Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered outside the gate. Therefore, let us go forth to him outside the camp, bearing his reproach. For we have no continuing city here, but we seek one to come.
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When reading the Biblical phrase, "carnal mind", most of us think of murderers, thieves, and immoral people. That is true, but there is much more to the carnal mind than that. In fact, most carnally minded people despise murderers, thieves, and adulterers. We see this in the story of the woman caught in adultery, in John 8. She was a carnally minded person, to be sure. But then, so were the Jewish elders who brought her to Jesus, trying to trap Jesus in his words. Those carnally minded men hated both the adulterous woman and the Son of God. They wanted to kill them both.
The "carnal mind" is simply the ordinary human mind. It is the mind with which all of us are born, naturally. The word "carnal" means "natural" or "fleshly". Here is one of Paul's comments concerning the carnal mind:
"They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh, but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. The carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be." Rom. 8:5-6
In these verses, Paul teaches us that a carnally minded person is a person whose mind is preoccupied with earthly, or "fleshly" things. He also states that to be this way sets a man at enmity against God. What is a "fleshly" thing? It is anything natural, anything that is of this world. Jesus taught that it could cost us our souls for our minds to become consumed with the things of this world. He said that "cares and riches and pleasures of this life" could rob us of our faith and make us unfruitful in God's kingdom (Lk. 8:14).
It is necessary to take care of our ordinary business. In this world, there is no way to avoid that. We must eat; we must wear clothes; we must work; we must attend to the business that the authorities of this earth require of us. But to become consumed with such matters is deadly. To be obsessed with fashion or with food is ungodly; one cannot live that way without opposing the sweet guidance of the Spirit of God. To scheme to gain ever more money, to hoard what money you have, or to covet the possessions of others is contrary to the Spirit of truth and love. To be a newsmonger, absorbed into every new headline, brings fear into the heart and produces the same vain talk that troubles and confuses the world. Jesus told us to rejoice when we see the dreadful events that he predicted would come as this age approached its end. You won't develop that happy attitude if you are addicted to this world's reporting of the news.
A carnal mind is simply a mind that is occupied with things of earth. Things of earth are not eternal; they are temporal. Earthly things are not always immoral, wretched things. They can be things as simple and innocent as cooking, or exercising, or working around your house, or hiking on mountain trails, or studying the stars, or a million other such things. But if it is of this universe, it is not eternal; it is not of the Spirit. Such things are fleshly, natural, "carnal" things. In its place, and in moderation, attention to any of those worldly things can be perfectly acceptable to the Lord. But in excess, such attention can consume a person's mind to the extent that he neglects his spiritual life and loses his soul.
Those who "mind earthly things" have difficulty comprehending the things of the Spirit. God's doctrine often troubles and confuses them. That is why Paul said that "to be spiritually minded is life and peace." When God speaks to a spiritually minded person, it is the joy of his heart, but when the true Word of God comes to a carnally minded man, it darkens his countenance.
In 1Corinthians 3:1-3, Paul mentioned this difficulty in communicating the truth of Jesus to the carnally minded. He said, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk and not with meat, for hitherto you have not been able to bear it; neither yet are ye able, for ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men?"
So, we see from this that saints of God can fail to develop the "mind of Christ" and remain carnally minded, remaining like little infants in God's family. Please note that these carnally minded saints in Corinth had many gifts of the Spirit (1Cor. 12-14). The grace of God operated among them mightily. Still, they were carnally minded and in danger of making shipwreck of their faith. Their own opinions, and those of certain false teachers, had become more important to them than God's true doctrine. The saints in Corinth were split into groups, each naming itself after an apostle-one even naming itself after Christ. Paul condemned them all (1Cor. 1:11-14).
What is it, do you think, that divides God's people now? Paul told us that being carnally minded divided the saints in Corinth. Would he say anything else to the saints now? I don't think so. The mind of Christ unites God's people; the carnal mind divides us.
The only cure for being carnally minded is to develop the mind of Christ and become spiritually minded. If God's people today will repent of worldliness and turn their attention away from the carnal things that have stolen their attention from Christ, God will heal us. What prevents us from doing this? What persuades us now that we have no need of deliverance from the carnal mind, when we are so divided and weak and confused? The answer is as shocking as it is true.
Christianity itself is that thing that makes it difficult for God's people to feel their need of deliverance. It comforts them in their divided state; it flatters them in their sin; it rewards with titles and authority. Christianity has caused the saints to fail to seek the face of God and to be made one. It will allow them to sorrow a little for the divisions that exist among God's people, but offers no hope whatsoever of any remedy. So long as they refuse to come out of Christianity, it will remain divided. It is a vile, carnal religion that offers nothing but divisions and confusion. The fact that it does so in the name of Jesus is what confuses God's dear little children, who themselves are like infants in God's kingdom, understanding nothing. They are carnally minded, and Christianity keeps them enslaved to its dead rituals and ungodly teachings because of it.
The children of God can deliver themselves from the bondage of Christianity if they will seek God's face in spite of Christianity's comforting words and vain promises of eternal life. Christianity has nothing that can elevate a person's mind above that earthly realm. Christianity has never cleansed a single soul from sin.
The carnal mind is nothing more than the natural, earthly mind. It is what normal people on this earth have. It can be sensible and organized. It can be highly intelligent and motivated to make things better for people. But it is not holy, and never will be. It does not understand the law of God and can never do so. Man is locked into spiritual darkness, locked into his carnal mind, and he cannot extricate himself from its power.
The power of the holy Ghost can re-create and sanctify a man's heart and re-shape the mind to think like God thinks. That is why Jesus came and died, to set us free from both our good ideas and our bad ones, and to reveal to us the precious thoughts of God, the God who told us, "My thoughts are not your thoughts, and My ways are not your ways."
You need the holy Ghost thinking God's thoughts for you in your mind. You need the holy Ghost feeling things for you in your heart. When Paul said, "Christ liveth in me", this is what he was talking about. There is no other way to escape the prison of our own carnal mind and its thoughts.