Holy Bible’, both © Jay P. Green, Sr., and accessed through “e-Sword”, a superb (and free!) Bible software program/app available from www.e-sword.net (Rick Meyers), incorporating multiple translations, commentaries and study helps, including Strong’s Concordance [We should point out that “e-Sword” is an entirely separate enterprise from Sword magazine. Ed.]

2 Extracted from an article entitled “The Work of the Holy Spirit: Perfection of the Mind”; available at http://messianicapologetics.net/archives/15496 (as at Oct 2018).