Changing the way we think
Part 1
Romans 12 The
Message 1-2 So here’s what I
want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your
sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before
God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can
do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted
to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your
attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what
he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you,
always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of
you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Romans 12:1-2 The
Voice Brothers and
sisters, in light of all I have shared
with you about God’s mercies, I
urge you to offer your bodies as a living and holy sacrifice to God, a sacred offering
that brings Him pleasure; this is your reasonable, essential worship. 2 Do not allow this
world to mold you in its own image. Instead, be transformed from the inside out by renewing your mind. As a result, you will be able to
discern what God wills and whatever God finds good, pleasing, and complete.
Romans12:1-2 Niv Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in
view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and
pleasing to God – this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform 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.
Matthew Henry’s Commentary Romans 12:2
The mind must be renewed for him. This is pressed (Rom. 12:2): “Be you
transformed by the renewing of your mind; see to it that there be a saving
change wrought in you, and that it be carried on.” Conversion and
sanctification are the renewing of the mind, a change not of the substance, but
of the qualities of the soul. It is the same with making a new heart and a new
spirit—new dispositions and inclinations, new sympathies and antipathies; the
understanding enlightened, the conscience softened, the thoughts rectified; the
will bowed to the will of God, and the affections made spiritual and heavenly:
so that the man is not what he was—old things are passed away, all things are
become new; he acts from new principles, by new rules, with new designs. The
mind is the acting ruling part of us; so that the renewing of the mind is the
renewing of the whole man, for out of it are the issues of life, Prov. 4:23.
The progress of sanctification, dying to sin more and more and living to
righteousness more and more, is the carrying on of this renewing work, till it
be perfected in glory. This is called the transforming of us; it is like
putting on a new shape and figure.
Many of us, who read this blog,
will also use Facebook, and when we update our Status on Facebook, it asks its
users the question “What’s on your mind?”
In the English Language we have
one word for Mind, and that word is Mind, I’m sorry for stating the obvious,
The Bible was written in two languages,
the first of these was Hebrew which the Old Testament was originally written
in, although it was later translated into languages like Aramaic, Greek and so
on. The second language was Greek, which the New Testament was originally
written in, although it was again translated into other languages, in many ways
for the Roman Empire and other Empires of that time especially in the Eastern Mediterranean
area, The Greek Language was the lingua franca, we call the Greek Language used
then as Koine Greek.
The users of Koine Greek would
have used 3 different words that we today would read in our Bibles as the
English word “Mind” these are:-
1.
Sophrono or right mind, Strong’s ref 4993 To be of sound
mind, sane, self-controlled, serious, moderate, sober-minded, restrained,
disciplined, able to reason. From sozo.” ,
to save” and phren, “ the mind” see
Mark 5:15
2.
Dianoia or a thinking
through Strong’s ref 1271 Dianoia combines nous,
“mind” and dia, “through” The word suggests understanding, insight,
meditation, reflection, perception, the gift of apprehension, the faculty of
thought. When this faculty is renewed by the Holy Spirit, the whole mind-set
changes from the fearful negativism of the carnal mind to the vibrant, positive
thinking of the quickened spiritual mind see Mark 12:30
3.
Sophronismos or a sound mind Strong’s ref 4995, A combination
of sos “safe” and phren, “the mind” hence
safe-thinking. The word denotes good judgement, disciplined thought patterns,
and the ability to understand and make right decisions. It includes the qualities
of self-control and self-discipline see 2 Timothy 1:7
For many of us, our thought patterns have been influenced by
what our society and culture think or indeed think of us!, the influence or propaganda of a non-Christian
world view or group think has had or indeed having an undue influence on the
way we think as Christian Believers, it’s time we changed the way we think.
Colossians 3:1-3 Esv
3 If then you have been raised with Christ,
seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of
God. 2 Set your minds on things that are
above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life
is hidden with Christ in God.
1 Peter 1:13-15 Esv
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, [a] and
being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought
to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be
conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you
is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct
Ephesians 4:17-18 Niv
17 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. 18
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.
Yours in His Grace
Blair Humphreys
Southport, Merseyside
