Breadth of Mind and the Bible – Spiritually
Breadth of Mind and the Bible – Spiritually
In my first two articles on breadth of mind and the Bible, I deliberately glossed over the spiritual breadth of mind the Christian is called upon to gain. Well, here we are. While I do hope you will take the time to read all four Articles on this topic, this is not required as each Article is intended to stand on its own. So, what is this “spiritual breadth of mind” and how is it gained?
The Starting Line
Every accountable person is … outside of Christ. The Creator alone determines the exact instant one is accountable for knowing the difference between right and wrong. Unfortunately, that is the moment of demise. Everyone is “under sin; as it is written, ‘There is none righteous, not even one. There is none who understands; there is none who seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become useless. There is none who does good … not even one’” (Ro 3:9-12). Being outside of Christ has many negative realities. Here is one. Since Jesus Christ is declared as God’s mystery “in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col 2:3), then all outside territories contain no accurate spiritual knowledge.
Biblically, the one outside is called the “natural man.” That man “does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them …” (1Cor 2:14). Indeed, the natural man is both “alienated and hostile in mind” (Col 1:21). Being separated from God’s knowledge, wisdom and understandings automatically results in a narrowed mind. This is either true – or a foul, delusional claim. Absent His resurrection, I would pay this claim no mind.
“Your Sin Remains”
The Author of the Bible often uses a physical incident to illustrate a spiritual truth. In the Gospel of John, there is an account of Jesus healing a man who had been born blind. After a tremendous altercation with the Jewish religious leaders (Jn 9:1-38), this formally blind man found Jesus and fell in worship before Him. Jesus accepted his worship and announced, “For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see; and those who see may become blind.” Some Pharisees heard this and sarcastically said, “We are not blind too are we?” He responded, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see’; your sin remains” (Jn 9:39-41). The natural man is spiritually blind. To come to Jesus, saying “I see!” is the sure way to walk away still being blind … “your sin remains.”
This means … the most learned Christian scholar, who has amassed a mountain of genuine, accurate spiritual material from the living Creator, will be the first to tell the new convert, “I started out just like you … blind – knowing nothing.” The second most learned saint will say the same thing. The third most learned will offer the same refrain. And so will the fourth, fifth, sixth … in fact, you will hear this from every single, genuinely-in-God, spiritual person who has ever been, is, or will be. Different faces, different places, different ages, but the same refrain. Speaking of refrains, these lyrics from my song, “Listen To Him” summarize this point.
“Every single Christian starts out just the same – A total fool – blinded – and dead, in his own name. He has nothing to offer anyone except stupidity and shame. That’s his only claim to fame.”
This is fantastic news for one who now seeks God. “He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?” (Ro 8:32). The scholar knows that a rhetorical question in Koine Greek is a literary device for the strongest form of statement. This is an assertion that God holds nothing back from those who are willing to learn from Him. “Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost … Listen carefully to Me and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance.” (Isa 55:1-2). A genuine spiritual Christian “giant” will never place a money barrier between a person – and the knowledge, wisdom or understandings of God because … God doesn’t.
We Are Not to Remain at the Starting Line
When we reach this starting line, having called upon the Lord with something akin to the plea of the grief-stricken Publican, “God, be merciful to me, the sinner” (Lk 18:13,14) … the Starter’s pistol fires. The race is on. The windows of heaven are thrown wide open! One can go – and grow – into a spiritual breadth of mind as far as one is willing to go. The only cost is … the flesh. That explains …
Why Christians Stumble Around the Starting Line and Some Barely