8 Double-Minded

one has truly repented, there is going to be demonstrable change in the direction, quality, and course of their life. Therefore, if we have not seen a change in someone, we have every reason to suspect that there really hasn’t been a metanoia, a repentance, a change of mind. Through a new birth, a new nature, and a new life, we are on the way to being able to think correctly.

As non-Christians, we were walking away from God, had no time for Him, doing our own thing, living our own life, being the master of our own fate, and so forth. But then, we had a change of mind. That change of mind led to a change of direction. The changed mind led to repentance, which led to conversion, which led to a new nature. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17).

Not only did we receive an “undivided heart,” according to Ezekiel 11:19, but we also received a new “heart of flesh.” We lost that hard heart that was impenetrable and not submissive or responsive to God. As we’ve already read in 1 Corinthians 2:16, we received the mind of Christ. All of this is preparation for right thinking.

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Now, here’s the problem. Many people after their conversion to Christ continue to be dominated by the flesh, or the old nature. Why? They continue to think with their old, fleshly, carnal mind rather than with this new mind, which is in Christ Jesus. The mind of the flesh, the old fallen nature, still wants to be preeminent. Most Christians, then, continue to think with the old mind rather than the new mind. The mind of Christ thinks and meditates on the things of God. As Paul said in Colossians 3:2, “Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” And in 2 Corinthians 10:5, he further instructs us to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.”

James said that a double-minded person is unstable in all their ways (1:7–8). They are tossed like the waves of the sea. One minute they’re thinking with the flesh, then something happens and they begin to think by the Spirit. This is double-mindedness. How can this man or woman expect to receive anything from God? They’re constantly vacillating between the desires of the flesh and the desires of the Spirit, trying to capture the best of both worlds.

The old, fleshly mind leads to the specific works of the flesh Paul lists in Galatians 5:19–21: “sexual immo-

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rality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.” What is the ultimate result? The mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God and prevents experiencing Christ in all these areas. We’re thinking with the old, carnal mind and are really saying to God that we couldn’t care less that Jesus died and that He has another plan for us in.

So, rather than experience the life of Christ, we’re experiencing death in these areas. We may be regenerated, or born again, and when we die, we’re still going to heaven. But between here and there, we’re going to look more like a worldly creature than a heavenly creature. Satan may have lost us for eternity, but for all practical purposes he still has us for a time here on earth.

On the other hand, the new mind in Christ results in the fruit of the Spirit, as opposed to the works of the flesh. Setting the mind on the Spirit brings life and peace (Romans 8:5–6). So, we have two options set before us: either the mind is set on the Spirit, or the mind is set on the flesh and is hostile to God. Wrong thinking leads to wrong living, and right thinking leads to right living.

Make a Choice

God’s Word teaches us all the things about Him that we could never figure out or understand with our fallen hu-

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man reason. And He personally became the Word to us in Jesus. He put flesh and blood on all these biblical principles and made them demonstrable in Jesus Christ.

We can look at Jesus and know what God is thinking about us. We can read Jesus’ words and know they are God’s words. We can look at Jesus’ actions and know that they’re God’s actions. We can look at Jesus’ life and know that it’s God’s life, and thereby really know who He is. May our right knowledge of God cause us to love Him better and serve Him more perfectly.

Choose now the mind of Jesus Christ. Reject and crucify anew the old nature and reckon ourselves as dead. Don’t be double-minded. Live by the Spirit, so that we don’t gratify the desires of the flesh. Exemplify the fruit and the grace of His Spirit, so that God can get some of the same glory that He got in Jesus when He was here.

We have to confess that we often continue to think with the old mind rather than with the new mind in Christ Jesus. We have to acknowledge that the works of the flesh typify our lives more than the fruit of the Spirit. But it shouldn’t be our desire to remain double-minded. God’s Word and His Holy Spirit will lead us into truth. Get into His Word and dig out the truth, as a prospector digs for hidden treasure, so that we might learn to think aright and live aright. In so doing, Jesus will indeed be more and more glorified in us.

I’ll leave you with this passage from Paul:

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As it is written:

“What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:9–16)

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