Focus: The Human Mind After The Fall!

Text: Gen.6:5

"And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every IMAGINATION of the THOUGHTS of his heart was only evil continually."

Solomon says of man, "For as he thinketh in his heart…" (Prov.23:7). Jeremiah declares, "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?" (Jer.17:9). In the Hebrew original, the heart includes the mind. In the Greek language the word for the heart is not the same as the one for the mind. But, be it heart or mind, the Scripture has a lot to say about the human mind, especially since the fall of man in Genesis 3.

The truth of the matter is that no natural man since the fall functions in his right mind. In fact the wisdom of the wise is foolishness to God. 

Man is ever learning, but never coming to the knowledge of the truth. The more a man knows, the more he knows that he knows nothing.

Paul says to those who claimed to being wise, "Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools" (Rom.1:22).

This is how the Scripture describes the human mind or heart:

*Double-mindedness - Lk.12:29; Jam.1:8.

*Reprobate mind - Rom.1:28.

*Carnal mind - Rom.8:6,7.

…Paul says that a carnal mind is enmity against God.

*Mind centered on earthly things - Phil.3:19.

*Mind steeped in vanity - Eph.4:17.

*Fleshly mind - Col.2:18.

*Defiled mind - Tit.1:15.

…it's tainted and contaminated.

*Darkened mind, heart, and the imagination - Rom.1:21.

*Darkened understanding and blindness of the heart - Eph.4:18.

*Without understanding - Rom.1:31.

*Ignorance of foolish men - 1Pet.2:15.

The Lord Jesus Christ says that it is from the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks, and He says, "For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies…" (Mt.15:19). 

What is killing man is coming from within himself. His mind is corrupted, polluted and crooked.

Paul says that "But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1Cor.2:14).

Man certainly needs spiritual rebirth and change of mind. It is for this reason that Paul talked about the renewal of our mind. He says, "Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God" (Rom.12:2).

The Christian believer has the mind of Christ, and we are called upon to let this mind or attitude be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus. By reason of the new creation we have become in Christ, we are required by God to think differently than the world thinks. Paul says, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God" (Col.3:1). I pray you experience a mental renovation and revolution, and spiritual transformation of your total personality! Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter