It’s What You Think, Right?
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, Romans 8:6 NASB
Mind – What a useful verse! It seems to unequivocally support the idea that real spiritual life is cognitive. I have to think the right things! It’s my mind that really matters! Oh, my, how the philosophically inclined early church fathers must have loved this. All that Jewish behavior stuff—gone. Now I can have a religion of propositional creeds and forget about what I eat, what I wear, when I work. Thank you, Paul, for getting me out from under all those rules!
It’s what you think, right? Isn’t that what Paul says. “The mind set on the flesh or the mind set on the Spirit.” Just to be sure that all we really need to please God is to think like God, let’s take a closer look at the Greek word phrónēma. The oldest root of the word was associated with the diaphragm, regarded by the Greeks as “the seat of mental and spiritual activity.”[1] Plato used the term to describe the inner life of a person, connecting it with the Greek sophía (wisdom). In the Greek world, this term is the objective of education and the pursuit of truth. For Aristotle, “it is moral insight or knowledge leading to a virtuous life.”[2] As you can well imagine, phrónēma is very much a mental condition in the Greek world, leading to moral and intellectual insight. Unfortunately, there is no direct Hebraic equivalent. The LXX uses the word in Isaiah 40:8 to speak of God’s “unsearchable” mind. When it is applied to human beings, “phrónēsis, which is from God, goes with sophía and aísthēsis (‘understanding, wisdom, and knowledge’). The three constitute a unity as practical wisdom with a religious slant.”[3]
Bertram summarizes Paul’s use of the word with this comment:
In Phil. 3:19 Paul refers to those whose minds are set on earthly things (in contrast cf. vv. 14–15; Col. 3:1–2). Rom. 11:20 warns the church against arrogance. Believers are not to be wise in their own conceits (11:25; 12:17) but are to associate with the lowly. Rom. 12:3 counsels sober aspiration. We are not to aim so high that we miss the goal. Paul’s goal in Phil. 2:2 is a common mind, for which confession of Christ is the norm (2:5), in a fellowship that Christ himself has instituted (cf. 4:2). With this mind believers will reject any other message (Gal. 5:10). A like mind is also the theme in 2 Cor. 13:11 and Rom. 15:5. “Observance” is the meaning of phronéō in Rom. 14:6. We are not to observe rules but to make responsible judgments. Maturity means setting aside childish reasoning (1 Cor. 13:11). In Phil. 1:7; 4:10 phronéō hypér or epí carries the thought of “concern” in both thought and act.[4]
Notice, if you will, that Paul’s approach is an inseparable connection between thought and deed. Yes, his goal might be a common mind, but that is not common cognitive assertion. It is common practical wisdom that initiates fellowship in action. Here we see that even when Paul uses the Greek term residing in the arena of mental action, he bends the word so that it is closer to the Hebrew double meaning of shema—to hear and to do. Paul is not a Greek rationalist. He does not embrace Plato’s dualism between the material and the spiritual. For Paul, thinking is doing, and if the deed doesn’t follow, then the thought was never fully formed.
We must also note that Paul does not couple phrónēma with a verb. The verb “set on” has been added in translation. Perhaps the translators felt it necessary to emphasize the pattern of continual decision (to the flesh or to the spirit), but Paul only uses one word, phrónēma. For Paul, it is either the mind of the flesh or the mind of the spirit. The word itself includes disposition, attitude, goal, direction, insight, and action. In rabbinic thinking, phrónēma is a gift from God, to be used according to the intention of the giver. But it can become just the opposite, a dangerous substitute for godly pursuit. It all depends on what one does with it.
The mind of the flesh is a disposition that allows the yetzer ha’ra full sway in decisions. It is essentially an attitude of self-superiority. Such a person calculates what is good based on personal desire. It is expressed in the verse, “When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise.” Before the woman even took the fruit from the Tree, she had already determined that it was good for all these reasons. Choice before obedience is at the heart of phrónēma. Maybe that’s all Paul is really saying. Choose wisely. Obedience is more important than liberty.
Topical Index: phrónēma, mind, Romans 8:6
[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (p. 1277). Grand Rapids, MI: W.B. Eerdmans.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Ibid.
[4] Ibid.
