What Are You Thinking?

As an elderly married woman, I could be quite offended by Paul’s linking ‘old wives fables’ with profanity, but I get his drift and understand what he is getting at.

For most of us it probably isn’t what our granny passed down as wisdom that holds the greatest power to affect our thinking, although it may influence how we bake scones or what we plant in the garden. It is much more likely that our thinking today is affected by what we might call ‘received wisdom’ or ‘culturally acceptable norms’ or even ‘politically correct ideas.’

Other people’s thinking, especially when lots of people seem to concur can seem very persuasive, but it may be totally wrong!

This part of Paul’s letter to his young friend Timothy, is actually very good advice for us all, whatever age we are. He is urging Timothy to keep his mind clear of stuff that will confuse him or cause him to stray from God’s wisdom and the ‘straight path.’  The truth is there are numerous pressures affecting our thinking today, just like there were for Timothy, pressures to get our minds thinking thoughts that God would class as profane.

The word profane occurs more than thirty times in the New King James Bible and its root is from Latin words meaning ‘outside the sacred or holy place.’ Paul is urging Timothy to be careful and watchful that his thoughts stay inside the boundaries of godly thinking. However, it is clear that to do this will need some effort, Timothy will need to exercise himself, using determination and will power to keep his mind in check.

But is it just outside influences that affect the way we think, or do our minds seem to run away on their own tracks sometime? Maybe some of what we think about emanates from our carnal nature, our spiritual DNA. We are all Adam’s heirs, self-focussed gods in our own world. We have given over authority to the enemy, and he will use whatever part of our being we have opened to him, including our minds.

Maybe it is through pride in our intellectual ability, or perhaps, we have opened our minds through hallucinatory or mind-altering drugs or even tried transcendental meditation. Some repentance might be needed for our past mistakes because God wants us to bring our minds under His control. But you might say, my thoughts arrive uninvited, so what can we do?

In another of Paul’s letters, he instructs the Corinthians how to bring thoughts under God’s authority. ‘For the weapons of our warfare are not ]carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,  casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5). 

Jesus had an interesting thought in the garden of Gethsemane. It occurred to Him that He might be able to avoid the extreme pain of being crucified, a thought that came out of His humanity. He wanted to avoid the pain, but what Jesus did with this thought is a vital lesson for us all. He immediately brought it to His Father, saying ‘not my will but Yours be done’ (Luke 22:42).

So now, if or rather when, we become aware that what we are thinking is not in agreement with God’s truth, because it is outside God’s boundaries, and it is a profane thought, we know what to do. We need to use our will power to mentally ‘stamp on’ that profane and unworthy thought and bring it into ‘captivity’ to God’s truth and ask the Holy Spirit to replace it with the way Jesus wants us to think.