Some say that the bible
has little to say about the working of the human mind. But
the Word of God provides a treasure trove of minute detail about the
nature of our thoughts, the thought process, and our resulting
believing. Our levels of thought, cognition, and mind-set are
clearly seen in the Koine Greek language used in the New
Testament. There are over 50 distinct Greek words used to
describe the working of the mind. In the King James Version we
see these words translated as mind, minded, mindful, minding, minds,
heart, hearts, think, thought, thoughts, knew, knewest, know, known,
knowledge, discerned, discerner and many other English words that blur
the precise meanings of the Greek. (Continued below)
For instance there
are at least 14 distinctly different Greek words with individual
meanings translated as the single English word "mind." God does
not use words randomly. Each word in the bible was chosen with
great specificity for the exact connotation that it carries.
Fourteen distinctly different aspects of the mind are being described
yet in English we only get one word: "mind." This results in
great confusion and ignorance of what God has to say about the working
of our mind. What God made abundantly clear, mankind has muddled
in deceitful translation.
Those of us who have been
thoroughly "churched" can recall months-long mind-numbing series on the
building of the temple or some organization's "values" and
"doctrines" but we have never heard a detailed study of the
working of the mind from a biblical basis. Do you wonder
why? The understanding of God's desire for us to renew our mind
with the rightly divided Word of God negates all of the religious fear,
guilt and control of the denominations. Far from being set free,
our "churching" has led us further into bondage and fear.
We can renew our mind only to the extent that we understand the rightly
divided Word of God.
To ignore God's directive to
us as His children to renew our mind is to reject the blessings
promised to us. A life lived with a mind unrenewed is a life of
misery. There is none more miserable than a Christian who lives
in fear and guilt. If they find enjoyment in something they
immediately feel guilty. Then they feel guilty for feeling guilty
because they are after all supposed to be blessed. Then
they go about to make others around them feel guilty so they are not
alone in their guilt. We as a people have been taught that the
bible holds no real answers beyond religious fear. Preach on brothers!
It is no wonder that people turn to the tabloids and Oprah for answers
instead of renewing their mind as we are directed.
Everything
worth knowing about the workings of our mind and how to be transformed
by renewing of our mind is freely provided in the Bible. We
simply have to choose to do as God asked us: Rightly divide the
Word of Truth.
