Kingdom Truth - What is the Kingdom of Heaven in the Bible?
Chapter 4, Part 2 (continued)
The Church Follows the Steps of the
"Congregation" of the Old Testament
C. The Psychological Condition of "But Realize This"
"The way of learning is no other than to gather the scattered mind." This is a moral teaching from Mencius. It cuts through the mystery of the Scripture verse: "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth". It does not matter who it is, if one's mind is not there, certainly while seeing they will not see, hearing they will not hear, and eating they will not know its taste, not to say knowing the truth, being sincere, and rectifying one's heart! In these last days, most people are familiar with taking care of their "toys". Less people are concerned with keeping their bodies in shape. And few are interested in nourishing the mind! Not only is the society like that, even the church is chasing after the tail of society! This is what the Scriptures said: "men of depraved mind, rejected as regards the faith!" The reason they do not know the truth is because their "mind is depraved". Or conversely, the mind is depraved because they do not know the truth! These two are in direct proportion to each other. Going one step further and generalizing this, a similar relationship also exists between the "situation" and "condition of the mind". As the "situation" deteriorates from bad to worse, the "psychological condition" also deteriorates. When the evil condition of the mind improves and cleans up, the "situation" also improves gradually.
In the last days, the "situation" of the Kingdom of Preparation is controlled and degraded by the "background". It is no small matter to have a clear mind! The evil "background" continued to invade and the "situation" continues to be contaminated. Unless the hand of the Almighty Lord protects these young and tender minds after salvation, it would be impossible for us to hold on to anything! This is the reason why the minds of so many believers are depraved and rejected as regards the faith in the last days and cannot become a member of the Kingdom personnel. We who are called and desire to be chosen as children of the Kingdom, for the sake of the Lord who commissioned us to build up ourselves and each other, must also know the condition of the mind after knowing its background and situation. Then we can be helped by God, help ourselves and others.
"Depraved mind" and "mind" νουσ (nous) appears in the New Testament 24 times and is translated into about 9 different Chinese words. Other than the four times used in First Corinthians chapter 14 (verses 14,15,19) that refers to mental understanding, the rest all refer to spiritual understanding. The "mind" in Luke 24:45 is an example of spiritual understanding. In addition, there is a synonym nohma (νοημα), which has the same root that is used 6 times in the New Testament. Except once, they all refer to spiritual understanding. The Chinese Bible translates this word as the "eye of the heart". This word is translated as "minds" in 2 Corinthians 4:4. In these verses, the meaning of darkened, saved or regenerate "mind" will be made clear and this allows us to know how we should act '"In realizing this"! The following is a discussion of the mind.
(1) The Meaning of the Mind
Before Jesus opened the minds of the disciples, the disciples were quite stupid and stubborn. They could not even understand the miracle of the five loaves and two fish in the feeding of the five thousand (Mark 6:52). Jesus prophesied that He shall be killed and on the third day rise again but they did not comprehend. They couldn't make heads or tails out of who Elijah was as prophesied in the Old Testament (Matt. 17:10-13). It was not until after Jesus had resurrected and opened their minds, that they could understand the Scriptures. Therefore, it can be seen that the function of the mind is towards God, the word of God and all spiritual matters. This is equivalent to the "understanding" mentioned in Psalm 119. The Psalmist prayed: "Give me understanding, that I may observe Thy law" and "Give me understanding, that I may know Thy testimonies'' (verses 34, 125) . So the mind originally refers to spiritual understanding. When it functions properly, it allows man to think about the amazing things of God, know God's laws, hear a sermon and be able to receive it and also to bear fruit. Otherwise, the communication with God is severed, leading to frequent hearing but no understanding and frequent seeing but no knowledge!
(2) The Darkening of the Mind
When man was created, the function of his mind was active, normal and sharp. He could continually have fellowship with God face to face. But after the fall of Adam, mankind intentionally refused to acknowledge all that was of God. So, God could only give up mankind. Consequently, the mind was not able to or was not qualified to know God (Rom. 1:28)! In addition, after God gave up mankind, Satan took over and occupied mankind as his own. Employing the cruel policy of blinding mankind's eyes, he blinded the mind of mankind. The light of the glorious gospel of Christ could not shine upon them and the whole world lies in Satan's power (2 Cor. 4:4; 1 John 5:19). Therefore, it is not that mankind does not have the mind (or eye of the heart), but ''their mind and conscience are defiled" (passive voice) (Tit. 1:15). It has lost its normal function and just as the Scriptures say, "there is none righteous (meeting God's standard), not even one. There is none who understands, there is none who seeks for God!" Since mankind came from God, what can it do once it became separated from God? They could only walk in futility--(the original meaning) without any goal, constantly going back and forth, and living impractically with their mind (Eph. 4:17). Man muddles naively through his entire life! Why would their mind be so out of control like a mad dog? It is because their understanding (their "mind" prefixed with a preposition δια, meaning the function of mind) is darkened (In the original, this verb is a participle in the perfect tense and passive mood). Since the function of the mind is blinded and darkened by Satan and the world (Eph.4:18), what hope is there in living?
Chapter 4, Part 2
Shepherd His Sheep
