2nd Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
A sound mind, as referred to in the above passage is not what most people may understand it to be. It is not merely the state of not being mad, nor is it the mind that possesses good reasoning powers. Having a giant intellect or the ability to invent things, or the ability to philosophize eloquently isn’t necessarily a sign that a person has a sound mind.
In fact, some of the great Greek philosophers who have been revered by millions, and who have made many contributions to humanistic modes of thought, and the secular understanding of this world would be designated as being partially off their rockers as far as the scriptural definition of a sound mind is concerned.
Men such as Pythagoras, Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Xenophon, and Diogenes all made contributions to human modes of thought and understanding, but it is no guarantee that they possessed the sound mind that is referenced in the scriptures.
In fact, one such Greek philosopher, Epicurus, who founded a brand of philosophy called Epicureanism, taught his students that the greatest good is to seek modest pleasures so that they could attain a state of tranquility, freedom from fear, and absence from bodily pain. This philosophy is not the product of a sound mind, according to the scriptures.
A sound mind, according to the Bible is one that is Divinely balanced through the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, one that is temperate in all that is good; a mind that is prudent, that brings all of the feelings, emotions and propensities of fallen human nature under the jurisdiction of Bible truth.
When persons come into the possession of a sound mind, the brain remains where it should be, at the very top of the human anatomy, and the biological urges are all brought into obedience to the word of God, even if doing so would go contrary to popular thinking, or acceptable norms. Let’s read:
1st Corinthians 9:25 And every man that strives for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.
26 I therefore so run, not as uncertainly; so fight I, not as one that beats the air;
27 But I keep my body under and bring it into
subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23 Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24 And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
2nd Peter 1:5 And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge;
6 And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness;
7 And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity.
8 For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
The temptations that abound in the world attempt to bring the mind into subjection to the lower laws of pleasure, feelings, and emotions, and wherever the principle of pleasure is adopted, impulsiveness will inevitably characterize our actions.
Thus, the work of God in giving us a sound mind, is to develop in each believer, the ability and capacity to not only reason along scriptural lines, but also to bring every thought, word, and deed into subjection to the laws of God, through the indwelling of The Holy Spirit. This constitutes both the purposes, and the original intentions of the plan of salvation. Let’s read:
Hebrews 8: 10 For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.
2nd Corinthians 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;
5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
Therefore, the study for today will focus squarely on the battle for the mind as it plays out in our own life experiences, and what we need to do, to cooperate with the ongoing work of the Holy Ghost. However, there are some givens that we must be aware of up front so as to better understand what is involved in having and maintaining a sound mind.
[1] We will encounter external, and internal foes.
The assaults against our minds do not only come from the outside, they also come from within, for the natural man doesn’t naturally possess ability to govern his impulses. The pulling and tugging that we experience in our minds where the good strives against evil is not a naturally occurring syndrome.
It is the result of the enmity against evil which God had to put within us after the fall of man, and thus, the battle for the mind confronts latent and active tendencies in human nature which are sometimes aroused by external forces or internal cravings. It is important to know the nature of the battle so that we may understand what winning looks like. Let’s read:
Galatians 5:16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
Romans 8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
To be carnally minded and to walk after the flesh is essentially one and the same thing, for it means to be governed by the senses, impulses, and feelings, which in turn will drive our decision making process. A person thus controlled may appear to be strong, for the outward manifestations will savor of self- opinionatedness.
But in fact the strength of a man is not measured by the feelings and impulses which control him, but by the propensities and urges which he controls. Thus, whenever you see a person being governed by his or her impulses and feelings, there you’ll have one who does not have a sound mind, as is the case now in high and low places.
In the garden of Eden when Adam and Eve fell, the sin that was committed was more extensive than a mere eating of forbidden fruit. What did occur was that damage was done to our senses, those tools we use to navigate through this world, and once the five senses were severely compromised, decisions began to be made on what was seen, heard, tasted, felt, and smelled.
There are grocery chains which have capitalized on this weakness of human nature, by pumping the smell of freshly baked bread or other foods into the isles where shoppers congregate. And as the scent wafts upon the air and our sense of smell picks it up, some decide to buy bread, even though it may not have been on the grocery list.
The same is true for what we see. Pornography has become a deep seated formidable vice with many in the secular world and also in the church, and we are not merely referring to the young, and the restless. It’s affecting elders, pastors, Bible workers, deacons and clergy of all stripes.
Politicians, and government workers, and even the married are not immune either, for the vice has all but permeated the entire spectrum of our society. Based upon that which appeals to the sense of sight decisions are made to succumb to desire and before you know it many persons become addicted to the porn god, and the mind is led captive at satan’s will.
The very same scenario is repeated, and played out in the indulgence of the other senses. The battle for the mind is essentially to either get persons to live, choose and act based upon the biological urges of the flesh; or on the contrary, to have our minds to be governed by the word of God and by the power of His indwelling Spirit.
This takes us to the very next area of concern in the battle for the mind:
[2] Choice
Though we are born with latent tendencies which naturally tend to drag us down, it is a fact that we can still choose. A person living in a drug infested area is not bound by such circumstances to an iron destiny, in which they have no other choice but to do drugs.
