By the Renewing of Your Minds
By the Renewing of Your Minds
by Stephen Rankin
Many people have Romans 12:1-2 memorized, or, at the least, are familiar with its basic message. Here it is in shortened form:
“I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice…Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds…”
We Wesleyans/Methodists love to talk about holiness. It’s easy, in this light, to focus on Paul’s warning not to be conformed to this world. Those of us who have been around a while know how easily and often we and our elders talked about the problem of worldliness and the need for holiness people to avoid getting caught up in the world. This is a good biblical principle, of course. We should avoid worldliness. Sadly, I don’t hear much of this sort of talk these days.
But how does holiness connect to the renewing of our minds? It’s a crucial connection, but a specific aspect of it often goes unnoticed in our late modern Christian culture and likely explains why not as many people in the holiness tradition talk about holiness anymore. It’s time to understand the connection and to take the renewing of our minds with utmost seriousness.
First, let’s not make the mistake of thinking that the renewing of our minds simply has to do with correct, orthodox thinking. We can be as orthodox as the devil, as Mr. Wesley said, and not be true followers of Christ. The renewing of our minds means more than getting right ideas lined up in the right order.
On the other hand, renewing our minds requires much more than the typical Sunday School curriculum or Bible study offers. I am aware, of course, of wonderful exceptions to my criticism. I know some people who write curriculum and they offer real meat. Nonetheless, we live in a very impatient and pragmatic culture, which means that many Christians want to get quickly to the practical application of a teaching and often skip over the “heady” stuff. This dismissiveness of substantial amounts of Christian doctrine condemns us to shallowness and, ironically, we fall short of the application we desire by missing the deeper aspects of Christian doctrine, where the real transformation takes place.
Let’s dig a little deeper, then, to what Paul means by the call to renew our minds. The Greek word for “mind” that he used is nous (more specifically, the plural, noos). It refers to reason and understanding, as we might expect, but it means more than simply grasping ideas. It includes “making sense,” you might say, of ideas or circumstances or relationships. It means making connections that aren’t obvious and recognizing implications that don’t come without some reflection. If those Roman Christians were to avoid being conformed to this world, they needed to understand the realities of the world they inhabit. They needed to go below surface-level appearances. They needed to think and to probe and to consider, which would lead them to godly action.
The renewing of their minds included recognizing how the Greco-Roman culture of their day continued to influence not only their understanding, but also their desires and inclinations. They needed real clarity of thought to know how to live as real Christians in the real world, the sort of clarity that Paul illustrates so well in Romans 7. They needed to understand that Christ, by the Spirit, was re-making them top to bottom and inside-out.
Consider another powerful bit of Pauline encouragement related to our minds, from Philippians 2:5, “Let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” Here, the Greek word is phronema, a term indicating a kind of deep, practical wisdom. And Christ is the example par excellence of the phronema we are called to embody: alert, teachable, humble, committed, thinking more highly of others than we think of ourselves. John Wesley loved to quote this verse. To be entirely sanctified is to have the mind of Christ and to walk as Christ walked. It is most definitely a goal to which we all should aspire.
These words, nous and phronema, complement each other to encourage us toward the kind of work we need to do if we desire to follow Christ fully. They prompt a number of thoughts. Let me share two among the most important:
- The renewing of our minds requires the development of the habit of study. Every Christian needs to study as a normal aspect of discipleship. This means you! I’m currently reading a book by the sociologist, Christian Smith, titled, Why Religion Went Obsolete. One of the major conclusions he draws is that most Christians live vicariously through their clergy. Pastors are supposed to study. It’s their job. Many people somehow think that it’s enough for the rest of us to let the clergy do the work for us. It’s a dangerous assumption. If you sincerely desire to follow Christ, then you are committed to the renewing of your mind. And that means study. Not occasionally, but consistently, habitually.
- The renewing of our minds requires that we study more than the Bible. It may surprise you (maybe not) to realize that, to understand biblical truth, we need to read theological sources outside the Bible, and I don’t mean just biblical commentaries. (A foundational example of this point is the doctrine of the Trinity.) By all means, we need to study the Bible thoroughly, but to do so fruitfully means that we look carefully at other people’s conclusions about biblical truth as well as examining Scripture ourselves. This is exactly what studying theology means. A wealth of insight and encouragement awaits those who are willing to make the effort. Read contemporary writers, but don’t forget rich resources of the historic church.
I end, therefore, with a practical suggestion. If study has not been a big part of your life, I encourage you to dig into The Faith Once Delivered: A Wesleyan Witness to Christian Orthodoxy (Seedbed, 2022). Use its internal references to Scripture, to John Wesley’s writings, and to other authors from across the centuries, go further. Do the work prayerfully, with a heart open to the renewing of your mind. Stay with it. I think you’ll be amazed and how God transforms your life.
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