6/1/26- Renewing the Mind
Hey, there! I had the privilege recently of being invited to share something with a men’s group that I’ve been participating in for the last couple of months, and I thought I’d share that here as well since I think it’s pretty general in its application. (For us, we’ve just wrapped up a “unit” on sexual purity, so it will be a little slanted that direction.) I’ll let you know up front: this is not going to be an in-depth study or anything like that; if anything it is more of a simple, fundamentals focused exhortation that I felt compelled to share at the meeting. You’ve probably read or heard these things before- I definitely have- but I don’t think it can ever hurt us to retread these things and remind ourselves of their importance. Our world moves fast, and we try very hard to keep up with it every day: things will get lost, truths will get hazy, and fundamentals will get rusty if we aren’t mindful to revisit them once in a while. (One of my favorite preachers, Jonny Ardavanis, regularly brings up the renowned professional golfer Jack Nicklaus and his habit to annually revisit the fundamentals of his grip, stance, swing, etc. with his long time coach. Jack would basically ask him to reteach him the game every year because he felt he could never improve so much that he could afford to neglect the basics, and I feel that we would do well to borrow some of that mentality in our pursuit of God and His holiness.) Speaking of rusty, my brother-in-law Rusty shared a teaching at our congregation (Eitz Chaim Messianic Synagogue) on Shavuot that I thought did a good job expressing the dangers of failing to value and internalize the word of God. If you are interested, you can find that (and other teachings) here: https://youtu.be/JFuY_IgnmUk?si=9ILe_zJX9JlmbZIi.
Alright, if that meandering preamble didn’t chase you off, let’s get into it: the jumping off point that I used for this is Romans 12:2, where Paul talks about being transformed by the renewing of our minds- but what does that mean? It feels pretty self-explanatory, right? It literally means to make your mind new. But just saying that our minds are made new/can be made new doesn’t mean much in a vacuum; it’s too nebulous. A renewed mind- without context- could easily become a horrifying concept: a literally blank slate, tucked into an adult body, incapable of functioning in the world around you. Fortunately, Paul and the other apostles (as well as King David, Solomon, and a whole host of other biblical figures) have a lot to say on this subject to get us moving in the right direction. The scriptures are, after all, in large part a guidebook on how we are to live our lives in the pursuit of drawing near to God, so it only makes sense that this guidebook would have a lot to say about what that process actually looks like.
Starting off, we have one of the most beautiful blessings in the scripture, succinctly expressing the value of fixating on God’s word: Psalm 1, which goes like this, “1 How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers! 2 But his delight is in the law of the LORD, And in His law he meditates day and night.3 He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers. 4 The wicked are not so, But they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. 6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” Opening up, we are given a contrast between the pursuits of a righteous man and a wicked one- put simply, they don’t share any! Instead, the righteous man is fixated on the law of the Lord, it being his primary focus and overriding thought each and every day; it is what he thinks about in the morning when he arises, and it is what he thinks about when he lies down. When he awakes in the night, it comforts and corrals him, and when he puts his hands to a task, it is what directs and upholds him. Every facet of his character is touched by this law, and it is readily evident in his life. What is this law? Well, setting aside any “moral law/ceremonial law” distinctions that we may try to draw, David here is referring to the whole of God’s word. All of it is a delight to him, and as a result he meditates on all of it. In Proverbs, we see the (often misquoted) chapter 23, verse 27, which you probably remember as saying, “as a man thinketh, so it he.” This is close, but the actual passage says: “4 Do not weary yourself to gain wealth, Cease from your consideration of it. 5 When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens. 6 Do not eat the bread of a selfish man, Or desire his delicacies; 7 For as he thinks within himself, so he is. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.8 You will vomit up the morsel you have eaten, and waste your compliments.” This passage reinforces the assertion that the things you meditate on will shape you, highlighting the danger of making wealth or physical commodities our central focus; it will produce selfishness and disappointment, producing resentment of those around you. I believe that this principle applies to everything in life- not in some weird law of attraction sort of way- whether it is money, authority, sexual gratification, comfort, etc. Wearying ourselves to gain anything produces an expectation that, if not met (or met unsatisfactorily) produces resentment. The things we long for and meditate on define who we will become. This is the beauty of Psalm 1; the man in question longs after the law of the Lord. He greatly desires to know it, to know Him intimately. The same thing goes for Psalm 42:1, “1 For the choir director. A Maskil of the sons of Korah. As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” Do our souls pant for God? Do we long after Him like a deer longs after the water brooks? We can’t if we clutter ourselves with everything but Him all day every day. Psalm 119 has a lot to say about this, too, specifically 97-104: “97 Mem. O how I love Your law! It is my meditation all the day. 98 Your commandments make me wiser than my enemies, For they are ever mine. 99 I have more insight than all my teachers, For Your testimonies are my meditation. 100 I understand more than the aged, Because I have observed Your precepts. 101 I have restrained my feet from every evil way, That I may keep Your word. 102 I have not turned aside from Your ordinances, For You Yourself have taught me. 103 How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! 104 From Your precepts I get understanding; Therefore I hate every false way.” Throughout the Psalms are example after example of the value of God’s law, His word; how it can shape a man's heart and guide him through every decision in life. Now, the group that I am in is working through various “units” of study to address things that men commonly struggle with, and right now we are wrapping up a unit on sexual purity and holiness. Sexual sin is, as I’m sure many of you are aware, an extraordinarily destructive type of sin to deal with, capable of destroying lives, families, and entire communities if left unchecked. Our society promotes and normalizes the sexualization of seemingly everything, from video game characters to inanimate objects, complete strangers to the girl (or guy) next door, and everything in between. There are whole communities of people who fantasize about having sexual encounters with inhuman creatures. Voluntarily or not, a lot of us passively are taking in and meditating on sex a lot more than is probably healthy. This meditation, to nobody’s surprise I’m sure, produces a slippery slope from quiet fantasization to pointed objectification, pointed objectification to an unfocused, generic longing, and from that longing to a fully dispassionate dehumanization, and from there can become a lifelong addiction, a dampener of the conscience, or even a source of violence that tries to forcefully reach for gratification. In short, it produces the opposite of what we have seen in the Psalms shared above.
