The Bible Edge
Everyone needs an Edge, Believers can have a Bible Edge
Romans 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
A new month is upon us, therein a new theme for these devotions will commence. How about this? Random Thoughts of a Spiritual Nature. Most of our lives, most of our doing, most of our thinking is about this physical world. Many never slow down long enough to ever think about things of a spiritual nature. So, over the next month or so, let’s do that. Let’s slow down and reflect on things that have no reflection; things that are invisible, that can’t be seen by the human eye.
Today’s verse sets forth two opposites and a common pair. First consider the pair. What we think, believe, make our decisions on and so much more is that in which we are minded. A mathematically minded person will see things, understand things, and relate things to math. If they see peaches in a grocery bin they may think those four peaches look refreshing, ripe and ready to eat, I’ll buy them. A graphically minded person, one who deals in graphics, pictures, and designs may think those beautiful peaches are wonderful in color, they look refreshing, ripe and ready to eat. Both agree that they look refreshing, ripe and ready to eat, but one sees their number, the other sees their beauty. Their mind relates to that which they are minded on, or that which their mind focuses on.
Then the first of the two differences. Death and life. Could there be a greater contrast in any two things than this. One is lifeless, the other is energetic. One is an end, the other continues on. One has no future, the other’s future has yet to be written. Given the choice most, if not all, would choose life over death every time. One has no hope, the other has opportunity. Life is better than death. The only place that death can be found to be better than life is in Ecclesiastes 7:1 wherein Solomon wrote: A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death than the day of one’s birth. Frankly, the only way to honestly reconcile that thought is for a saved person to have the kind of strong Biblical faith that Paul wrote of to the church of Corinth saying: We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:8) For the Christian, death brings us into the presence of the Lord. Other than that, life is vastly superior to death.
The other difference is physical and spiritual. Believe it or not these two fight against each other. Sometimes that which is good for the physical is not good for the spiritual and vice versa. Turning the other cheek is a great spiritual thing to do, but physically all it brings is two hurting cheeks.
God succinctly sums up this conflict between the spiritual and the physical mind. To be carnally (physically) minded is death, to be spiritually minded is life and peace. A Bible Edge for life and the living of it is to become spiritually minded.
William T. Howe, Ph.D.
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