Title: The Question
I. The Question
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What do you think about? Our thoughts are the perfect gateway into our beings, our attitudes, and the most accurate picture of our “real” selves. Only you know what you really think about.
You can be driving down the road daydreaming about something and your spouse can say, “What are you thinking about?” And if you answer, “nothing.” It’s usually not inappropriate.
Our minds wander. Our thoughts drift to the strangest places, the weirdest memories and recollections. And we let them. Why? Because it’s safe. We know that no one else is in our thoughts, and that is us at our most authentic.
So Paul asks us, what do you think about? What is your mind set upon? Is it more often the will of God, or the will of yourself?
And what evidence does Paul offer for what is in our minds? The things we do. He says that what is in our minds is going to dictate how we live. Do you know when we really have problems as humans? When those two things are in contradiction.
For the believer, this most generically manifests itself when we want to be holy, but our actions are sinful. Our minds gravitate toward’s God’s law, we know we shouldn’t do what we are about to do, but we are weak in the flesh and our outward action is sin.
This causes us to struggle, and to be torn as Paul is torn when he tells us earlier in Chapter seven, “For what I will to do, that I do not practice; but what I hate, that I do.”
You want to know if you are right with God, ask yourself this simple question that only you are capable of even answering. “What do you most usually think about?” Things that are pleasing to God? Or anything else?
II. The Reason for the Question
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Why does Paul ask this question? Sure, part of it is a bit of accountability, but what’s the theological point of Paul’s inquiry?
Well, the answer is strikingly clear. Paul says, if you are carnally minded, the end result of that path is death. (To be understood as Hell.)
And if you are spiritually minded the end result is life and peace. (Heaven)
I want to be clear with the language here. I don’t believe that Paul is speaking of the immediate results, but rather the temporary results. In fact, if we are talking about the temporary results, one could make a strong case that the opposite is true. It is the believer that experiences death day after day. We are called to die unto our Lord, pick up our cross and follow Him daily, are we not?
Being a believer is committing suicide to our former selves every day.
While on the other hand, being carnally minded, for many people, is to find life and peace. The pursuit of material possessions, wealth, respect, sex, power and prestige is what fuels many of us today. And when we experience even a little success in that way, we yearn for even more.
I was once walking out of a video store at the same time as a young college girl who looked at my car and said, “Wow that’s a nice car.” And she was flirting with me. And it made me feel good, and I had to crucify that “good feeling” knowing that it was not God’s Will.
If that same scenario had happened before I was a believer, I most likely would have tried to pursue that girl, and even if I didn’t, the world would have taught me a lesson: Material possessions can make attractive. Being attractive makes you happy.
Do you see why I reject the notion outright that being a Christian makes one happy? For many of us, mature in the faith, we understand that this happiness we seek is much harder to achieve, involves much more of investment on our end, and often makes others like us less. “Blessed are the poor in spirit” can literally be translated, “Happy are the unhappy.” And now we see a bit more why.
III. The Result of the findings
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Paul states his conclusions in an abundantly clear manner. Let me say them again: If you are not saved, you are an enemy of God. The world hates us for thinking that, and hates us tenfold if we teach that.
It is the reality of sin. We should not shy away from it, or be proud of it. It is what it is, stated in as clear a fashion as Paul know how to write. The people with concern, undoubtedly, should be those to who study scripture to see how God regards and deals with those called, “Enemies of God.”
The idea of an all-loving, all-peaceful God goes out the window very quickly for anyone who has read scripture.
And here we see that not only is an unsaved being an enemy of God, but also that they are literally incapable of pleasing God. Let me say that again, if you are not saved, nothing you do, say, think, or create can please God.
If you are unsaved and see a boat of missionaries sinking in the Atlantic Ocean, and singlehandedly save each of those people, it does not please God.
If you single-handedly discover and distribute, free of charge, a pill that contains the cure for every cancer, AIDS, and Alzheimer’s, it will not please God.
The issue is not if “we know God” but rather if “God knows us.”
Hey, don’t be mad at me, here, it in black and white. If you don’t believe what I’m saying, you don’t believe scripture. This isn’t some widely disputed Theological anomaly that’s been debated for hundreds of years. There are not people on both side of any coin here. This coin has one side, and it says, “You cannot please God without being saved.”
Conclusion:
So what do we do with this information?
1. Examine your thoughts and ask the Spirit to reveal the true state of your mind.
2. Examine your actions to see if they are consistent or inconsistent with your thoughts.
3. Recognize there is one universal standard for good and bad, right on wrong. It begins, resides in, and is eternal in one factor: and individual’s salvation.