Right Thinking

People are increasingly confronted with a lot of conflicting thoughts. Sometimes thinking about things is simple, like what I should wear today or if I should have a ham sandwich instead of a salad for lunch. Should I park in the parking lot or on the street? We go through life without making a big deal concerning many of the things we decide, simply because we understand that – in the grand scheme of things – those decisions won’t really affect us very much.

Then there are ‘the tough ones’ which we all must face. They are more complex and, depending on what is involved and how we view things, our choices can greatly impact what happens to us both now and in the future.

What kind of job should I go after?

Is God real?

Who should I marry, or should I get married at all?

How can I plan for my future?

A couple of the most pressing questions each one of us will have to ask ourselves are these;

What is right and what is wrong?

Is there a way to tell the difference?

Yes, there is a way to tell the difference between right and wrong. It’s called right thinking (correct thinking), and right thinking is based upon what God thinks.

Every one of us will be faced with opportunities to decide what we think about a given subject. The conclusions we reach can be a source of great blessing or endless suffering! And, because there are so many conflicting thoughts for us to choose from, we should be extra careful to be sure we are making the best choices possible. We need to operate in right thinking!

For those of us who know Christ, we understand that the world (because of their thinking) is at odds with God’s thinking and His designs. The Bible lets us know that a big part of the problem is that they don’t know Him, or they just think they know Him. They have wrong thinking;

2 Cor 4:3-5
But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.

Eph 4:17-19
This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.

They don’t think about God. Instead, they are wrapped up in seeking temporary pleasures, not considering the day when they will stand before Christ and give an account of what they have done with their lives. But that doesn’t apply to us, does it? Is it possible for a Christian to operate that way? Of course it is. We are seeing this happen more often as people (especially those claiming to know Christ) get further and further from the truth of God’s Word.

How can this be? When we ‘get saved,’ doesn’t God do a work in our hearts? Yes, He does. The Word is clear that when someone comes to believe the gospel they are accounted as righteous by God Himself! But we also need to understand that salvation in-and-of itself is not a onetime event, but rather a process. We may have the nature of God on the inside, but we still have to operate in the world. For that interaction God has given us a mind.

Man is a tripartite being. We are spirit, soul and body. Our bodies are tied to this earth; after all Adam was formed out of dust! We have a spirit which is made in the likeness of God, dead because of sin and is made alive again through faith in Jesus and His completed work on the cross. The mind is the bridge between the two, and you shouldn’t confuse these three with each other.

That’s why the Word is so clear about the importance of believers getting to know the Lord through reading and studying His Word;

Col 3:1-3
If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

Isa 55:8-9
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Rom 12:1-4
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

The only way a person can get to know Christ is by listening to the Holy Spirit’s call, and then allowing the Spirit to shed light from God’s Word into the heart and mind of the hearer. While we may believe, the proof and power of our salvation is worked out as we continue to seek God through prayer, and through reading and understanding the Word.  We continue to follow Christ. One of the chief reasons a person falls away from Christ is because they didn’t develop a mind which is centered on Christ and His Word. They didn’t develop right thinking.

Is it possible to be saved and yet still operate in wrong thinking? Unfortunately it happens all the time. Without right thinking (thinking centered upon God’s Word), people will eventually stray into error and wrong thinking. The Word itself gives us plenty of examples;

Titus 1:15-16
To the pure all things are pure, but to those who are defiled and unbelieving nothing is pure; but even their mind and conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but in works they deny Him, being abominable, disobedient, and disqualified for every good work.

James 1:26-27
If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless. Pure and undefiled religion before God and the Father is this: to visit orphans and widows in their trouble, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.

Rom 8:7-8
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

Phil 3:17-20
Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern. For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame — who set their mind on earthly things.

Eph 4:20-24
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.

Col 2:18-19
Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

All these Scriptures describe those who proclaim they know God! The people in these passages think they know God and yet they act contrary to His Word. They are deceived. They are ignorant of the Word of God, or worse, simply don’t believe it. Instead of renewing their minds they are being corrupted by the thoughts of the world, adapting to rationalizing and explaining away the Scriptures. They are not operating in right thinking! That is an extraordinarily dangerous place to be.

So, what’s the solution? The solution is that we must submit ourselves to the Word of God and align our thinking with what God thinks (and states) in His Word, just as Jesus did!

Phil 2:5-9
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, Who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.

Jesus submitted Himself to the Word. If it is good enough for the Son of God then we should be no different. The result of right thinking is that we will be shielded from error, and from all the confusion and strife that comes from a life not submitted to God and His Word;

Isa 26:3
You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.