What part does the mind play in our Christian life?

Most people would consider the mind not to play any part of the Christian life, we put a lot of emphasis on our soul, our heart, the way we conduct ourselves, but Jesus tells us in Matthew 22:37 (also Mark 12:30, Luke 10:27)

37 Jesus replied; 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'

Jesus was quoting from Deuteronomy 6:4,5 but the emphasis was moved from might to mind, something, which would become more prevalent in Paul’s writings. (Deut 6:5)

5 And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.

Up to the rejection of Jesus by the Jews the mind did not play a predominant part in scripture. More emphasis was put on ‘might’, which in some way is the precursor to mind but without the understanding or revelation. Apart from the saying by Jesus in Matthew 22 the scripture generally mentioned the heart, Luke 1:51

51 He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.

In Mark 12:29,30 Jesus was telling a Jewish teacher the most important commandments Israel should be concerned with, these two really underpin the Christian faith, but not in a legalistic sense. In the following verses Jesus recognises that the Jewish teacher had ‘understood’ what was being said, and was close to where Jesus wanted Israel to be as a whole.

32 The teacher of religious law replied, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth by saying that there is only one God and no other.
33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
34 Realizing how much the man understood, Jesus said to him, “You are not far from the Kingdom of God.” And after that, no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Here we have a clear indication that the mind was at work, that there wasn’t just blind obedience, which the Law required, this man had actually changed the way he thought about his faith, he had understood the deeper meaning of what was being asked of him, that putting God’s commandments into practice with understanding and purpose was more important than ritualistically following God’s Law without thought. This is what Jesus had come to do, take the Law from the pages and put it into the hearts of the Jews.

Lets not get carried away though, we must still remember the times. Jesus was not converting people to Christianity, He was not calling out a Church. He was trying to set up a royal priesthood on earth, the Kingdom, which would through the chosen nation Israel save the world. His purpose as prophesied was to be a Messiah, and King, but just not the sort of King the Jews were hoping or watching for.

A good verse which alludes to the opening of the mind and Spiritual blindness, can be found in John 9:39. The account starts earlier in that chapter but in verse 39 Jesus tells the assembled His purpose and the Pharisees were not happy at what He was implying.

39 Then Jesus told him, “I entered this world to render judgment—to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind.”

It is not until you get to Paul’s teaching that the mind becomes something in its self, separate from the body, heart and spirit and deeper than the might of a person. It is almost like the second lesson in becoming closer to God. First He showed us the Law and how blind obedience did not work, now he opens up the mind and understanding to lead us closer into a proper relationship. Romans 8:6-8 tells us how important the mind is in our Salvation.

6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.

Paul’s calling to preach the gospel mirrors the calling of the Church, he was chosen, called out from the people. His calling was from God and His faith was not a natural one; having never seen Jesus or studied with Him, it was not based on a physical relationship. In Galatians 1:11-16 Paul says;

11 Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that the gospel message I preach is not based on mere human reasoning.
12 I received my message from no human source, and no one taught me. Instead, I received it by direct revelation from Jesus Christ.
13 You know what I was like when I followed the Jewish religion—how I violently persecuted God’s church. I did my best to destroy it.
14 I was far ahead of my fellow Jews in my zeal for the traditions of my ancestors.
15 But even before I was born, God chose me and called me by his marvelous grace. Then it pleased him
16 to reveal his Son to me so that I would proclaim the Good News about Jesus to the Gentiles.

It’s strange to note that in that part of the world, philosophy abounded, not only with the Greeks but others too, and for many years prior to Jesus’ coming the great philosophers of the day had reasoned and thought their way through life. In all but a few cases the thought of God was ignored and man became God; thought and reason were the driving factors. I believe this humanistic thinking was a direct attack on God’s plans for humanity by Satan.

If he could get people looking inwards for the answer then they would completely miss out on what God could do. With the calling of the Church Paul had a big job on as the whole emphasis changed from Law and blind obedience to Grace, and peoples’ choice to ‘want’ to change. Romans 12:2 told us how this could be accomplished.

2. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

Surely we see at the calling of Paul the birth of a ‘Christian philosophy’ where the mind is predominant in the changing of ones self. NO, we don’t. Under no circumstances can we call the Gospel of Paul a philosophy, neither do I like to call it a religion either, both words conjure up all sorts of problems and paths in which the person applying into their life can get completely lost. If we have to label the birth of anything with Paul then the word I would use if I had to is Faith, and then only in its broadest term.

