When we speak about an unrenewed mind, we're talking about a mind that is still thinks carnally instead of one that thinks like Jesus thinks. A carnal mind still thinks in the realm of self and a renewed mind or the mind of Christ, thinks about others.
Most of us in the Body of Christ, haven't thought much higher than what Jesus has done for me. We should see what Jesus has done for us. Without knowing what He's done for us on a personal basis, we can never expect to reach out to others. If I don't know I am forgiven, then I cannot help others who need His forgiveness. If I don't know I am a new creation in Christ, then it's hard to speak to others about it. But, there comes a time (or at least should) when we realize who we are now and to be able to walk in our own deliverance. We should be able to cease from centering on self so much and think about someone else.
The mind of Christ reaches out more to the needs of others. Jesus never did anything because of Himself, but He always acted on our behalf. Ephesians 5:25 (Amplified) tells us, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave Himself up for her." As Christians, if we could understand what Jesus did for us (the Church), then we could love our wives in a deeper and more perfect love. Everything Jesus was and did, was not for Him, but for us, the Church.
A carnal minded Christian will seek after self more than others. A Christian who has a mind renewed with the mind of Christ, will seek after the needs of others. Matthew 6:23 (Amplified) says, "But seek (aim at and strive after) first of all His Kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right) and then all these things taken together will be given you besides."
Once we begin to mature in the Lord and in His Word, we can understand that all the things we once worried about are already ours and that He will take care of them. When we grow up into this realization, we won't be worried about self so much. Our real job or calling in Christ, is to minister to the world and to one another. Jesus spoke about this in Matthew 6:25 (Amplified) saying, "Therefore I tell you, stop being perpetually uneasy (anxious, and worried) about your life, what you shall eat, or what you shall drink; or about your body, what you shall put on. Is not life greater (in quality) than food, and the body (far above and more excellent) than clothing?"
As Christians, we spend most of our time and prayer on ourselves. As long as we are in this world, we will have tribulation. But, He has overcome the world. The office of a teacher in the Body is no different than the profession of a teacher in our schools. It is to show and educated children how to take care of themselves as adults. Without someone to teach us, we would mature in our bodies and not in our minds. We would be strong enough to earn a living at a job, but not know how to work at a job. In the Church, we've been birthed into a new life. We must be educated in this new life enough to walk on our own with the Father and be mature enough to know He will take care of us.
As long as the Church is still more concerned about self than others, the power of the Spirit is limited in our lives. Once we're taught and trained in the Word of righteousness and the love of our Father, we're supposed to reach out to the world with what we have. We have received form our Father, through Jesus, everything that pertains to life and godliness. Yet, we still have our minds set on the "issues" in our own lives more than others.
Hebrews 6:1-2 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, let us go on and get past the elementary stage in the teachings and doctrines of Christ (the Messiah) advancing steadily toward the completeness and perfection that belong to spiritual maturity; Let us not again be laying the foundation of repentance and abandonment of dead works (dead formalism) and of the faith (by which you turned to God)." Verses 2&3 say, "With teachings about purifying, the laying on of hands, the resurrection from the dead, and eternal judgement and punishment. (These are all matters of which you should have been fully aware long, long ago). If indeed God permits, we will (now) proceed (to advanced teachings)."
The mature Christian will grow in the knowledge of Christ and will become useful in the Kingdom. We were given the commission to go into all the world and preach the Kingdom. We're not only to preach it, but to demonstrate it by the works of the Holy Spirit. We have been pretty successful preaching forgiveness and being born again, but a large part of the Church still struggles with accepting the truth of our own forgiveness. We continue to struggle with our past, our failures, our tempers, our own shortcomings and are so caught up with self that we can't reach out with much truth and power into the lives of others.
When the mind of Christ is manifest in the believer, we will accept what Jesus did on our behalf, we will stop fault finding with ourselves and we'll realize that if God said we're righteous, then we are righteous. We've lingered in spiritual childhood by not being educated into adulthood by the Word. We are fearful about accepting what the Word says we are instead of what the world says we are. We have remained babies in Christ who are always needing and never giving.
For years in the Church, we've heard sermons about sin in our lives. We all knew we were sinners and that's why we came to Jesus. One man asked me why I don't preach more about sin in the congregation. I told him that everyone already knows how to sin, so why should I preach on it? Not everyone know about being righteous, so I teach on that. The sin conscience won't be replaced by a righteousness conscience unless someone teaches it.
The Word (the mind of Christ) says in 2Corinthians 5:17-21 that, "Old things have passed away, behold, all things have become new, and all things are of God."
Why then, would I want to teach God's people about who they used to be instead of who they've now become? You cannot teach children a kindergarten curriculum for twelve years and expect them to graduate from high school and function in the world. You also can't teach babies in Christ the same elementary things in the Word over and over again for years and expect maturity in the Word of salvation. With our carnal teachings of spiritual things, we've been held down from walking in maturity in our place with the Father.
We've taught and have been taught that man (even Christians) is still a sinful creature and has fallen short of the righteousness and the glory of God. That is not true. As a Christian, you and I have been made to be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus by faith in His finished work on the cross. You are not who you were. You have been born again in His likeness and Image in Jesus.
I've often wondered why people would leave their homeland and travel to America to be free, only to live in the same condition they did in their native land. They come from Cuba and build a "Little Havana." They come from China and build a "China town." They come form Italy and build a "Little Italy." They follow the same traditions and patterns in the new life that they followed in the old life they tried to escape. We come from all over the world to a land of liberty and opportunity and then live like we always did. As Christians, we have done the same thing by not renewing our mind by His Word. We come out of bondage to the elements of the world into the liberty of God's Kingdom and then want to hear about and continue living within the same bondage we came out of.
We have been brought and bought out of the world and our geneology has changed. I don't want to come into the Kingdom of the liberty of His Son Jesus and still live in the same old traditions that kept me in bondage all of my old life. I don't want to be made in Jesus' righteousness and have to live in my old unrighteousness all the time. I don't need to learn about who I was; that's why I came to Jesus. Now, I want to learn about my new home, my new birth and my new life. I don't need to live in my past anymore. God has forgotten it and my mind is to be renewed now so that I can forget it too.
It's difficult to trust in your right standing with God if you are constantly being made away of your old self in the world. He didn't say that when we get to heaven we'll be made righteous, but when we receive Jesus.
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