serve God with a willing mind

            When Jesus walked this earth, He dispelled the notion that one could keep the law of God by maintaining outwardly moral behavior.  “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!  For ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men's bones, and of all uncleanness.  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity” (Matt. 23:27-28).  Our Lord taught that lust is adultery and that anger constitutes murder (Matt. 5:22-28).

So it was already in the Old Testament.  “Man looks on the outward appearance, but I look on the heart,” God reminded Samuel (I Sam. 16:7).  “So know the God of your father,” elderly David instructed newly-crowned Solomon in I Chronicles 28:9, “and serve Him with a perfect heart and a willing mind; for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts.”

            The word “disciple” is often equated with the word “follower.”  While “follower” is a helpful synonym, the word “disciple” comes from the Latin word which means “pupil.”  A disciple is first one who learns, one who uses his mind.  So David instructed Solomon first to know God. 

It is not enough, then, that a disciple bring his body into subjection.  We are called to discipline our minds as well.

            “Love God with all your heart, soul, and strength.  And these words [God’s law] which I command you today, shall be in your heart,” declares Moses in Deut. 6.  “By the word ‘heart,’” writes John Calvin, “he designates the memory and other faculties of the mind.”  What follows is the command to study God’s Word, to engage in constant conversation about it with our children, and to meditate on it when we are at home, when we are out and about, when we lay down at night, and when we rise in the morning.  The very first Psalm affirms: Blessed is the man who meditates in God’s law day and night (Psalm 1:2).

Do you exercise your mind unto godliness? 

“Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be,” Paul writes in Romans 8.

The word “enmity” means “active hatred.”  How do we battle the active hatred of God that seeks to fill our minds?  Though we live in an earthly body, the weapons of our warfare are not earthly (2 Cor 10).  The Spirit of God is the weapon (Eph. 6) that enables us to do the will of God from the heart, that is mighty to pull down strongholds, “casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor 10).”

Are you led by the Spirit of God? (Romans 8)  That Spirit is a Spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, a mind whose every thought is captive not to our sinful natures, but to Christ (2 Tim. 1).