Light of Life Ministry

The Battle for the Mind

By Lanny Carpenter

Ephesians 4:17-20 So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must
no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are
darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because
of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having
lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to so as to indulge in
every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more. You, however, did not
come to know Christ that way. Surely you heard of him and were taught in
him in accordance with the truth that is in Jesus. You were taught, with
regard to your former way of life, to put off your old self, which is being
corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude of your
minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness
and holiness.
The Dilemma though wicked Ephesus is your
home, stop living like them. This
Since the beginning of time, God and command implies that the Ephesian
Satan have been locked in battle for Christians were still battling with the
the minds of the human race. It old life.
started in the Garden of Eden, and
has not been completed as of yet. At The Unregenerate Mind
Calvary, God won a decisive battle The Condition of the
through Jesus’ death and Mind - Vanity
resurrection. Another fatal blow was
dealt on the Day of Pentecost, when The mind is the beginning point for
God the Holy Spirit became us to understand the predicament.
personally involved in the lives of Paul does not begin with our
believers. But in recent years, Satan behavior. It is not a problem with
has begun to gain precious ground our environment; it is not a problem
through the sadistic lies he continues of our biological structure; it is not
to spread. The Apostle Paul describes even a problem of “nature or
this battleground extensively nurture.” The problem begins in our
throughout his epistles, but none as mind.
clear as in the letter to the church at The word mind encompasses the
Ephesus. He describes in vivid detail reason, the understanding, the
the hold that Satan has on the minds conscience, and the affections. What
of men, and how we as Christians are we believe affects the way we
to be different. Paul’s command in behave. When our reason is awry,
verse 17 is literally, "Stop living as our understanding is without light,
the Gentiles do." Stop living as our conscience is limited, and our
everyone else in your culture; even
affections are turned inward, then our
behavior will be displeasing to God.
Paul describes the condition of those
without Christ as futility of thinking
(better mind). Futility carries the
idea of emptiness as to its results, in
other words, bankrupt. The secular
mind’s thinking results in an
emptiness, an aimlessness, a lacks the vital data to make the
uselessness. It is the waste of the
rational powers on worthless objects.
The problem with the unregenerate
person is that his mind has departed
from the knowledge of the true God.
Man knew God, but departed from
him. “For although they knew God,
they neither glorified him as God nor
gave thanks to him, but their thinking
became futile” (Romans 1:21). This
departure resulted in futile thinking,
which ended in wrong behavior. “It
is God’s will that you should be
sanctified: that you should avoid
sexual immorality; that each of you
should learn to control his own body
in a way that is holy and honorable,
not in passionate lust like the
heathen, who do not know God . . .”
(I Thessalonians 4:3-5). Our actions
flow from our thoughts, so if our
thought life is futile and pointless,
then our actions will be likewise
irrational.
Paul also says they are darkened in
their understanding. This implies
that they have been partakers of life
and light, i.e., before the Fall, and it
also speaks of a condition which is
permanent as far as their own power
to change it. They are without the
faculty of discernment, and are
unable to clearly distinguish between
right and wrong. “For although they
knew God, they neither glorified him
as God nor gave thanks to him, but
their thinking became futile”
(Romans 1:21). Counselors, psy-
chologists, and psychiatrists - their
solutions to men’s problems are
flawed, futile, and frustrated. To try
to change a person’s behavior when
he is operating with a materialistic,
secular, depraved mind is futile. Man
proper changes.
The Cause of the Condition
of the Mind – Alienation
The cause of the condition of the
unregenerate mind all started with
the Fall of man. Satan’s lie to Adam
and Eve centered on their mind. "For
God knows that when you eat of it
your eyes will be opened, and you
will be like God, knowing good and
evil" (Genesis 3:5). By telling them
that their eyes will be opened Satan
meant that they would have more
knowledge. "Be like God, knowing
good and evil" means they would
have enough knowledge to be self-
sufficient. Adam and Eve certainly
desired the fruit to gain more
wisdom. “When the woman saw that
the fruit of the tree was . . . desirable
for gaining wisdom . . . she took
some and ate it. She also gave some
to her husband, who was with her,
and he ate it” (Genesis 3:6-7). They
bought into Satan’s lie. The result
was their fall from God’s grace and
separation from God.
It is the same lie that Satan expounds
today. In Secular Humanism, man
says: "There is no deity to help us;
we must help ourselves.” In
Postmodernism, man says: "There is
no absolute truth; we must create our
own.” In New Age philosophy, man
says: "There is no Christian deity; I
am my own God."
