Ephesians 4:23

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Ephesians 4:23 “to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds,”

If I was to give a title for this verse then it would be “Putting on the new Self”.

Self in itself is Man without God!

The essence of this verse is about not just the renewing of the mind but the “spirit of the mind”. Let me explain. Your mind is an unseen battlefield and has a character of its own, and indeed the mind is a spirit. This explains why the mind is the first place that Satan attacks. Once he gets hold of your mind it’s like 98{d1e2c760763fa7ce5ec6ebff4be1053441992b57dd6064ed979b6723dfa2e06e} of the job is finished and the rest is simply putting it to action. There is however the spirit of God and of course that of the man that constantly wrestles with each other.

The Bible says Let this mind be in you- Philippians 2:5. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,”. If we are to constantly have the mind of Christ it needs renewing as we don’t often or not able to maintain it without renewal.

However we cannot take this verse in isolation without reading the preceding verses. V18-24

They *are darkened in their understanding, *alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to *their hardness of heart. [19] They *have become callous and *have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. [20] But that is not the way you *learned Christ!— [21] assuming that *you have heard about him and *were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, [22] to *put off *your old self,* which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through *deceitful desires, [23] and *to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, [24] and to put on *the new self, *created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

The renewing of the spirit of the mind is about having the knowledge of God and if our own mind is “self” which is man then we have to continually put on the mind of Christ by the renewing of it which is in this case the “spirit” which is God.

Christians sometimes distinguish between knowledge of head and of heart, but the Bible shows that they should love and serve the Lord with all that is in them, including their minds, at all times -Matt 22:37; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27. The “renewal” or “transformation” of the mind (Rom 12:2) is a process in which believers begin to think in new and right ways as they meditate on the truths of God’s Word.

Matthew 22:37- “[37] And he said to him, *“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”

It is impossible to love the Lord with all of our minds without it being renewed by the spirit of God.

Renewing the Spirit of the mind is much deeper level to connecting with the spirit of God, than just the renewing of the mind and this has to lead ultimately to transformation that goes beyond just quoting the scripture.

WHAT DO WE DO?

I’m persuaded that one sure way of doing this is through the studying of the scripture (Word of God). As we meditate on the word of God the spirit of our minds connects with the Spirit of the living God, then the spirit of our minds is renewed on a continuous basis.

We have to go into the spirit of it to have an impact which obviously the enemy is unable to penetrate.

Isaiah 26:3, Matthew 16:23, Romans 8:6-7, Proverbs 28:26 are good scriptures…

a. Let us all now ask God to renew our minds by memorizing this scripture-Romans 12:2 “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

b. Let us feed our minds with the word of God on a daily basis and live the word by applying what we read and we are rest assured that the mind of Christ is in us at all times

To have the mind of Christ in us is to be in the word on a continuous basis because he is the word revealed to us. Philippians 2:5 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,”. It’s about submitting to the Lord and giving him control

Let go of yourself and let the mind of Christ dwell richly in you so HE is in control at all times

What are your thoughts? How often have you engaged in this battle and how did you overcome?