Master Your Thoughts

Or something else will

Before this week I was unfamiliar with Dr. Alicia Britt Chole. She preached all three of our morning chapel services during our Doctor of Ministry Intensive this week. Her topic was pastoral integrity. She was, I dare say, prophetic. In fact, she put on some great big, steel-toed combat boots and began to step on some toes. She wasn’t mean about it. She was just honest. In the tradition of those great prophets of Israel, she told the truth, and she didn’t mince words doing it.

Dr. Chole spoke of the numerous pastoral scandals, usually involving sex, that have beset the church in recent years. It’s easy to point the finger at those well-known pastors who have fallen from grace and into the headlines. “How can they do that?” we ask incredulously. “They should know better!” And they should know better. As she pointed out, however, we all have feet of clay. We all face temptation. We all are susceptible to the wiles of the devil. If we haven’t fallen into some serious sin that could threaten our integrity, reputations, and ministries, thanks be to God. Another sin, however, lurks around the corner: pride—and pride is the fountainhead of other sins.

This isn’t to say, however, that we are powerless to overcome sin. We are culpable for our actions. As God said to Cain, “Sin is lurking at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it” (Gen 4:7). As Christian leaders, we’re responsible for our behavior. If we fall from grace, many fall away from the faith.

One of Dr. Chole’s sermons was called “Discipline Your Daydreams.” She dived into a topic about which I don’t hear much conversation in the life of the church: the effect of inner thoughts on outward actions. If we cannot discipline our minds, we will not have disciplined actions. If we spend our time thinking about things that do not edify, if our thoughts do not come into agreement with the mind of Christ, we foster temptation and flirt with sin. This is one of many reasons that pornography is so harmful. Apart from its other destructive effects, it distorts one’s thinking. It creates an unsanctified imagination. It draws its users into a world of unholy fantasy. As a result, it destroys lives, careers, and marriages. What we consume changes us.

In Mark 7, Jesus teaches the disciples,

Do you not see that whatever goes into a person from outside cannot defile, since it enters, not the heart but the stomach, and goes out into the sewer?” (Thus he declared all foods clean.) And he said, “It is what comes out of a person that defiles. For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person” (vv. 18-23).

These sinful behaviors come from within. They come from the heart. Our inner states invariably manifest in outward actions.

Jesus says more about this in the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5 we read,

You have heard that it was said to those of ancient times, “You shall not murder”; and “whoever murders shall be liable to judgment.” But I say to you that if you are angry with a brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, “You fool,” you will be liable to the hell of fire (vv. 21-22).

In other words, if you allow the inner state of anger to take root and grow in your heart, it will eventually manifest itself in outward actions.

Likewise Jesus teaches, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery.’ But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart” (Matt 5:27-28). The inward feelings of lust, if we do not discipline our minds, will give rise to sinful behaviors.

Our Western minds rebel against this idea because we are taught that feelings are good. We are not to judge what others feel. Rather, the proper response to hurt feelings is empathy. Inner states simply are, and the attempt to change them is an attack on personhood and individuality.

What we have forgotten is that our feelings are fallen. Sin comes to bear not just on our actions, but on the whole person, including our thoughts and emotions. Not all feelings are righteous. Not all thoughts are edifying. In writing about the trials of the Christian life, Peter urges us, “Prepare your minds for action; discipline yourselves” (1 Pet 1:13). A more literal translation is something like, “Gird up the loins of your mind; be sober-minded.” In other words, you are going into spiritual battle, and you have to be in the right headspace. “Sober-minded” is an ancient metaphor for spiritual insight. Those who don’t know God, who are driven by their passions and given to sin, are like drunk people. They don’t know up from down, right from wrong. But those who know Christ see the world clearly. God has renewed their minds and opened their eyes. (Yes, I’m talking about the noetic effect of sin, its epistemic consequences.)

Photo by Tara Winstead: https://www.pexels.com/photo/thoughts-taking-different-paths-8378726/

Paul goes so far as to say, “We take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). That’s a tall order. Take every thought captive. Make it obedient to Christ. It seems… well… impossible. And it is impossible for us to do this in our own strength. Yet God does not leave us to our own devices. In John 17:17 Jesus prays for his followers, “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” God indeed does this. As Paul writes in Galatians 2:20, “It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

Paul sometimes uses the language of having the “mind of Christ” to describe the work of God in our hearts. He urges the congregation in Philippi to “Have the same mind in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5), and in 1 Corinthians he states, “We have the mind of Christ” (2:16). This is the work of God, who is the only one who can transform us by the renewing of our minds (Rom 12:2). To regard God, ourselves, and other people as Christ does is a gift from God that comes to us by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can think differently, and thus we can live differently.

We aren’t, however simply passive recipients of God’s sanctifying grace. Rather, we become active recipients by practicing self-discipline and participating in the means of grace available to us through the church. We can examine our thoughts. We can ask God to empower us to take every thought captive. We can receive the Lord’s Supper, read Scripture, attend worship, and fast. None of these things sanctifies us. Each of them is simply a means by which we make ourselves available to the work of the Holy Spirit.

God isn’t begrudging with his love and sanctifying power. He wants to renew our minds. He wants to save us from sin and death. And if we will open our hearts to the purifying fire of the Holy Spirit, he will do just that.