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Scripture Reading: Gal. 4:19; Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:17-24
In this chapter we go on to consider the renewing of the mind. In the previous chapters we saw that in our Christian life we are transformed gradually into the Lord’s image (2 Cor. 3:18). We were made in God’s image (Gen. 1:26). God has a mind, emotion, and will (cf. Eph 1:11; Rom. 9:13; Rev. 4:11), and because He created us in His image, He also gave us a mind, emotion, and will. This image, however, is simply outward and is not the image that Paul refers to in 2 Corinthians 3:18. Until we have been regenerated by the Lord coming into our spirit to be our life, the image we share with God remains superficial. Before we are regenerated, although we may bear the outward image of God, He is not our inward content. Only when we are regenerated does the Lord come into our spirit and begin to spread into every part of our being to become the content of our entire being, particularly our soul. When He comes into our spirit, our spirit is immediately transformed into His image. Then as the Lord dwells within us, He gradually transforms us by becoming the content of our inward being, particularly our mind, emotion, and will. Today God is waiting for a chance to spread into every part of our entire being so that we may be transformed into His image in a full way. We must cooperate with God’s desire by practicing to give Him a free way to spread Himself into every part of our being.
In our daily life the mind is the controlling part of our being. Regardless of its condition, the mind controls our life and being. In the fourth chapter of Ephesians, Paul speaks of the Gentiles, who “walk in the vanity of their mind” (v. 17). For us to walk in the vanity of the mind is to allow the vanity of the mind to control us. To walk in the vanity of the mind is to be under the rule, direction, and control of a mind that is full of vanity. People who have such a mind love the world, money, and other vain things. Such persons’ daily lives are under the control of the mind of vanity. We must realize that it is possible for us to remain under the control of the old man even after we have been regenerated. Although our spirit was renewed and became a new creation at the time we were regenerated, it is quite possible that we are still old in our mind. If this is our case, that is a sign that our mind has not yet been transformed or renewed.
In this chapter we want to consider the question, “How can our mind be renewed?” The answer to this question is critical, because the renewing of the mind affects the entire Christian life. For example, most Christians desire to overcome their sins. Yet they may not realize that overcoming sin is closely linked with the renewing of the mind. If we neglect the experience of the renewing of the mind, it will be difficult for us to overcome sins. On the other hand, if we experience the renewing of the mind and are transformed into the Lord’s image, it will be easy for us to overcome all kinds of sins. If we will simply be renewed in our mind and transformed into the Lord’s image, so many things in our Christian life will become easy to us. Hence, the kind of Christian life that we have depends largely upon whether our mind is being renewed day by day.
When we love a person with the deepest love, we eventually walk, act, and think like that person. After a husband and wife have loved each other for an extended period of time, they are of the same mind, attitude, and desire. This is an indication that real love causes two people to be of one mind. If a wife truly loves her husband, that love will constrain her to think as her husband thinks, act as her husband acts, and do things as the husband does. If she never thinks, acts, and does things as he does, that is a sign that the love she has for him is probably not real. This illustration, however, is limited, for no matter how much the husband loves his wife and she loves him, they cannot actually enter into each other as the Lord has entered into us. The Lord has entered into us and is now in us (2 Cor. 13:5). We are joined to the Lord, and He and we are one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). Our indwelling Lord is waiting for us to be renewed, transformed, into His image by Himself with His resurrection life. We must come to the realization that nothing is as important as the renewing of our mind. If we are going to have a real Christian life — a life in which we easily overcome all negative things and follow the Lord to do His will — we must be renewed in the mind, in the emotion, and in the will. Because the mind is the leading part of our soul, it is especially important that we be renewed in the mind.