I think the book of Ecclesiastes does an excellent job of summarizing the problem and the solution in just a couple of verses: “1 ‘Vanity of vanities,’ says the Preacher, ‘Vanity of vanities! All is vanity.’” (Ecclesiastes 1:2) “13 The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. 14 For God will bring every act to judgement, everything which is hidden, whether it is good or evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13-14) If you aren’t familiar with the book of Ecclesiastes or haven’t read it in a while, it essentially goes something like this: everything you have ever done or will do will fade away one day. Your work, your hobbies, your money, your house, and your legacy will all crumble to dust. Anything you build will one day belong to someone else, someone who may destroy it, and everyone you know will be forgotten. The rich man and the poor man, the wise and the foolish, will all end up in the same grave and stand before God. In light of this, the only lasting thing a man can truly do is this: fear God and keep His commandments. That word keep is the Hebrew word samar (pronounced shaw-mar, H8104) and carries these meanings:
to keep, guard, observe, give heed
(Qal)
to keep, have charge of
to keep, guard, keep watch and ward, protect, save life
watch, watchman (participle)
to watch for, wait for
to watch, observe
to keep, retain, treasure up (in memory)
to keep (within bounds), restrain
to observe, celebrate, keep (sabbath or covenant or commands), perform (vow)
to keep, preserve, protect
to keep, reserve
(Niphal)
to be on one's guard, take heed, take care, beware
to keep oneself, refrain, abstain
to be kept, be guarded
(Piel) to keep, pay heed
(Hithpael) to keep oneself from
Feel free to ignore the Qal, Niphal, Piel, and Hithpael for today; they’re Hebrew parts of speech that indicate the function of the verb samar, but as you can see the overlap in meaning is pretty consistent between them all, with the exception of the hithpael, which is context specific and reflexive. (I’m not a Hebrew linguistics expert btw, so I apologize if I’m not presenting this very well. Like I said, feel free to skip the verb distinctives; I just thought it was interesting.)
So, according to Ecclesiastes, keeping God's commands is one of the two most valuable things that we can do; I feel like it’s fair to then ask, “how do we keep it?” Well, going back to the Psalms, it is difficult to keep commands that we do not meditate on. If I don’t know something, I can’t keep it, and it can’t influence me or direct my decision making. In the New Testament, Paul says, “8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. 9 The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.” (Philippians 4:8-9) Now, in the confines of scripture, knowing the general slant of Paul's writing and thinking, what could Paul be pointing to? Answer: the goodness of God- especially as revealed through His Son) and His word.
I don’t mean to start going a “doom and gloom” direction about things, but to reiterate Ecclesiastes, the reality is that we’re all going to die one day. Everything we have ever had will go to someone else, and an uncomfortable amount of it will end up getting pawed through and/or in the trash. I did a bit of an odd-job last year cleaning out a house that was going up for sale, one of those houses that you can tell belonged to older folks; decades worth of knick-knacks, VHS tapes about trains, old woodworking books, etc. The fella who lived there previously seemed to have been (or was closely related to) a veteran, and, as best as I could tell, may have been a preacher at one point. He had clearly led a long, full life. However, after his passing, one of his kids and their spouse decided to sell the house, and needed it cleared. They took everything they wanted to keep, and hired me to deal with the rest.
