Maintaining a Heavenly Mindset - Part 1

A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. (Romans 8:5-7, NKJV)

THERE IS A NEED FOR THIS. Temptation begins with a thought. The very first recording of the wiles of the devil reveals that he labors to deceive and tempt us by attacking our thoughts; our minds. “Then the serpent said to the woman, ‘You will not surely die’” (Gen 3:4). If Satan can get your mind thinking in the wrong direction by alluring you with the lusts of deceit, he can then watch as you will fulfill those fleshly desires. He attacks the mind. There is a need for you to keep a heavenly and holy mindset, that is, a mind focused on things above, not on things on the earth. For all that is in the world - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life - is not of the Father but is of the world. And the world is passing away, and the lust of it” (1 Jn 2:16-17). Therefore our minds have to get above this world and into the world to come.

The greatest commandment, Jesus said, is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Mt 22:37). Our loving the Lord is done with our heart, soul, and mind. A mind that drifts into the things of the world will surely be captivated by the god of this world. It is a mind set in the wrong domain. There is need for our minds to be lifted up to a higher domain; into another world, that is, the one to come. Our mind must be set there because that is where our Lord is.

If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set you mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:1-3)

It is right, then, for us to maintain a heavenly mindset because that is where we have been placed; that is where our home is; that is where our citizenship is.

VAIN THINKING AND ALIENATION FROM GOD. Associated with the condition of being “lost” or “dead in trespasses and sins” is this matter of vain thinking. Those outside of Christ set their minds on meaningless things. Their thoughts are futile and shallow. And all of their wisdom, if compiled together, would still fall short of coming to the knowledge of God. This is the lot of those outside of Christ and is inappropriate for those who have come to Christ and have been taught by Him.

This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, having given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. (Ephesians 4:17-19)

The multiplicity of sin and alienation from God begin with the futility of the mind - vain thinking. Those who do not know God are slaves to their futile minds due to unbelief. They cannot come any higher than the earth because their thinking does not allow it. It is true of them that their minds have been blinded by the god of this world (2 Cor 3:14; 4:4). And because they “did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind” (Rom 1:28). They did not receive a love of the truth so as to be saved and so God sent upon them a deluding influence that they may believe a lie. For “the wicked in his proud countenance does not seek God; God is in none of his thoughts” (Ps 10:4). And you too experienced this, for you were once “alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works” (Col 1:21). 

But do not think that you are exempt from the temptation to fall back into this trap. Take heed, lest you fall. Even Israel of old came to a point where they had “forgotten the God of [their] salvation” and were not “mindful of the Rock of [their] stronghold” (Isa 17:10). Thus, the apostle Paul out of his concern wrote the Corinthians saying, “But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Cor 11:3). Yes, brethren, it is needful for us to maintain a heavenly mindset.

SALVATION PROVIDES THIS MINDSET. In salvation we are given a heavenly mindset. One of the first things on the agenda of salvation was to change our mindset from a downward spiral to an upward climb. We were like the man possessed by “Legion” and dwelling in the land of the dead. We had to be kept under guard and bound by chains and shackles because if freed we would do wrong.  But upon meeting Jesus we were delivered from that state and were given a “right mind” (Lk 8:35).

This mind that we are given is “a sound mind” (2 Tim 1:7) and “a pure mind” that can be stirred up by thinking upon the things of the Lord (2 Pet 3:1).  It is a mind in which God has placed His Law (Heb 8:10; 10:16). Indeed, upon being saved, “we have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16).

All progress in Christ requires that this has taken place. There is no growth or advancement in the kingdom that can take place without us having a new mind. For, prior to this we only had a carnal mind which is enmity with God and cannot be subject to His Law and cannot receive the things of the Spirit (1 Cor 2:14). But having the mind of Christ is having fertile soil for the seed of the word of God resulting in growth and fruit-bearing. Thus, in Christ, you are instructed to put off the old man and put on the new man “being renewed in the Spirit of your mind” (Eph 4:23). We are no more conformed to the pattern of this world but are being transformed by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2).