To Be Heavenly Minded, You Must Stop Being Earthly Minded

I want to be a deep thinker.

How about you?

When I talk about being a deep thinker, I am not talking about sitting in a corner and philosophizing. I am talking about obeying Paul’s commands in Colossians 3:1 and 2.

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth.”

In other words, I am talking about what you want, how you think, what you are chasing after.

I am talking about looking at the way the world pursues the things on earth, and pursuing the things in heaven, like that, even more. Looking at the way the world values the things on earth, and valuing the things in heaven, like that, even more. Looking at the way the world thinks about the things on earth, and thinking about the things in heaven, like that, even more. I’m not talking about moving into a monastery, sitting in a garden and chanting all day long or something. I’m talking about your life, your normal  everyday life, being driven by gospel principles. Superficially maybe you look like a lot of people. You are going to work, you are doing things humans do, but you look a little closer, there’s something different about what motivates you, what you focus on, what you sacrifice for, how you think, what you love.    

And maybe underline that word love.

Thomas Brooks talks about loving Jesus with an overtopping love.

I like that word overtopping. I hadn’t heard it before. It means a superior love, a supreme love.

To illustrate, he talks about this one old man who was asked whether he loved his family, and said, “Were all the world a lump of gold, and in my hands to dispose of, I would leave it at my enemies’ feet to live with them in a prison, I’d give everything to an enemy to be with my family, even if it meant living in a prison. But…” and that’s the key word, “but, my soul and my Saviour are dearer to me than all.”

We want to love Jesus like that.

Brooks talks about another man who said, “if my father should stand before me, and my mother hang upon me, and my brethren should press about me, I would break through my brethren, throw down my father, and tread underfoot my mother, to cleave to Jesus Christ.”

“Had I ten heads,” said one man, “I would be content for them all to be cut off for Christ.” Chop off my head. Put it back on. Chop off my head.Put it back on. I’m happy for that, for Christ.

“If every hair of my head,” said one martyr, “were a man, they should all suffer for the faith of Christ.” “Let fire, racks, pulleys,” said still another “and all the torments of hell come upon me, so I may win Christ.” One man, being asked whether he did not love his wife and children, which stood weeping before him as he was taken away to die, answered,” My wife and children!- my wife and children! are dearer to me than all Bavaria; yet, for the love of Christ, I know them not.” One young lady as she was being condemned to the fire for Christ, was told that she could be released, if she would simply worship idols, to which, she cried out, “Let money perish, and life vanish, Christ is better than all.”

I wonder - does all that make your heart beat a little faster? Because, that’s true spirituality. That’s normal Christian living. Not just the moment of saying that, but the heart. That’s what we are wanting. We all know the possibility of looking like a Christian on the outside, while thinking, wanting and loving like the world on the inside. And we don’t want that. We want to obey Paul’s commands to seek the things above, and set our minds on the things above.

The question of course is how.

How do we do that?

Because we’re not always living like that. At least, I am not always living like that.

And we know how obviously starts with the new birth, because, we can’t do anything apart from that miraculous work of God in our lives. But as people who are born again, now what? How do we actually think and live heavenly minded lives, Christ loving lives, in this world right now? Because, if you know your own heart and you are honest, you know it is not easy. And, if you look at the world, spend time with many believers, it’s sad, but you know, sometimes there is not a huge, huge difference, under the surface, when it comes to how Christians are thinking about their life, and what they are valuing. They are afraid of what most other people are afraid of. They are excited about what most other people are excited about. They are driven by what most other people is driven by. You talk to them about money, they sound like most other people talking about money. You talk to them about schooling, they sound like most other people talking about schooling. You talk to them about their priorities, they sound like most other people talking about their priorities. You talk to them about what they are thinking about, they sound like most other people talking about what they are thinking about.

Clearly, if we are going to actually obey the commands in Colossians 3:1,2 we need to know, how we do this?

How do we think what we should think, want what we should want, pursue what we should pursue?

Paul tells us the first step in Colossians 3:5.

“Put to death therefore what is earthly in you.”

And I’m so big on this right now because there’s so much good in God and the gospel to think about and live for and want, but for some reason it can be so hard for us to want to think deeply and enjoy what’s there, and when you look at the stuff we get excited about and want to think about in comparison, you wonder what’s going on? Why are we settling for all this when there’s so much more to think about and enjoy in Jesus?

We think maybe the problem is that it’s not that exciting. No, that’s not the problem. Or we think, maybe the problem is that I’m just not good at thinking about this stuff. But, I don’t think that’s the problem, if we are Christians. We can all think about and go deep in the gospel.

I think often the problem is that we have dust in our eyes.

There’s a moral issue.

What is earthly in you is like dust or smoke in your eyes. If you are going to see, you have got to cleanse your eye of that dust or smoke.

John Owen says it like this,

“If your mind is carnal and sensual, or filled with earthly things, a due sense of the love of Christ and its glory will not abide in them…A mind habitually filled with sensual, worldly thoughts is diametrically opposed to one that is contemplating and enjoying  the glory of the love of Christ; yes, an earnestness of spirit, pregnant with a multitude of thoughts about the lawful occasions of life, is obstructive of all due communion with the Lord Jesus Christ herein. Few there are whose minds are prepared in a due manner for this duty. Their actions and conversations reveal what is going on in their souls.  They rove up and down in their thoughts, which are continually led by their desires into the corners of the earth. It is in vain to call such persons unto contemplations of the glory of Christ in his love, because a holy composure of mind, by virtue of spiritual principles, an inclination to seek after refreshment in heavenly things, and to bathe the soul in the fountain of them, with constant apprehensions of the excellency of this divine glory, is required.”

Now, that’s pretty intense.

It’s in vain to call such persons unto contemplations of the glory of Christ!

But it’s true.

If your heart is filled with junk, even ok junk, but just junk, it’s not going to be filled with God. Your heart is like a cup. There’s only so much that can go in there. If it is filled with junk, and you want it to be filled with something valuable, the first step is, you have to pour out the junk.

And make no mistake, Paul assumes doing that is going to take work.

He says put to death what is earthly in you. He assumes there is something earthly in you, that you have to kill, that you have to fight. And we’re all in a similar position here. He’s writing Christians. Don’t think he’s talking to someone else. He’s talking to you.

There are two places you can set your mind, heaven or earth.

You set your minds on earth, you are acting like an enemy of the cross of Christ and if you are not putting to death what is earthly in you, you are going to be setting your mind on the things that are on earth.

So here’s the question. This is very important.

Are you putting all this to death?

In the next post or two, we are going to talk more specifically about how. But before we do, let’s start with whether or not, are you actually fighting earthly-mindedness? Because, it’s not enough to say, I don’t like being earthly minded. There are plenty of people who don’t like being earthly minded who are earthly minded. This requires some action. Some work. Don’t fool yourself by simply looking at your intentions. Go a step further. What tangible steps are you taking to not be earthly minded?

If you aren’t taking any, now, you have a place to start. While knowing where to start is not everything, it is something. You want to be a deep thinker? If you mean by that what Paul means, that’s great. Now, identify what it means for you to be earthly minded and think about how you can stop. If you are not willing to do that, don’t be surprised if your thoughts about Jesus and the gospel don’t ever really get going. You are not going to be heavenly minded without working on not being earthly minded. It would be like wanting to see something very beautiful, in the middle of a sand-storm.

It’s just not going to happen.