 By James H. Cagle |
“And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind: and they were afraid” (Mark 5: 15 KJV).
If there is a “right mind” then there must be a wrong mind. How does one know if they have a right mind or a wrong mind? And when one discovers they have a wrong mind, assuming they desire a right mind, how do they come to possess it?
When we think about the “mind” we generally think of the seat of thought, our thinking capacity, our way of thinking, and the state of our mind.
We know the man in our text had a wrong mind because of all the wrong things he was doing such as living in the graveyard, mutilating himself, and terrorizing the neighborhood. All these things he did because he was possessed with devils (vs. 2-5) and as long as devils possessed his mind he had a wrong mind.
Having an occasional wrong thought does not mean one has a wrong mind. But when one continually has sinful thoughts that they put into actions and are thereby living a sinful life then they have a wrong mind.
Everyone is born with a wrong mind. The mind we are born with is a carnal mind that is governed by our sinful nature and is at enmity with God (Rom. 8: 7).
When one gets saved they get a changed mind, which is what repentance means, and receive a renewed mind (Rom. 8: 6, 12: 1, 2) that minds the Spirit. And a changed mind leads to a changed life (Mt. 3: 8; 2 Cor. 5: 17).
We are as we think in our heart (Proverbs 23: 7) and our practical life is a reflection of our thought life. “The thoughts of the righteous are right” (Proverbs 12: 5), that is why they are righteous; they think right and are in their right mind and naturally live righteously. The righteous can be double minded, which is not the right mind to have (Jms. 1: 5-8).
Ultimately to have the right mind would be to have the mind of Christ (Phil. 2: 5), for His mind led Him to perfect obedience to God. His mind was one of humility, submission and obedience unto death (Phil. 2: 6-8).
We today can have this mind if we bring our mind, our thought process into obedience to Christ (2 Cor. 10: 5). If Christ is not Lord of our thought life He will not be Lord of our bodily life. The Lordship of Christ begins in the heart and is then manifested in the life. If our lives aren’t right it’s because our minds aren’t right.
