It has been a few months since I have written a book report for the website so I wanted to start again with a book I just finished by the puritan John Owen.
The book is called “Spiritual-Mindedness”. The title is exactly what the book is about. It speaks on the What, Why, and How of a spiritual mind and the effects that can have on our faith in Jesus Christ.
Owen builds his book off of this verse:
“For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.”
Romans 8:6
Owen begins on the current examination of the Christian world and the lack of spiritually minded Christians. This of course, being written in the 1600’s, is supposedly a lot worse today. In short, there are numerous christians who (though they claim faith in Christ, go to church every Sunday, and put on a religious show) have most of their thoughts on the things of the world. They think much of the world, its riches, its temptations, its kingdom, and little about the things “which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.” This leads many Christians to have little zeal for the kingdom of heaven, little passion for lost souls, and little love for Jesus. It is this crisis which stirs Owen to write.
He goes on to show the need to define where a true spiritual mind comes from. There are many who can think and delight in heavenly thoughts. Many who can come to church and get excited about the things of heaven. Yet shortly after the cares of the world rush in and they forget the zeal they so previously had and so quickly the heavenly thoughts flee from inside them. Thus to show the true roots of a spiritual mind, and to pick one out from among the fakes it is necessary to show that only a renewed and regenerated mind can produce a spiritual mind. That is, one who has truly been regenerated through faith in Jesus Christ by the Holy Spirit. Only this mind produces spiritual thoughts like a well spring. Only this mind delights, and continues in these heavenly thoughts. Whereas the unregenerate mind may have blips and glimpses of heavenly things, but they do not last and do not spring up naturally for it takes an outside source to create such thoughts.
Now that the source of a spiritual mind has been defined Owen takes time to define and show what the spiritual mind ought to be thinking on. The following is non-exhaustive list of what he writes:
- God as shown in Jesus Christ
- The omniscience of God
- God’s daily presence
- Christ’s death and resurrection
- The glories of heaven
- God’s continuous grace
Needless to say, this list could go on and on. Let us never use the excuse that God does not give us enough heavenly objects to think upon. We could take #1: “God as shown in Jesus Christ” and think about that alone for eternities of time. So John Owen wants the reader to see the majesty of heavenly thoughts and how much more wonderful they are then the vain thoughts of this world. Just as the man who found the treasure in the field buys the whole field with all his belongings because of how precious this treasure is, so the treasure of heavenly thoughts is worth all our time and effort to continuously think and discipline ourselves into desiring them.
End Goal is Always Jesus
I will skip a few of Owen’s points for the sake of space, as you can read them for yourself (which I encourage you to do), to land upon the final point. Spiritual-mindedness brings us closer to the person of Jesus Christ and forms us more into His image.
This should be obvious. The more time you spend with a certain someone and find yourself acquainted with them, the more you begin to think and talk like them. Humans are natural born imitators. So the more we spend thinking about Christ and therefore spending time in His presence, the more we begin to think like Him and act like Him. So Paul begs of us: “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”. It is the spiritual mind of Christ that is our highest goal while here on earth. Why would we not want to work as hard as we can to think what He thought, speak as He spoke, and do and He did. If we want to do this we are to discipline ourselves into the spiritual mind.
Paul says we can be: “transformed by the renewing of [our] mind”. Literally we mold into the image of Christ as our mind is renewed. Remember, again, it is not just intellectually stimulating thoughts about Christ, it is rather focused, disciplined and desired thoughts about Him that you love, cherish, and feed on. These thoughts will transform you. From these thoughts will your behavior start to change. From these thoughts will you start to speak as Christ spoke. Ultimately you will begin to know Him more. We know that eternal life is to know Him (John 17:3) and therefore we see why Paul would say it is the spiritual-mind that is “life and peace“.
Reflection
Let us self examine:
- In the last 24 hours what have I been thinking about? (especially when I am alone, to think about whatever I want)
- Have I taken the time to learn how to discipline my thought life as Paul did: “and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ”?
- Do I naturally desire the things of heaven? Or do I find myself leaning towards the things of this world and the cares thereof?
- Have I asked God to create in me a clean heart that may produce spiritual thoughts inside of me?
Take a moment to respond thoughtfully about these questions. Pray to God for anything He may be pressing upon your soul. The more effort you put in, the more He will draw out.