The Mind

     The Christian battle is fought in the mind.  We are told to defeat the conforming work of the world system by constantly renewing our minds.  We are told to take every thought captive to obedience to Christ.  We are told to have the mind of Christ.  "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."  The significance of that truth is that the ultimate goal of Christian discipleship is not right behavior but right thinking.  I fear that at times we become so focused on application of Scripture--a process that can be influenced by man's opinion--that we fail to implant the necessary truths into the minds of God's people.  A steady diet of the meat of the Word is essential to right behavior for it is the truths of Scripture that are the sword of the Spirit.  The incidents of the Old Testaments are examples that need to be planted into Christian minds so that the Spirit can use them to warn and instruct.  The psalms are the songs that need to be planted into our minds so the Spirit can put a song in our hearts.  The Gospels show us exactly how God would act in every situation so the Spirit can clearly delineate for us what Christ-likeness actually means.  The doctrines and instruction of both the Old and New Testaments are the commandments and principles that need to be implanted in our minds so that the Spirit can guide us into all truth--the truth that alone can set us free from the chains of sinful living.  I'm afraid that when those who have been taught God's Word do not apply it, it is not that they don't know how, it is because they simply don't want to.  They are in rebellion to the work of God's Spirit in their hearts.  To think that their behavior is because we have taught them too much Scripture is absurd.  You cannot know too much Scripture.  You cannot teach the same truths too many times.  You cannot over saturate someone with God's Word.
     To win the spiritual battle, the mind must be fortified with the sanctifying truth of God's Word.  The Spirit must have a lethal, two-edged sword to wield in the life of the Christian.  Wrong behavior is the result of wrong attitudes.  Wrong attitudes come from an incomplete knowledge of God's truth.