Philosophy is the study of the nature of existence, knowledge, truth, beauty, justice, validity, mind, and language. Someone described it as being, "thinking about thinking." Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing these questions (such as mysticism or mythology) by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on reasoned argument. The word philosophy is of Ancient Greek origin meaning "love of wisdom”.

Faith is a belief in the trustworthiness of an idea. In our context the ‘idea’ is Jesus Christ, the risen saviour. Our faith is made all the more stronger through revelation and understanding.

The Gospel isn’t complex, it doesn’t need years of study to get to grips with, it is simply a call from God and a response from us to change our ways and have faith in Him. All He asks is that we point our understanding from the world, and ourselves to Him and His Words.

How do we Change?

How do we change, how do we really change? The answer is in Romans 12:2 as we saw earlier, ‘by the renewing of our mind’. Is this something God does to us or are we responsible? As with all things God will help us if we take the first steps, if we consciously make that decision to change, then God can change us. It is not something we can do ourselves, we do not have power over sin in ourselves, only through Jesus Christ can we hope to change. Romans 7:24,25 makes it clear that Jesus Christ is the answer, not our own strength.

24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?
25 Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Why do we need God to change our mind? Quite simply our mind is humanistic; it is governed by what happens around us on earth and as such is filled with rubbish, it is far from being anywhere near the mind of God, it is corrupt and sinful by default. Romans 3:10 and 3:23 tells us this as well as Isaiah 53:6

10 As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous - not even one.
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
6 All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own…

To be a Jew and a good one you must adhere to all the rules and regulations, to DO what is right regardless of what you think, their actions dictate their acceptance of their faith. It is called the Law. If they follow it and DO what it says they will eventually be judged on the same Law they follow.

The difference between the Jews and us is that we will not be judged on our works, on how well we kept to the Commandments, we will be judged on the state of our Soul which in turn is dependent on the state of our mind. Romans 3:27,28.

27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.
28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.

This ‘change of mind’ is not a ‘once and for all zap and everything is all right’ change. It is a constant battle; Galatians 5:16,17 explains this battle.

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.
17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

The Amplified version breaks verse 17 down a bit more and shows how deep the actual conflict is within each Christian. This is not as some would have it, a simple case of being stronger, pulling your socks up and getting on with it, this is a real spiritual battle between two forces played out in our minds and lives, and the winner gets our soul.

17 For the desires of the flesh are opposed to the [Holy] Spirit, and the [desires of the] Spirit are opposed to the flesh (godless human nature); for these are antagonistic to each other [continually withstanding and in conflict with each other], so that you are not free but are prevented from doing what you desire to do.

The struggle to change.

In 2 Corinthians 4:1-4 we are warned that to not believe puts us under the power of Satan who can ‘blind’ our minds to the truth. People often think Satan has no real power over us but this quite clearly states he has, and uses it on those who have chosen not to believe.

1 Therefore, since God in his mercy has given us this new way, we never give up.
2 We reject all shameful deeds and underhanded methods. We don’t try to trick anyone or distort the word of God. We tell the truth before God, and all who are honest know this.
3 If the Good News we preach is hidden behind a veil, it is hidden only from people who are perishing.
4 Satan, who is the god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News. They don’t understand this message about the glory of Christ, who is the exact likeness of God.

Satan knows that if we accept the call of Jesus Christ as our Saviour, if we believe in God then God can do miraculous things in us, this is why Satan dumbs the minds of the unbeliever, why he does his utmost to keep our minds full of rubbish and worldly problems so we can’t think about or meditate on God. This is why so many churches are failing because they think they have to change peoples minds, they try to break through the blindness with humanistic thinking, instead of preaching the word as it was intended and allowing the power of God to do its work in the minds and hearts of the unbeliever.

1 Corinthians 2:12-16 explains, that if we have the Spirit of God then we can understand better the spiritual things He tells us. Our mind is more in tune with His, our understanding becomes clearer because we have the Spirit of God within us. It’s almost like having an interpreter inside us, but this one is spiritual allowing us to make spiritual discernments.

12 And we have received God’s Spirit (not the world’s spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit’s words to explain spiritual truths.
14 But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.
15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.
16 For, “Who can know the Lord’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.

Ephesians 4:21 onwards builds on this and shows how the change must be.

21 Since you have heard about Jesus and have learned the truth that comes from him,
22 throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception.
23 Instead, let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes.
24 Put on your new nature, created to be like God—truly righteous and holy.