Galatians 4:19 says, “My children, with whom I travail again in birth until Christ is formed in you.” To have Christ formed in us is to have our mind, emotion, and will renewed. When our entire soul is renewed in this way, we will not only have the mind of Christ to think as He thinks; Christ Himself will be the One who thinks in us. When Christ is formed in us, at the very moment that we think about something, He spreads from our spirit into and through our mind to become the content of our mind. Then, as He spreads, He becomes the One who thinks within us. Apparently, we are the ones thinking; actually, Christ is the One who is thinking within us. It will be the same with our emotion. When we love something or someone, we will not be loving alone; Christ within us will also be loving. Regarding our will, when we decide to do something, it will not be just we ourselves who decide; Christ within us will decide. If we experience Christ being formed in us, we will be “double people.” Although we will still be ourselves, within us another person, Christ, will be in the process of being formed within us. As this person is formed in us, He will spread into every part of our inner being. Consequently, when we think, we will have the mind of Christ; when we love, we will have the love of Christ; and when we decide, we will have the will of Christ. Christ will be not only in our spirit; He will have spread into our mind, will, and emotion. As Christ is formed within us, we are gradually transformed into His image.
Whether or not Christ is formed in us and we are transformed in our soul depends on at least three things. First, we have to love Him. When a husband and wife walk together, they often walk hand in hand. Although they are two persons, they are one in action and gesture. This indicates that they love each other. In the same way, if we love the Lord in a real way, we will desire to be the same as He is in everything. When we are about to do something, we will ask ourselves, “Is this the way that the Lord loves things? Is this the way that the Lord acts?” By checking ourselves in this way, we will naturally be adjusted in our thinking, feeling, and deciding. When we discover that our thinking is not the Lord’s thinking and that our mind is not His mind, we will give up our thinking and be adjusted by the Lord’s mind. We must submit our mind to the Lord’s mind, our emotion to the Lord’s emotion, and our will to the Lord’s will. Let us simply submit to Him. If we love the Lord in such a way, we will give Him the liberty, ground, and opportunity to occupy one part of our being after another. Our problem is that although we have been regenerated and have a heart that loves the Lord, we do not love the Lord to the fullest extent. As a result, it seems that the Lord does not have the chance to do anything in our mind, emotion, and will. The reason the Lord does not have the ground to occupy our mind is that we simply do not love Him much.
Frequently, although we do love the Lord to a certain degree, we are not one with Him. Having visited many homes throughout the years, I realize that between husbands and wives, even those who love each other, this kind of situation often exists. Although these couples often act and think as one, I have noticed that very often the husband and the wife are not one. I have seen the wife determine to do the exact opposite of her husband and vice versa. Many times we have this kind of relationship with the Lord. How many times have we told the Lord, “You go Your way; I will go mine”? If this is the state of our relationship with the Lord, not only will we fail to be renewed in our mind; our mind will become increasingly independent of the Lord, and we will shut the Lord out of our mind. If we love Him in an absolute way, however, in every situation we will look to the Lord and say, “Lord, I just love You. I want to know how You consider my situation. What is Your mind concerning this? I want to take Your mind as my mind and have Your mind spread into my mind. Because I love You so much, I want to have my mind saturated by and mingled with Your mind.” If we love the Lord in this way, we will give Him much liberty, ground, and opportunity to deal with us regarding our mind. We must love Him so that gradually our mind can be renewed, filled, saturated, and mingled with the Lord’s mind, that is, with the Lord Himself. Then when we think and consider things, people will sense that within our thinking and consideration there is the savor of Christ (cf. 2 Cor. 2:14). If we want Christ to be formed in us and if we want our minds to be renewed, we must love the Lord more.
Second, in order to be renewed, we need to remain in fellowship with the Lord. Not only should we stay in fellowship with the Lord during our times of prayer; we should keep in contact with Him even in the midst of our daily activities and conversations. When we converse with people, we should fellowship with the Lord simultaneously. Even during the busiest of times, we should remain in fellowship with the Lord. This needs our practice. Many years ago I knew a young brother who was brought to the point where he was constantly in fellowship with the Lord. This brother told me that as he walked, he would stop every block or two in order to stay in communion with the Lord. If we remain in constant fellowship with the Lord, we will give the Lord much opportunity to take possession of our mind, emotion, and will.
Third, for Christ to be formed in us, we must pray. It is not adequate for us to pray simply because we have many things to ask of the Lord. We must pray for the simple purpose of contacting the Lord and exercising our spirit.
