I Corinthians 14.20
“Do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature.”
All of us are developing a mind with which we think and reason about life. This is God’s intent. God created us as thinking and decision-making beings. Thinking is an essential attribute of the image of God in man.
Your mind – the way you think – is a key factor in the process of spiritual transformation. The passage from Romans 12 puts “the renewal of your mind” squarely in the center of how we change and grow as Christians.
“I appeal to you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that you may prove what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” (Romans 12.1-2)
Ephesians 4 teaches precisely the same thing.
“Put off your old nature, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and, through the renewal of your mind, put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.” (Ephesians 4.22-24)
Do you get the picture? Spiritual transformation is a mental process. Avoiding the influences and pressures of the world around us is a mental process. Putting off the old sinful nature and putting on our new nature in Christ is a mental process.
It makes sense, of course. Every action and attitude in our life begins first as a thought in our mind. If our thinking is guided by the old nature, we will live and act according to the old nature. But if our thinking is guided by our new nature in Christ, then we will live and act according to our new nature in Christ.
This is why Paul says to “take every thought captive to obey Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10.5)
Scripture is clear: The central discipline for spiritual transformation is renewing the mind. A transformed life requires a transformed mind. It’s a biblical principle: Where your mind goes, you go. Or to put it another way, whatever gets your mind, gets you.
Trust God and get your mind right.
