BiblicalInsights.net

The human mind is a terrible thing to waste!  We can fill our minds with mundane information that will not enhance our lives.  Or, we can fill our minds with useful, magnificent truths that will guide us through life and prepare us for eternity.  Almost everyone has heard the phrase, “just google it.”  The word google is used as a verb in that phrase.  But, Google is a noun that describes a search engine on the internet.  The noun Google is derived from the word googol which was named by Milton Sirotta, the nephew of the American mathematician Edward Kasner.  Kasner was working with very large numbers and in particular the number 10 to the 100th power (a 1 with 100 zeroes after it).  Kasner felt it deserved a name and so he asked his nephew to invent a word for the large number.  Milton made up the word googol and so the enormous word was given this descriptive term.  The name Google signifies how much information the originators believed they could catalog.  The information on the internet is a large collection of data that is not cohesive.  Information that lacks meaning.  Knowledge on the other hand is different.  Knowledge is information that has been processed into a cohesive whole.  We can further divide knowledge into two groups:  secular and sacred.  God’s Word is knowledge of God.  It is knowledge of the holy (II Tim. 3:15).  It is knowledge of truth (John 17:17).  It is essential knowledge (John 12:48) because it will be used in Judgment.  Knowledge of the sacred holds a higher place and is more significant than secular knowledge.  A person can know much information about various aspects of the world that we live in but that information does not save the soul from the servitude to and consequences of sin.  Only the knowledge of the sacred informs us of God’s plan of salvation and our part in that plan (II Tim. 3:15; James 1:21).  The Christian mind is rich with the sacred truths from God that will guide it to heaven.  The Christian mind is the mind of Christ (Phil. 2:5-11).  There are three aspects of the mind of Christ that are worth considering.
First, truth vs. relativity.  If you don’t know the truth, you don’t know anything!  The opposite of truth is lies.  Lies can fill the human mind with a lot of information, but it is worthless and useless.  The basic idea of postmodernism is that you can create your own reality or your own truth.  Truth becomes subjective and is self-determined.  This leads to moral relativity and a redefinition of what it means to be human.  Some information is evil and detrimental to the human soul.  The human mind can become corrupted and deceived.  The corrupted mind is reflected in our present culture when we have lost the ability to define a man and a woman.  We have lost the basic ability to discern gender identity.  Gender identity has become fluid and limitless in the postmodern mindset.  The truth of God’s Word declares that there are only two genders:  male and female (Mark 10:6).  The corrupted mind is seen in that we have lost the ability to determine right from wrong.  Moral relativity prevails in our present culture.  However, the Word of God is clear about what constitutes sin and what comprises righteousness (Gal. 5:19-23-the works of the flesh contrasted with the fruit of the Spirit).  The mind of Christ was saturated with truth. Truth is synonymous with the Word of God (John 17:17).  This body of sacred knowledge comes from God and is objective -not self-determined.   Jesus used the Scriptures authoritatively and decisively (Matt. 4:1-11; 13:1314-15; 22:29-32).  Jesus did not equivocate on gender identity (Mark 10:6).  He did not call evil good and good evil (Matt. 5-7).   God has spoken unto us through His Son (Heb. 1:1-3).  Jesus is the Son of God and possesses the authority to bind and loose.  Jesus is truth (John 14:14).  His life and His teaching give us knowledge of the sacred that can save us from condemnation and give us hope beyond this life.  Truth is corrective of the profane mind and transforms the mind so that it conforms to the thoughts and ideas of God (Rom. 12:1-2).
Second, spiritual vs. a carnal mind.    The Christian mind is spiritual not carnal.  The carnal mind pursues the flesh (lusts of the flesh) while the spiritual mind is led by the Spirit and follows the sacred things of God.  The carnal mind is worldly, sensual, devilish (James 3:15).  The carnal mind pursues the works of the flesh (Gal. 5:19-21).  The works of the flesh are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revelings, and such like.  Paul further exposes the carnal mind in I Cor. 3:1-3.  Strife, envyings and divisions flow from the carnal mind and are obstacles to the spiritual mind.  The spiritual mind is led by the Spirit of God through the word of God (Rom. 8:14).   The spiritual mind knows God.  It knows the truth revealed by God.  It knows Jesus Christ the savior of the world.  Jesus’ mind was saturated with spiritual promises and precepts.  He knew the will of God and acted on it with humility of heart and obedience (Phil. 2:5-11). This produced selflessness and service in sacred acts of sacrifice.  The Christian mind is selfless and sacrificial.
Third, righteous vs. reprobate.   In Rom. 1:28, Paul describes the profane mind that has rejected God as reprobate.  The word reprobate means morally reprehensible.  A mind that is sin-sick because it is sin-saturated.  If we reject God, God allows us to pursue every sinful, wicked and evil thing imaginable.  Later in Romans 1, Paul enumerates 23 sins (Rom. 1:28-32).  In contrast, the mind of Christ was holy, pure, and just.  Jesus’ mind is aptly described by Paul in Phil. 2:5-11 and in Phil. 4:8, he indicates the Christian mind which focuses on: “whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report…”  These things are virtuous.  These are the things that the human mind is enriched by and that enhance life now and prepare it for eternity.  Jesus lived a sinless life.  His mind had to be pure to produce a virtuous life of holiness (Heb. 4:15; I Pet. 2:22).  Only the pure in heart will see God (Matt. 5:8).
In 2005, the most popular Google searches were: Janet Jackson, Xbox 360, Brad Pitt, Michael Jackson, American Idol, and Angelina Jolie.  You can have a lot of information about these people, but it doesn’t rise above the mundane.  The human mind must be illuminated by the word of God in order to benefit from the wisdom which is from above and experience the sublime truths given to us from God.  All information is not profitable.  Some information is evil.  Knowledge of the secular may help you get a job.  But, only knowledge of the sacred will save your soul!