Bible Articles
A Renewed Mind
A Renewed Mind
And behold, a lawyer stood up to put him to the test, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” He said to him, “What is written in the Law? How do you read it?” And he answered, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” And he said to him, “You have answered correctly; do this, and you will live.”
(Luke 10:25-28, ESV)
Just prior to this encounter with the lawyer, Jesus chose seventy-two disciples to go ahead of Him to heal the sick and proclaim: “the kingdom of God has come near you.” These disciples did exactly what He instructed and returned to Him with great joy in their hearts. They were elated at the fact demons were subject to them when confronted in Jesus’ name. Jesus responded, “Do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” Later, Luke says Jesus rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and thanked God He had hidden “these things” from the wise and understanding of the world and had revealed them to his disciples. The “high-minded” world rejected Jesus and His teaching, whereas the disciples humbly accepted Him and His instruction.
The lawyer’s response to Jesus’ question was to quote Deut. 6:5, but he added the requirement “all your mind” (V. 27). Curiously, Jesus did not correct the man, but responded, “you have answered correctly.” Jesus did not emend the man’s answer because He wanted the man to understand his devotion to God had to involve his mind. Jesus wanted the man to understand the mind has always been involved when one pursues the will of God.
Consider this: Many misunderstand the spiritual role of the mind as it relates to our relationship with God. The atheist, agnostic and humanist would have you believe faith is simply a crutch for those with a feeble, uneducated or ill-informed mind. On the other hand, many “religious” people would try to convince you faith is more about “feelings” or “inner peace” and that it practically excludes involvement of the rational mind. The Bible would teach us something altogether different from either opinion.
Paul said, “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:2, emphasis mine). God has always desired His people to be different from the world, but here Paul tells us this differentiation involves rational thinking. He is teaching us we must use our intelligence, rationality and reasoning to determine God’s will and what is well-pleasing to Him. In other words, our faith involves the heart, soul and mind. When our mind is renewed, service rendered to God will be different than before; our actions will reflect a changed mind and heart.
How do we develop a renewed mind? Being born again to a living hope, Peter says we must prepare our minds for action and we must be sober-minded (1 Pet. 1:13). In other words, we train our mind with knowledge of God’s word, and we employ that educated mind in faithfully obeying Him.
-Lance Bowman