It goes on to give examples of wrongdoings, which must be addressed if you are to change.

25 Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
26 Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:
27 Neither give place to the devil.
28 Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
29 Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers.
30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
32 And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

In chapter 5 it goes on to give more good advice about keeping in the right frame of mind and on the right path, telling us in verse 5 that you will not be welcome in the kingdom of Christ or God if sin is still guiding your life.

5 For this ye know, that no whoremonger, nor unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.

Further more there are steps to take to ensure this, from verse 6 onwards.

The mind is a powerful thing.

Do not underestimate the power of the mind, it is here that God and Satan works and where you as a person decide to follow one or the other. It is the battleground for your soul. The ‘mind’ is the intellect, the reasoning part of you, the centre of understanding and at this point you can see where the division between the Soul and the mind starts to blur, and people think that the mind and soul are one.

Psalm 139:14 puts is well;

14I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

The Soul is more than we will every understand and our minds are far more complex than we can comprehend but I know one day we will come to a full and rich understanding when we meet the maker and He opens up all the secrets that are waiting for us.

God cares for your mind

God knows the power of the mind and also the dangers and temptations we face, with this in mind we have an instruction in Philippians 4:4-7 which tells us how to gain the protection from God we need, to live day by day.

4 Always be full of joy in the Lord. I say it again—rejoice!
5 Let everyone see that you are considerate in all you do. Remember, the Lord is coming soon.
6 Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.
7 Then you will experience God’s peace, which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus.

We must do our bit if we want God to help us, the Christian life is not a passive life of taking from a giving God it is a real relationship which needs commitment and continual work to keep it healthy and alive. It isn’t just about staying ‘friends’ with someone, while we are with God we are walking away from our sinfulness, if we turn at any point and lose sight of God that sinful nature will take hold and drag us down.

We should help each other in the church and watch for the young ones growing up in this evil world. Titus 2:6 asks us to watch the younger men, but this can apply to all who are growing in Christ.

6 Likewise keep on exhorting the younger men to be sound in mind,

1 Peter 1:13-16

13 So think clearly and exercise self-control. Look forward to the gracious salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world.
14 So you must live as God’s obedient children. Don’t slip back into your old ways of living to satisfy your own desires. You didn’t know any better then.
15 But now you must be holy in everything you do, just as God who chose you is holy.
16 For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.”

We are also exhorted in 1 Peter 1:13 to 16 to live a life which is built on understanding of who and where you are to keep that which drives the understanding, exercised and on the right path. In other words think about what you are doing, fill your mind with the right stuff to enable you to carry on in the right path as God has asked.

Various versions of the Bible translate the scripture above differently, it is good to get an all round view of what God is asking. Verse 13 in one version says;

13 Hence brace up your minds for activity, keep your senses completely.

I like the idea of preparing your mind for activity, bracing it up ready for the struggle ahead, and to keep all your senses whole and alert. This goes on to verse 14, which translates as follows from the Amplified Bible.

4[Live] as children of obedience [to God]; do not conform yourselves to the evil desires [that governed you] in your former ignorance [when you did not know the requirements of the Gospel].

Ignorance is an apt word and one I prefer. It means a lack of understanding and knowledge, as Christians we are in a place where ignorance is not a defense, we have had our minds changed, the blindness taken away so we know the path of sin is to destruction, the path of self satisfaction is one of death and the only road to salvation is through Jesus Christ.

When you put your mind to it God will open His. It is His will that we shouldn’t be ignorant, what is the point of blind followers, God wants so much more for us. Luke 24:45 is a good testament to this.

45 Then he opened up their minds fully to grasp the meaning of the Scriptures,

When you set your mind to reading the scripture God will bless you with understanding and revelation, if you truly want God to bless you then think on and meditate on the scripture, get it into your mind. As we are told in Romans 8:5;

5 For those who are in accord with the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those in accord with the spirit on the things of the spirit.

Conclusion

I think there are two verses in the Bible, which set us on the right path to eternal life, one being John 3:16 which gives us a concise view of the enormity of Gods love He has for us and the clear Gospel message. The other is Romans 12:2, which gives us a simple, yet challenging call. All God asks is for us to believe on Christ Jesus and follow His example. The Gospel starts with Him and is fulfilled in the minds of those He calls. It’s never too late to change your mind.

John 3:16 (Amplified Bible)

16 For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.

Romans 12:2 (Amplified Bible)

2 Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you].