`Love with incorruption' (Eph. 6:24).

The apostle opens Ephesians 4 with an exhortation to walk worthy with

all humility of mind; he closes the section with a warning not to walk as the

Gentiles in the vanity of their mind, so that, whether he speaks positively

or negatively, the association of walk and mind is emphasized.  `Mind' in

Ephesians 4:17 is nous, and as this word occurs again in Ephesians 4:23 where

we read of the renewal of the spirit of your mind, it will be well if we get

a clear idea of its meaning.  The word nous has come into the English

language and is defined in the dictionary as `intellect', or if used

colloquially, `gumption'.  `It is the organ of mental perception and

apprehension, the understanding, sense'.  Apart from three references (Luke

24:45; Rev. 13:18; 17:9), it occurs only in Paul's epistles.  In the context

of Ephesians 4:23 is a reference to `creation'.

`And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in

righteousness and holiness of the truth' (Eph. 4:24).

The parallel to this in Colossians reads:

`And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the

image of Him that created him' (Col. 3:10).

This is a most evident reference back to Genesis and

the record of the creation of Adam.  The advent of sin dethroned reason and

put the flesh with its unrestrained desires in the seat of authority.

`Vanity' instead of sane judgment now characterized the `mind' nous, the

`understanding' dianoia, `thinking through'.  The faculty of moral reflection

became darkened, alienation from the true source of life, namely God,

followed upon consequent `ignorance', agnoia want of perception; the result

being stupidity or callousness, `past feeling' apalgeo, no longer `pained',

leading down to self-abandonment  and  uncleanness  in  excess.

In contrast with all this comes the word:

`But ye have not so learned Christ'.

`But be renewed in the spirit of your mind'.

`Nous is the human side of God's spirit in man; as to its source, it is

spirit; as to its action in man for intellectual purposes it is mind, i.e.

the product of the Spirit' (Dr. Bullinger's Lexicon).

Closely associated therefore with the renewal of the spirit, the mind,

that part of the nous that was subjected to vanity, darkness and blindness at

the fall, comes the putting on of the `new man'.  Now, in resurrection glory,

this new man will be complete, but during this life, the outward man of the

believer perishes and they who have the first fruits of the spirit, groan as

they wait for the redemption of the body.  God begins from within, and the

blessed work of renewal has already commenced in the mind of the redeemed.

This renewal of the mind is the only power that the believer receives to

enable him to walk worthy of his calling.  The influences of the Spirit in

this dispensation must not be confused with that which is Pentecostal.

Here therefore is another Selah.  Says the apostle, you were once

darkness, once alienated, and the root of your trouble was in the deadness

and darkness of your mind.  Sin had rendered you unreasonable, you had lost

feeling; then you learned Christ, you heard Him, the miracle of grace was