When we listen to things, we automatically exercise our ears. When we walk or run, we automatically exercise our legs and feet. According to the same principle, if we pray, we will automatically exercise our spirit, because to pray is to exercise the spirit. Even though many times when we begin to pray, we are not in the spirit, after maybe five or ten minutes we get into the spirit. When toddlers first try to walk, they do not use their feet and legs much. But the more they practice walking, the more they use them. In the same way, if day by day we pray more, we will automatically exercise our spirit more as well. I believe that many of us have experienced that the more we pray, the more we are in the spirit and the more we grow accustomed to exercising our spirit. The more we exercise our spirit to pray, the more we open the way for the Lord as the Spirit within us to spread into all the parts of our inward being. Although we may pray to ask things of the Lord, the most important reason why we pray is to exercise our spirit to keep in contact with the Lord. If we exercise our spirit by praying in this way, our entire being will be gradually renewed, and we will be transformed into the Lord’s image.
Christ being formed in us and our being renewed in the spirit of our mind depend very much on these three matters — we must love the Lord, remain in fellowship with Him, and exercise to pray. The more we do these things, the more we will be renewed.
Many of you have learned many Christian teachings and doctrines. The burden in my heart in these chapters, however, is to fellowship with you about definite ways that you can experience the things you have learned. In other words, I am burdened that you come into the reality of what you already know.
Ephesians 4:20 says, “You did not so learn Christ.” We must pay attention to the phrase learn Christ and understand it in the proper way. To learn Christ does not mean that because Christ loved people, we should also love people. When I was a child, I was taught that because Jesus loved poor people, we must love poor people as well. I was wrongly taught that such imitation is what it means to learn Christ. To learn Christ does not mean that we imitate Him; it means that we, within whom Christ dwells, have Christ as our life in everything that we do. It means that when we think about things, we take Christ as our life subjectively and live Him out. Learning Christ is not objective — it is not simply taking the Christ who is outside of us and following His example. Rather, learning Christ is very subjective. It has everything to do with Christ being in us, dwelling in us, and being life to us. For us to learn Christ means that His mind becomes our mind, His love becomes our love, and His heart becomes our heart. We must take His mind as our mind and therefore give up our own mind. This is the right way to learn Christ.
In the next verse Paul says, “If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus” (v. 21). All the reality that is in Christ must be enjoyed by us and must become our portion. For example, love and light are realities. These realities are in Christ. Since we have been regenerated, Christ is in us. Therefore, whatever He has within Himself — in this example, love and light — has become our portion. Hence, we need to enjoy all the realities that are in Him. The way for us to enjoy these realities is given to us in verses 22 through 24. First, we must “put off...the old man.” The putting off of the old man is something that we did once for all when we were baptized. Second, we must “be renewed in the spirit of [our] mind.” This is something we must experience constantly. Third, we must “put on the new man.” Like putting off the old man, this has already been fully accomplished. Hence, we have three matters: the putting off of the old man on one side, the putting on of the new man on the other side, and the renewing of the mind in the middle. Whether or not the putting off of the old man and the putting on of the new man are real in our daily experience depends upon whether or not we experience being renewed in the spirit of our mind. Our being renewed in the spirit of our mind is the central matter.
We may know the fact and the doctrine that in Christ we have put off the old man and put on the new man, and we may realize that we are a new creation (2 Cor. 5:17) and that the old things have passed away and have become new. But in our experience, are these facts a reality to us or merely doctrine? We may frequently speak of how we were crucified with Christ, how our old man was put to death on the cross, and how we have put on Christ and are therefore in Him (Gal. 3:27). But it is quite possible that these things are merely teachings to us. It is possible that we do not know how to make these things real in our living. We must challenge ourselves and concerning these facts ask ourselves, “Is this real to me? Is it real to me that I, as the old man, have been put to death? Is it real to me that I have put on the new man?” Again, whether or not these things are made real to us depends solely upon whether or not we experience being renewed in the spirit of our mind.