Man also revolted from the
revelation of God. Separated from
the life of God is better translated
“separated himself from the life of
God,” and implies a willful
separation. Man made the separation
from God, not God from man. The
separation has gotten wider as man’s
mind has gotten darker. As we all
know very well, a choice made often
becomes a habit.
Their alienation was also a result of
their ignorance, their lack of
knowledge of God. Men are born in
moral, ethical, and spiritual stupidity.
But they also willfully turn from
God, refusing to accept the
knowledge of Him.
Unregenerate man’s alienation was a
result of their hardness of heart as
well. Literally, the word for
hardening means “a callous, a
hardening of the skin so as not to be
sensible to touch.” They are
calloused to feeling, having lost
sensitivity to all moral principles and
practices, and are morally
unresponsive. Their hardness to the
spiritual things of God has caused the
gap between them and God to widen.
The Consequences of the
Condition of the Mind –
Degradation
One consequence of the unregenerate
mind is that the person is past any
spiritual sensitivity. Having lost all
sensitivity means such persons had
become insensitive to moral and
spiritual impressions. They have
become insensitive to the appeal of
truth. “Such teachings come through
hypocritical liars, whose consciences
have been seared as with a hot iron”
(I Timothy 4:2).
Another consequence is that they
abandon themselves to moral
perversion. Paul said “they have
given themselves over to so as
to indulge in every kind of impurity,
with a continual lust for more.” In
other words, there is no sense of
shame or decency. They indulge
themselves in pleasure for pleasure’s
sake, living only to feel good. It
becomes a narcotic, deadening the
pain of futility, blindness, and
alienation. All moral restraint is
scorned; they do not have the
resources to restrain themselves.
Their desires are insatiable.
Are you still trying to hang on to the
lifestyle you followed before you
became a Christian? The Bible says
that it is not possible to do so. "You
adulterous people, don’t you know
that friendship with the world is
hatred toward God? Anyone who
chooses to be a friend of the world
becomes an enemy of God" (James
4:4). "Do not love the world or
anything in the world. If anyone
loves the world, the love of the
Father is not in him" (I John 2:15).
When a person becomes a Christian,
he desires to cut himself off from the
system of this world. Although the
world continues to tempt us from
time to time, we are to forsake
Satan’s evil system. But how do we
do that?
The Regenerate Mind
As we see from out text, Paul
reminds us that we did learn a
different way. As Christians we are
to look, talk, and act different from
the world. Our acceptance of Christ
means we have accepted a new
lifestyle. The mind of the believer is
the place where the control of his
new life starts. The mind is not
fallow, but fertile soil, and so must
be cultivated, or it will become a
briar patch of tangled thoughts.
Believers are renewed in their mind,
and this process begins a whole new
life.
What is Renewal of the Mind?
Again, for the regenerate person, we
must begin with the mind. Paul tells
us that the old man, the sin nature,
has been put off. The old man was a
process of corruption. In salvation,
that old man has been crucified with
Christ. “For we know that our old
self was crucified with him so that
the body of sin might be done away
with, that we should no longer be
slaves to sin . . .” (Romans 6:6). “I
have been crucified with Christ and I
no longer live, but Christ lives in me.
The life I live in the body, I live by
faith in the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me”
(Galatians 2:20). “Those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified
the sinful nature with its passions and
desires” (Galatians 5:24). The old
man has been reckoned dead. “In the
same way, count yourselves dead to
sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your
mortal body so that you obey its evil
desires” (Romans 6:11-12).
It was the old man who controlled
our minds. The old nature was futile,
darkened, and ignorant. (Ephesians
4:17-18) The old man is also
depraved. “Furthermore, since they
did not think it worthwhile to retain
the knowledge of God, he gave them
over to a depraved mind, to do what
ought not to be done” (Romans
1:28). Paul used the word corrupt to
describe the old man. “If anyone
teaches false doctrines and does not
agree to the sound instruction of our
Lord Jesus Christ and to godly
teaching, he is conceited and
understands nothing. He has an
unhealthy interest in controversies
and quarrels about words that result
in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil
suspicions and constant friction
between men of corrupt mind, who
have been robbed of the truth and
who think that godliness is a means
to financial gain” (I Timothy 6:3-5).
That old nature is blinded. “The god
of this age has blinded the minds of
unbelievers, so that they cannot see
the light of the gospel of the glory of
Christ, who is the image of God” (II
Corinthians 4:4).
What is Paul talking about when he
says we are “to be made new in the
attitude (or, spirit) of [our] minds”?
The operative word here is the word
translated “to be made new.” It
refers to a renewal of the mind. It is
in the continual and progressive
voice, and means to continually
undergo a restoration process. This
renewal is to take place in the mind.
