Spiritually Minded 02

Last week I laid the foundation for looking at the difference between the carnal-minded person and the spiritually-minded person.

Let’s return to Romans 8…
5Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6The mind of sinful man£ is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace; 7the sinful mind£ is hostile to God. It does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God.
9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ. 10But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. 11And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you.

The key passage for us here is Romans 8:6. Another translation reads: “6For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”

To be Spiritually Minded is to look at God, yourself, others & the world from God's eternal, loving perspective. We are spiritually minded when God's spirit and our spirit are in control of our thoughts, attitudes, emotions, motivations & imagination. To be Spiritually Minded is life since God is the source of life. It is peace since it brings the mind and spirit into unison.

To be Carnally Minded is to look at God, yourself, others & the world from our finite, selfish perspective. We are carnally minded when our fleshly desires are in control of our thoughts, attitudes, emotions, motivations & imagination. To be Carnally Minded is death because it steals life from us. Because the carnal mind is controlled by the flesh, it rebels against God, the source of life.

It may come as a surprise that Christians can be carnally-minded. We’ve probably all been there at one time or another. Maybe you’re there right now. Yet what is even more surprising is how quickly we can go from spiritually-minded to carnally-minded! Prime example—Peter. He went from receiving a direct revelation from God and a prophesy about becoming a foundation stone for the New Testament Church to being called, “Satan,” by Jesus because of his carnal-mindedness.

Next, we will look at a few more examples of carnally minded Christians. But until then, think about the following statement: EVERY DECISION WE MAKE, EVERY ACTION WE TAKE, EVERY THOUGHT WE THINK, IS INFLUENCED BY EITHER THE SPIRIT OR THE FLESH.