Our mind is a powerful tool in which God has given us. It enables us to do our day to day activities it allows us to hold most of the information that we put into it (which is a lot). What we think about on an ongoing basis has adapted us to who we are today. It has controlled our actions, or thoughts, and has rendered us dead spiritually at times. Our mind has given us ideas that if we do x, y, or z when no one is around and appear to others as followers of Christ that everything is going to be just fine. This happens because we fall into temptation and start living in sin. Being tempted is when Satan feeds us a lie, being in temptation is when we allow that lie to entice us (ENTICE: to attract artfully or adroitly or by arousing hope or desire).Satan is very good at making his lies look attractive, hopeful, and desirable in his own artistic way. Then we enter sin. We believe the lie, we follow where and what the lie leads us. We then repeat this sin over and over again, and then we find ourselves living in sin which leads to death.
Dennis F. Kinlaw Writes in the Beginning of Chapter 2 in The Mind of Christ, “The essence of sin is self-interest.” Over the years my view of what sin is has changed. I no longer see sin as list of things that I should not do. I see sin as anything that is not following God’s will for my life. If I am not following Him and walking in His path, I am not obeying Him. If we focus on not sinning we are on the defense, and there is no offense to be seen and no growth to become more like Christ. God calls us to be great men and women of the faith, not to just avoid sin, but to pick up our Cross daily and follow Him. Yes, we need to make sure that we are not sinning, but we also need to make sure we are running the race in which God has laid before us. If we only do one of these we become lukewarm. Revelations 3:15-16 says, “I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth.”
Kinlaw goes on to write in chapter 2 about the sin in this same way. He gives an illustration on Abram and Sarai and God’s will for Abram to be the father of many nations. After 10 years and still no child, Sarai then gives her servant Hagar to Abram to conceive a Child. This was in accordance to the law of the land at the time. This was not anything out of the ordinary, and God did not specify that Abram was going to have a Child with Sarai until after Hagar conceived and gave birth to Ishmael. And as Kinlaw says, “Yet they interfered with God’s will for their lives, because they did not believe God would miraculously accomplish what he had promised them.”
I love how Kinlaw writes how our view of sin today does not capture the picture of God’s story. “Contrary to the currently popular view, Christ did not come into this world to restore our obedience to God’s law. Obedience was involved in his mission; but obedience was not the essence of his divine sonship. Nor is obedience the essence of divine spouse hood, which corresponds to our relationship with the heavenly Father, as the Bride of Christ. Love is more than obedience, just as estrangement is more than disobedience.” We need to be those who are in the Spirit and walked according to God’s way not our own way, or our own interpretation of God’s way. We need to understand His way and carry it out exactly as He leads us to. His way and in His timing not ours.
Romans 8:1-9
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.
In the past and present we have let death and destruction tear others around us apart because we are or were living in the flesh. We were or are dead and could not and/or cannot achieve anything substantial while living in the flesh. What we crave is what Romans 8:6 says, “Life and Peace”. We want to be alive once more.
We as humans are incapable of making the right choices on our own. We do not have all the answers, and even the answers that we think we have rarely line up with Christ’s. In the Jewish culture Children have been raised up in the temple, they would memorize the Torah (The Law). After this some would then go and learn the family business, and others who were devoted to God’s word would then continue their studies under a rabbi. By following a Rabbi they were publicly saying that they agree with his teaching and interpretation on the scriptures (Law). When Jesus went out and chose the twelve disciples who were working in their family practices (Fishing, farming, tax collector, Ect.). They as a child would have grown up in the Temple they knew the Torah by heart or at least they did at one point in their lives they did. When Jesus asked them to come and follow Him, He was not asking them if they wanted to walk around with Him from town to town. He was asking them if they agreed with His teaching and wanted to learn from Him and His interpretation on the Scripture, to be His disciple. A DISCIPLE is one who accepts and assists in spreading the doctrines of another. As followers of Christ we are called to follow Him. To accept His teachings (God’s Word) and to assist in spreading it. We are then allowing Christ to fully take over our lives yielding to His way of life, and to His teachings.
In Chapter 1 of The Mind of Christ, Dennis F. Kinlaw talks about going up in a plane with a friend and looking at all the instruments on the panel. His friend was telling him that there is only two instruments that must have in a plane. One a Compass, and second a artificial horizon. The artificial horizon lets the pilot know which way is up and which way is down. Kinlaw thought this to be useless that you would really need an instrument to determine which way is up and down. His Friend went on to explain when you are up in a cloud you cannot tell which way is what. This got me to think about life. At times we think we know what is best. We can see what is right in front of us. We can clearly see what is Right and what is Wrong. What happens when we enter a cloud or it is dark and our vision is hindered? What Happens when we are thrown a lie, or our perception on life differs from God’s because of our upbringing, or are our sin (Past or present) starts sneaking up on us?
Kinlaw Writes, “We have no artificial horizon inside of us. We have no internal compass. Our bodies bear witness to the fact that we need guidance from outside of ourselves. Yet so often we think, It’s my life. I can control it. I don’t need God or anyone else. Then we make great mistakes, damaging our own lives and the lives of other people.” We have seen this damage in our own lives and in others around us, our spouses, family, and friends. We see in Abrams and Sarai’s story that even though they did not break God’s or Man’s law, but did not follow God’s plan but taking it into their own hands that there was damage. Not any “Sin”, but still damage. Sarai said that she was despised in Hagar’s sight. Sarai was hurt, even though it was her idea to give Hagar to Abram. Hagar was then mistreated by Sarai. Hagar then fled because she was being treated harshly. After Ishmael was born, and after Sarai conceived and gave birth to Isaac think about Ishmael. Ishmael grew up being the oldest, but having your little brother be in the spotlight because he was the “Son” in whom God was going to make this great nation, which I am sure had to hear Abram talked about over and over around the dinner table. Do you see the damage, do you see that the damage does not come all at once, and does not just affect one person, but can trickle down and effect more people then we could ever imagine. We have all seen this all around us, because of our sin and failure to follow God’s will.
Let us be Men and Women that think rightly in and about our lives. That our view and our way of thinking things would line up with God’s. That we would make all our decision using our instruments that God has given us. Our compass, God’s Will, as well as our Artificial Horizon, The Holy Spirit. To keep us on the straight and narrow path, that we would not be cold or lukewarm, but HOT on fire for Christ. That we would not cause any more damage than we have already caused.
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