If you're a Christ follower, you're called to be different. No, let me put it more forcefully: You are commanded by God to be completely different - set apart, actually - from this world. Observe what the apostle John has to say about the matter in one of his epistles:
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world - the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life - is not from the Father but is from the world. (1 John 2:15-16)
Paul writes in his letter to the Ephesians that we're to "put off" the works of the flesh (i.e. the pursuits of this world) and replace them with the works of the Spirit:
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles [as unbelievers were called in Paul's day] do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ! - assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. (Ephesians 4:17-24)
The kind of change Paul has in view here for Christians is total transformation from an unregenerate sinner bent on the depraved ways of this world to an image-bearer of God himself! God commands us with a 180 degree change from depravity to holiness. Notice Paul's contrast in his letter to the Galatians between the "works of the flesh," which represents our former way of life and the "fruit of the Spirit," which God commands us to live out in our new life:
"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, and things like these." (Galatians 5:19-20)
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control..."(Galatians 22-23)
Quite a juxtaposition, isn't it? Elsewhere in his letter to the Ephesians, Paul writes that as believers, we are Christ's workmanship, "created anew" for the good works God prepared beforehand (Ephesians 2:1).
So now we know God doesn't mince words in Scripture - he commands a complete transformation, no excuses. Yet as any man who's ever tried to "change himself" can tell you from experience, this can be life's most difficult, frustrating, and seemingly futile task, with insurmountable obstacles. For although as Christian men we've been saved, made new, and called to the works of the Spirit, we struggle with the temptations of the flesh and all too often find ourselves plunging headfirst into the exact patterns of behavior Paul tells his readers to put off - sensuality, covetousness, greed, foolish talk, and so forth (Ephesians 5:3-4) . Then, after indulging in these fruitless ventures, we're reminded of how far we've strayed from God's expectations. This inevitably leads to guilt, discouragement, and doubt; sometimes we may even doubt our very salvation and inclusion in God's kingdom.
What I'd like to do in this series of articles on mind renewal is, if you're a believer, show via passages in Scripture that these challenges you face are ones experienced by all believers, to include the great apostle Paul himself. I'll show how Scripture clearly teaches that even though we've been justified by faith and are new men, or new creations as Paul writes in 2 Corinthians, we still live in the flesh and until we experience full glorification and perfection upon Christ's return, we will continue to struggle in the flesh. This means there's an "already, but not yet" aspect to our salvation.
The good news is that we can live victoriously in this life as we grow in Christlikeness; again, the Bible commands it. But to do this, the New Testament teaches that nothing short of a complete renewal of the mind is required. And such renewal does not come automatically just because we become Christians. Indeed, Paul cautions Christians that after we receive the Holy Spirit as new believers to not "grieve" the Spirit (Ephesians 4:30) through a mind set on the flesh. Instead, we are to set our minds on the things of the Spirit so He can perform his wonderful work of transformation in our lives. So yes, mind renewal does require active participation on our part. Fortunately, God promises to never leave us alone in this great spiritual struggle. Moreover, he has equipped us abundantly for victory, and I hope to demonstrate through Scripture the four great tools, or spiritual disciplines, he's given us for mind renewal. We are new men in Christ; let's explore how richly God has equipped us to rise in Christlikeness and toward ultimate victory.