By the time I was done, an entire 20 yard dumpster had been filled up, and I had to haul away or burn several pickup loads worth of other materials. An entire life, reduced to some 20-something year old throwing it all in the trash. I would imagine that, within the next 50 years or so, whatever of his belongings survived with his children will either go to his grandchildren or end up in a different dumpster somewhere else. I’m not sharing this to say that his life was worthless or anything like that, but to reinforce that nothing in this world will last forever, so we need to be careful not to treat it as permanent. If we get caught up in the day-to-day of this life so much that we take our eyes off of Jesus and our minds off of the word of God, we will drift into sin. We will justify the unjustifiable. We will take liberties that are not ours to take. We will forget the vanity of this world- it’s temptations and carnal pleasures- and begin to meditate on them more than that which is eternal. It isn’t wrong to have hobbies or jobs, but they need to be kept in a proper place in our list of priorities. It’s not wrong to emotionally connect with the people around us, or, if we’re married, connecting sexually. It’s not wrong to think about these things, either, so long as they are kept in their right place. If we have let them become overinflated in our hearts, then it is time to get really honest with ourselves and with God and start pruning. Our values need a course correction, and the only way to get there is through the renewal of our minds via the consistent pursuit of God's holiness as revealed through His word.
Hopefully this hasn’t felt too patronizing or basic; it’s not exactly high level exegesis or anything, but I feel that it is one of those fundamentals that is easy to take for granted and let slip. I have some days where it is a genuine joy to me to spend hours praying and listening to scripture and sermons, but I also have days where it feels like real labor to spend 30 minutes doing these things. I’m not proud of it, but it is the truth. I have days where I don’t feel like I struggle with lust or anger at all- and then I have other days where I seem to struggle with it seemingly from the moment I wake up until I go to bed. You might think I’m being overly dramatic, but I’m literally tormented by memories of times that I have sinned in the past, and sometimes it feels like I’m just a hair’s breadth away from doing the same old thing all over again. (I had a really bad day just like that a couple of months ago, which I also wrote about so I’d have a bit of public accountability.) I have found that, when I am doing really well, it tends to coincide with those times that I am more diligently pursuing discipline and obedience in my walk with God, and when I struggle it happens the most at times when I am more lax. I find victory when I am meditating on the law of the Lord, when I am consciously choosing to delight in His word, and I find that I fail when I begin to take it for granted or treat it like a task instead of a privilege. I would imagine that something similar could be said for you. I have learned as a married man that it is the easiest to keep my eye from wandering to other women- physically or digitally- when I take pains to avoid them and fixate on my wife as the only one that I will let myself consciously look at, and it is hardest when I catch myself pausing, even once or twice, and letting a reflexive glance linger. It isn’t enough to know that it is bad to lust- James 2:14-26- it has to be acted on daily. Nobody wakes up accidentally having become addicted to pornography, just like nobody wakes up having accidentally become an alcoholic; you got there just like I did, one step at a time, and you can be set free from it just the same way, through the miraculous work of God as He takes your hand and transforms your mind to become inhospitable to these things. You might have to stop listening to music you really like- or playing games, watching shows, and spending time with certain people. You might have to give up on hobbies that mean a tremendous amount to you because they present way too much of an opportunity for temptation. I stopped playing video games for about 6 months last year, got rid of essentially all of my music- a catalog I had been building since I was 12, by the way- and got rid of several collections that were very dear to me that were worth a decent chunk of change. I got rid of my alcohol and stopped smoking. I made an aggressive, concerted effort to shut down my addiction to pornography and stop willfully sinning. And you know what? Overall, I had more joy in those 6 months than I had had in years. Now, I still listen to music of course, but my playlists look nothing like they once did; my music that meditated so completely on me and my feelings has largely been replaced by hymns, worship music, or soundtracks from things like Silksong. My video games- which I do still play a couple nights a week- have been hacked back, and I cut out all of the most crass, vulgar, or sexual junk that I used to treasure. I’ve had maybe 3 drinks since last July. I haven’t watched porn in nearly a year. In that time I have read, listened to, and absorbed more scripture than at any other time in my entire life. I feel that I am nearer to God than I have ever been and understand His love for me and the people around me better than ever before. I’m not sharing all of this to try implying that I am perfect- I’m far from it- or that you need to do exactly what I’ve done. Some people might need to do more, and others less. I frequently ask myself if I should go further and, if so, how much further. I’m not saying that every single secular or non-explicitly worshipful thing we do is automatically evil; my point, like I said at the beginning, is that the things we think about, meditate on, and long for decide who we will become. The things we treasure and lose sleep over are what shape us into who we are. What are we willing to let go of so that we can learn to long for God? So that we can live in such a way that the majority of our lives become acts of worship to Him? Life is short and much of what we do in it is essentially worthless; why shouldn’t we make a more active effort in pursuing the one thing that is truly worth doing?
I know that this was a little long- what’s new, right?- and I apologize for that. It isn’t super structured, but it’s an important subject to me, one that I think is severely overlooked by a lot of young men who are seeking freedom- particularly from sexual sin- and I hope that it’s a benefit to someone. Whenever you’re reading this, have a blessed day/night, and may God give you strength and guidance as you seek to draw closer to Him.
