MINDSET

Mindset is a word in common usage and is defined as “a habitual attitude of mind and set of basic assumptions that influence judgment and actions”.

Mindset is also a scriptural concept (Col.3:2), “set your affection (mind) on things above ……”. We may deduce from the dictionary definition and the apostle’s instruction that the christian’s attitude of mind is crucial to a right perception of the Christian Faith and to the interpretation of Scripture.

Scripture recognises the importance of the mind in spiritual things. In chapter 12 v. 2 of his Roman Epistle, Paul exhorts the saints “And be not conformed to this world but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind …………”, a clear reference to the need for a change of mindset in order to rise above temporal considerations and embrace spiritual values in their practice of Christianity. Similarly, in chapter 4, v.23 of the Ephesian Epistle, “Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind“, something that can only be achieved by setting the mind on spiritual things, not on natural things on the earth (Col. 3:2).

The greatest threat to a right understanding of spiritual things is the mindset of natural man; it caused Cain to slay Abel (1 John 3:12) and it slays spiritually today. The principle of the natural mindset in a believer is found in Romans 8:6 & 7, “For to be carnally minded is death …………” and “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be”. This is the natural mind active in the divine sphere of the assembly where it spells death to spiritual things, for the one is contrary to the other. The newly born-again believer comes to Christianity with a natural mindset which requires renewal, so that the concepts of the old order of Adam, whether secular or religious, are replaced by the spiritual ones of the new man.

The mindset of religious natural man was a threat to the early church as converted Jews entered the spiritual environment of the assembly with minds that were at odds with it; they brought with them a traditional, naturalistic appreciation of divine revelation that required renewal. This was the task of the Apostle Paul in particular and, had he not prevailed, then an early form of Christendom would have been established well before it actually occurred. In the event, Paul prophesied in his address to the Ephesian elders (Acts 20:28-31) that, after the close of the apostolic age, the church there would come under attack from unspiritual men, both from without and within. Believers, perhaps of a Jewish mindset and thus opposed to Paul’s spiritual Christianity, would come in as wolves to wreak spiritual havoc, whilst within, elders operating in the flesh – the carnal mind of Romans 8 – would corrupt spiritual things with a naturalistic form of teaching and so bring about division.

(Division is a work of the flesh, so is never caused by upholding spiritual values but by opposition to them).

That spiritual degeneration was not confined to Ephesus is clear from early church history, as traced in such works as “The Pilgrim Church” by E. H. Broadbent. The intrusion of the natural mind at the expense of the spiritual became widespread and early forms of clerisy, human expedients such as infant baptism, together with Gnostic corruptions were all symptomatic of an alien mindset operating in the sphere of the spiritual. Thus the stage was set for the emergence of Christendom – a Satan-inspired pseudo-Christian religion of natural man, before the close of the first century. This grotesque manifestation of the natural mindset in the divine sphere of spiritual operations produced a religious order ideally suited to the unregenerate. In due time the spiritual nature of Christianity would be replaced by a religious philosophy that could be recognised and understood by natural man – a ‘Christianity’ of everyday life, a secular religion of morals and social values.

There followed more than a millennium of spiritual darkness before the perverse and pervasive influence of the natural mindset was arrested by the Reformation and then reversed by the recovery of much lost spiritual truth early in the nineteenth century, when believers left the sects of Christendom to gather in simple adherence to New Testament Scripture. However, as with the movement out of Judaism in apostolic times, so saints coming out of Christendom to establish local assemblies unwittingly brought with them the religious mindset of that pseudo-christian institution. In all the circumstances it is hardly surprising that, despite its inherent contradictions, Christendom’s religious ethic continued to be the accepted norm in these local gatherings.

That we in our generation have followed in the same mindset is apparent, in that we commonly display a tendency to think in natural rather than spiritual terms. Consequently, it is not unusual to find the “new creation in Christ” (2 Cor.5:17) construed as a new Adam – christianised flesh – whereas it describes a new spiritual entity, the new man, and invisible as such, for that which is spiritual is not discernible by natural means (I Cor.2:14). Similarly, to the naturally inclined mind, divine love is natural affection, good works automatically mean natural good deeds, righteousness invariably translates as good living and references to the believer’s walk are assumed to refer to daily life rather than his spiritual walk before God and the saints.

This and much more is all common to Christendom and can only produce spiritual death (2 Cor. 3:6 & 7); it is a mindset that does not recognise the spiritual character of Christianity, that renders natural and moral issues as matters of faith and interprets the things of faith in a naturalistic way. It emphasizes the natural at the expense of the spiritual, which is why it is an instrument of death so far as spiritual things are concerned.

Religious ethic is the creed of Christendom, the world’s interpretation of divine revelation, a mindset of the old order of mankind. It is not Christianity and as such it should find no place in the sphere of the new man, the local assembly.  Regrettably, the assemblies of the saints today largely fail to distinguish between the natural and the spiritual, the secular and the divine.  In secularising divine truth they fail spiritually and have received the grace of God in vain.