The way for us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind is very simple. First, we must love the Lord. We must simply love Him with our whole being. If we love the Lord to the uttermost, He will gain the ground in us and have the full liberty to occupy our entire being. Then our mind will be very much renewed by Him. Second, we must fellowship with Him; that is, we must remain in contact with Him. Day by day and moment by moment, we should never stray out of the Lord’s presence. Rather, we should always be in His presence.
Third, we need to learn to exercise our spirit by praying. The more we pray, the more we will exercise our spirit. In the physical realm the parts of our body that we exercise the most become strong, and the parts that we rarely use remain weak. A number of years ago I became seriously ill and was confined to my bed for six months. Because I was in bed, I was unable to use my legs and feet during that time. It never occurred to me that I might not be able to walk at the end of my illness. I took for granted the fact that I could stand and walk. To my surprise, when I attempted to leave the bed, I was unable to stand up. Because I had not used my legs and feet for such a long period of time, those members of my body had become so weak that I was unable to stand. It is the same with our spirit. If you do not pray, be assured that you will remain weak in your spirit. The reason that many of you are weak when you come to the prayer meeting and the Lord’s table meeting is that you rarely pray. If you pray much day after day, when you come to the meeting, your spirit will be very strong, and it will be easy for you to pray in the meetings. We need to pray and exercise our spirit so that our spirit will become strong. In this way, the Lord as the Spirit will have an open way to spread into all the parts of our being.
In Ephesians 4 there are two expressions that describe the mind. Verse 17 speaks of the vanity of the mind, and verse 23 speaks of the spirit of the mind. These two verses describe two conditions in which it is possible for our minds to be. We can have either vanity in our mind or the spirit of our mind. What is the condition of your mind — vanity or spirit? In the minds of the people in the world there is nothing but vanity. Vanity occupies the mind of the people in the world; their minds can even be characterized by vanity. If the vanity of this world occupies our mind, our mind will remain in oldness and will never be new. Moreover, if our mind is full of vanity, it is absolutely impossible for us to grow in life even to a small degree. However, when our mind is occupied by the spirit, which, as we have seen, is expanding into our mind, we will have the spirit of the mind. When our spirit expands into our mind, our mind will no longer be occupied with vanity but with the spirit.
Let us consider the passage of the Scriptures concerning the two conditions of the mind, Ephesians 4:17-24. Please pay attention to the fact that this passage is divided into two parts. The first part, composed of verses 17 through 19, deals with the vanity of the mind. The second part, beginning with the word but in verse 20, deals with the spirit of the mind:
This therefore I say and testify in the Lord, that you no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance which is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lasciviousness to work all uncleanness in greediness. But you did not so learn Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him as the reality is in Jesus, that you put off, as regards your former manner of life, the old man, which is being corrupted according to the lusts of the deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which was created according to God in righteousness and holiness of the reality.
When vanity occupies a person’s mind, his understanding is darkened, his heart is hardened, he is alienated from the life of God, he casts away all feeling (meaning he casts away all consciousness of his conscience), and he gives himself over to sinful things. When our spirit spreads into our mind, however, our mind is renewed. With that renewing comes the reality of putting off the old man and putting on the new man. When we are renewed, we are transformed into the Lord’s image (Rom. 12:2). If you have vanity in your mind, it is possible for you to commit any kind of sin. If, on the other hand, you have the spirit in your mind, you will be renewed, transformed, into the Lord’s image.
May the Holy Spirit show us the two ways of conducting ourselves in our daily life. The first way is to be controlled and directed by the vanity of the mind, that is, by the mind of vanity. The second way is to live and walk in the spirit of our mind, that is, by a mind that is of the spirit. If we take the way of being renewed in the spirit of our mind, we will be led to a point where we will be very much like the Lord — we will be transformed into His image. This wonderful and beautiful transformation takes place through our being renewed in the spirit of our mind. Our mind needs to be renewed from being a mind that is full of vanity to a mind that is full of the spirit. Then we will be delivered from all sinful things, transferred into the kingdom of His marvelous light (1 Pet. 2:9), and transformed into the image of the Lord.