Others do not struggle with drugs, but they have their own set of problems with the clamors of the flesh which strive for the mastery. Some folks have a food fight on their hands, and try as they might, it seems as if the battle is lost, just as many times as they try to win.
The problem just keeps coming at us day in, day out, and even though some know what is the right choice to make, yet it seems to be very difficult to do so on a consistent, ongoing basis. In fact, in most cases, the main issue some persons face with food may not have anything to do with knowledge; it is the will to choose rightly, and to keep on doing so.
After a motivational speaker comes through, and delivers a pep talk to energize and encourage, we may begin to implement those choices that we are already aware of. That is all well and good, but as the months go by, we find will power waning, and before you know it we have taken one step forward and two steps backward.
This forms a fundamental part of the battle for the mind, and after dealing with the issues we confront from day to day, we will turn our attention to what the Bible says, as it pertains to living victoriously on a continuum. Let’s read:
Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man.
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
This is the conundrum Esau faced as he was about to make the decision of a lifetime. Esau was not doing drugs, he was doing food, and thus it was a naturally occurring biological urge that did him in. If one has experienced fierce pangs of hunger, that urge to eat is not a sin.
The problem occurs if we decide to eat things that are contrary to the revealed will of God, because of our hunger. And it goes even deeper, because like Adam and Eve, we sometimes find ourselves eating even when we are not hungry.
Thus, as Esau mulled the choice before him, to eat contrary to sound judgment, or to wait until he can eat with a clear conscience, he decided to go with the former, and as a result, he gave the control of his mind to the lower laws of impulse, biological urges, and cravings.
For this he is described in the Bible as being profane, because he sold the immortal inheritance for some temporary satisfaction, and thus he lost the battle for the mind. Whenever persons discover that their decisions are being driven by urges, whether those urges are good or bad, there you have a problem on your hands that will need to be addressed, sooner rather than later. Let’s read:
Hebrews 12:16 Lest there be any fornicator, or profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.
17 For ye know how that afterward, when he would have inherited the blessing, he was rejected: for he found no place of repentance, though he sought it carefully with tears.
When we feel very hungry, very thirsty, and very horny, there we are confronted with good trouble, for on the one hand, there is nothing wrong with those urges, but on the other hand, the way we do fulfill them will make all the difference in the battle for our minds.
If most of us were to level with ourselves, we would have to acknowledge that we have failed miserably in many of the struggles we have to meet, for there are internal as well as external foes that are striving for the mastery of our minds. Thus, it is important that the remedies and methods found in Christ and His word be adopted and appropriated.
The power of God is granted to every true believer so that we may protect the new mind which Jesus gives us as a gift. The work and the plan of salvation is not far-fetched nor slipshod by any means. It was designed to develop a formidable mind through the presence and power of the Holy Ghost.
When this new mind is given to us, it is empowered to withstand multiple assaults from without or from within, and those latent tendencies which do scream for attention are held in subjection by the power of the indwelling Christ. That new mind is described as a fortress which Christ holds in a revolted world.
Thus, in order to live victoriously on an ongoing basis, we must first renounce that fatal sophistry of devils, which suggests that it is impossible for us to overcome. If this were the case, then the original intent of God in restoring His image in us would be in vain, and the plan of salvation would not have any real meaning in the most literal sense.
Christians who believe in Jesus can absolutely live victoriously, regardless of how much the flesh may clamor for satisfaction. The clamors are not sin, and we will have to deal with the fact that they are real, but what is more real is the power of Christ unto salvation, which can harness and bridle those urges so that our minds remain in control.
This is where obedience and self-denial come in, for there can be no victory without cooperating with the work God is doing in our hearts. There are times when our internal and external foes might mount a military campaign against our souls, but with their onset comes the power of God to counteract and keep them at bay. This promise is given us in the Bible. Let’s read:
Isaiah 59:19 So shall they fear the name of the Lord from the west, and his glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.
Romans 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
37 Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.
38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Again, we must avoid dwelling on our weaknesses and failings, for doing so will always have the effect of lessening the prospect of victory in our minds. It is a fact that if we want to win, we will have to think like a winner, and the power of the indwelling Christ is promised to all, who like Paul, would strive for the mastery.
There is no need for us to tell God how evil we are; He already knows this, and thus, the confession of sin from the Biblical perspective ought also to be an acknowledgment that we need the help which God alone can give. This will call for prayer and vigilance on an ongoing basis, but the promise is given to all who persevere, that God will keep our minds by His power. Let’s read:
Jude 1:24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
25 To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.
Last but not least, is the material we allow our minds to feed on, for by beholding we will become changed. If we fill our minds with carnal, sensual things that’s what we will dwell upon and inevitably regurgitate when the right circumstances convene.
But if we fill our minds with Biblical truths, and if we habitually seek God earnestly, He will habituate our minds to dwell on that which is good and right. The battle for the mind can either be won or lost by that which we feed it and therefore it is incumbent upon every believer to guard well the senses, lest through carelessness or indifference, enemies enter within the gates.
We therefore end with a passage of scripture that reminds us to make wise choices in what we feed our minds, for if we feed it good, righteousness will almost always be the result, but if we feed it evil, then sin will inevitably conquer. Let’s read:
Philippians 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.
God Bless!