What do you set your mind on?

I will tell you one reason that is an important question. In Philippians 3:19 Paul describes those who walk as enemies of the cross of Christ. “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with their mind set on earthly things.”

What does it mean to set your mind on earthly things?

Jeremiah Burroughs gives 9 characteristics. I’ll paraphrase.

• Earthly things are not just a thing for you, they are THE thing.

• Your thoughts are consumed with earthly things.

• Your greatest love and joy is found in earthly things.

• Your life is filled with distracting cares and worries about earthly things.

• You expend the greatest energy pursuing earthly things.

• The glory of God is not your first priority and motivation.

• You are earthly in the way you approach religious activity.

• You are willing and even sometimes happy to make sacrifices for earthly things, but not for your relationship with God.

• You think of spiritual truths in an earthly way.

It’s worth thinking about each of those a little. If someone is committing adultery, he usually knows it. If someone is a drunk, people can tell. Earthly mindedness can be a little more subtle. For one thing, it is very common. But it is DEATH to our relationship with God. It makes us an enemy of the cross of Christ.

Let me ask you some questions that may help you do a little self-evaluation.

• What has made you the happiest this past month?

• Who do you think has it really good?

Jeremiah Burroughs explains that we know we are making earthly things the thing when we find ourselves thinking thinks like, "Oh, if I had such and such things as others have, oh how happy I would be. How happy are such and such men that do enjoy such earthly things at their will, in their dwellings, their furniture, their comings in; oh, these are the excellent things, these are the delightful things. These are THE things in which felicity and happiness consist."

• What do you think about when you have nothing else to think about?

If you know what your heart values, you need to look at what you think about in your heart! Maybe we can take that a step further. What do you enjoy thinking about? We’re humans, so we think about this or that. We’re living in this world and there’s a lot going on that we have to consider. But, do you find your greatest joy in thinking about God and the gospel and biblical truths? Or in the stock market, basketball, or some other earthly activity.

• What are you unwilling to give up?

An earthly minded person may do spiritual activities and pay some attention to his relationship with God when it doesn’t cost him anything. But when there is a price to pay, he’ll give up. What he won’t give up however, tells you what really matters to him. It is like when a young woman loves a man who is obviously not good for her. She may listen as you tell her why she needs to let him go and pursue someone else, but at the end of the day, she won’t make the sacrifice. Some people are like that with earthly things. They complain about it, they recognize the damage focusing on it is doing to their relationship with God, but they just won’t stop pursuing it.

• What do you worry about?

Where does worry come from? Burroughs says one, we generally worry about things that we think are important and two, that we think we might lose. You look at what causes you to be afraid, you are looking at what you value and where you are placing your hope.

• What are you organizing your life around?

We all know there’s a lot in life that you just have to do. But, what are you putting yourself out for? How much do earthly things matter to you? That’s really the question. The earthly minded person and the heavenly minded person may have much in common. For example, they both go to work. They both have families. They both do a lot of the same things. But how do they do them, and why do they do them. When a child plays a video game, they often play that video game like it is the thing that matters most in the world. They think about it. They talk about it. Their little world sometimes revolves around it. An adult may play the same video game, but hopefully his approach is very different. He enjoys the video game but he’s not going to lose sleep over it and he’s not going to exert his greatest energy on it. He reserves his greatest energy for things that matter most. The heavenly minded person does the same. Jeremiah Burroughs explains, “Though they may be busied about the things of this world, yet they use the world as if they used it not. The things of the world are not adequate objects to their hearts. A spiritual heart reserves the chief strength of it for higher things. I follow these things in the world, but I reserve the chief strength for a more desirable good.”

• What is it that motivates you?

An earthly minded person is motivated by earthly things. Even when he is doing spiritual activities, why does he do them? Look at when he gets upset about sin. It’s usually when it makes him look bad in the eyes of others. When is he motivated to give? It’s when he sees that he can get something out of it. What sermons interest him the most? It’s the messages that he sees as relevant to his success.

• What are you willing to sacrifice for?

This is such a great question. Burroughs really goes after it here. Let me end by just quoting him.

An earthly minded person, “passes through many and great difficulties in matters of the earth, and they are very little to him. Though he toils a great deal in matters of the earth he is never weary because he is in his proper element. Therefore, let there be what difficulties there will be, which to another man would be very great, he makes them as nothing and, though there is much toil and labor, yet he is not weary. Why? Because he is in his own element. The fish is not weary with swimming, but a man is quickly weary. It is because the fish is in his element and the man is not. Observe this, when a man's spirit is in this kind of temper, let him be busied about earthly things, wherein earthly advantage comes in, no difficulties will hinder him, no wind or weather. He will rise in cold mornings and go abroad, do anything in the world. Oh! What difficulties will men endure in storms at sea, and hazards there and troubles at land, and sit up late, and rise early, and toil themselves, and complain of no weariness or difficulties. But, let them come to spiritual things, to soul business that concerns God and their spiritual estates. Every little difficulty puts them aside and discourages them. Every mole hill is a mountain in their way. I would do so and so, but it's so hard, and 'tis tedious to rise in a morning, especially in cold winters. It is very hard and difficult to read and pray. And so he complains of the difficulty of these things.”

How about you?

One big step to becoming heavenly minded is to stop being earthly minded. If we are going to stop being earthly minded, we have to identify it in ourselves.

What do you set your mind on?

It’s not surprising if it’s the things of this world. We’re discipled in being earthly minded. But it is dangerous. The earthly minded person ends up being an enemy to the cross of Christ, and we don’t want that. Will you pray with me that God will help us think differently than we used to, than the world does, for His glory and for our good?