The mind is the seat of reflective
consciousness and intelligence. The
mind is the faculty of moral
judgment. Therefore, spirituality
centers in the mind.
The mind is also that attitude and
disposition which determines
behavior and conduct. With the
mind we have the power to refocus
the way we live. Jesus said, "For out
of the heart come evil thoughts,
murder, adultery, sexual immorality,
theft, false testimony, slander. These
are what make a man `unclean’; but
eating with unwashed hands does not
make him ‘unclean’” (Matthew
15:19-20
To what does Paul refer when he
speaks of the attitude (or, spirit) of
the mind? What is it that must be
renewed? This phrase refers to the
higher life principle in man by which
the human reason viewed on its
moral side – the organ of thinking
and knowing – is informed. We
sometimes refer to it as the “inner
man.” When the spirit of the mind is
changed, it radically alters the sphere
and business of the inner mechanism
of the mind. “Do not conform any
longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind. Then you will be able
to test and approve what God’s will
is -- his good, pleasing and perfect
will" (Romans 12:2).
So let’s put this all together. What is
it that we need? First, we must have
a new birth. The new birth, referred
to as regeneration, brings about a
new way of thinking. “Therefore, if
anyone is in Christ, he is a new
creation; the old has gone, the new
has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
Reasoning is now from God’s
standpoint. The mind now directs its
bent and energies God-ward.
But that is just the beginning.
Renewal involves the continuing
process of readjusting our thinking.
It is an adjustment of our moral and
spiritual thinking to the mind of God.
That moral judgment is related to our
moral actions. It is the gradual
conforming of the person to the new
spiritual world in which he now
lives. “Therefore we do not lose
heart. Though outwardly we are
wasting away, yet inwardly we are
being renewed day by day” (2
Corinthians 4:16). In this process
the person is not passive, but is a
fellow worker with God in the
process.
What are the
Resources of Renewal?
The agent of renewal is the Holy
Spirit. God does not force us to be
renewed, but He does enable us. “He
saved us through the washing of
rebirth and renewal by the Holy
Spirit . . .” (Titus 3:5). Renewal is
the constant operation brought about
by regeneration, which comes
through the Spirit. It is not a putting
of new clothes on the old man, but a
putting of a new man in new clothes!
It is the Holy Spirit who applies
salvation to us, including its
continuous effect of renewing our
mind. “I pray that out of his glorious
riches he may strengthen you with
power through his Spirit in your
inner being . . .” (Ephesians 3:16).
Through Him we subdue sin, perform
service, and walk in God’s ways. He
gives us spiritual perception of the
things we learn.
The instrument of renewal is the
Bible. The Holy Spirit uses the
Word to renew us. We are to be
constantly and continually appro-
priating new truth. “Like newborn
babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so
that by it you may grow up in your
salvation, now that you have tasted
that the Lord is good” (I Peter 2:2-3;
cf. I Peter 1:23). As the Word of
God comes into our souls and gives
us life, our human viewpoint is
replaced by a divine viewpoint.
The subject of renewal is Christ.
Paul said in verses 20-21, “You,
however, did not come to know
Christ that way. Surely you heard of
him and were taught in him in
accordance with the truth that is in
Jesus.” It is a learning about Him as
well as a fellowship with Him. It is
the study of Christ as He is revealed
in the academic facts about Him. It
is discovering the truths of Christ life
here on earth, and mimicking them
with our own lives. It is what we
often refer to as “becoming Christ-
like.”
What are the Results of
Renewal?
One result is that we are restored to
the image of God, becoming moral
representations of what God is. “Do
not lie to each other, since you have
taken off your old self with its
practices and have put on the new
self, which is being renewed in
knowledge in the image of its
Creator” (Colossians 3:9-10). God
wants to restore within us what
Adam and Eve were in the Garden of
Eden: moral representations of
Himself. Another result is that we
are repaired of the total loss of
righteousness and holiness, which are
attributes of the truth. When truth
comes, holiness follows. One other
result is that we are returned to true
obedience to God, living a life
pleasing to Him. It is only with
God’s enablement that we can please
Him with our life.
Conclusion
Do you resemble God? Are you
being transformed, by the renewing
of your mind, into the image of God?
If you are, you cannot conform to
this present world. You have
renounced all of its affections and
lusts in the new birth. You bear the
image of the heavenly. John Wesley
said: "Ye know that the great end of
religion is to renew our hearts in the
image of God, to repair that total loss
of righteousness and true holiness,
which we sustained by the sin of our
first parents. Ye know that all
religion that does not answer this
end, all that stops short of this, the
renewal of our soul in the image of
God, after the likeness of Him that
created it, is no other than a poor
farce, and a mere mockery of God, to
the destruction of our own soul.”