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observe that the Apostle used it when he told the Philippians that he was sure that the
Lord would be perfect that good thing He had begun in them, and at the close of the
epistle he speaks of their kindly thought concerning himself and his needs. The word is
used in the following passages with the phrase to auto (the same):--
"Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be like minded" (Phil. 2: 2).
"Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us
mind the same thing" (Phil. 3: 16).
"My longed for, my joy . . . . . be of the same mind in the Lord" (Phil. 4: 2).
These passages bring us nearer to our theme. Apparently there is to be singleness of
eye among those who would walk worthy of their high calling. This is definitely
expressed in the next reference.
"Being of one accord, of one mind" (Phil. 2: 2).
This exhortation is practiced by the Apostle himself, for although phroneo is not
actually used in Phil. 3: 13, 14, the same spirit is manifest when he said:--
"Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I
press toward the mark" (Phil. 3: 13, 14).
This is to be the "mind" of those who would be perfect (Phil. 3: 15). Here we get
further light upon our theme. To set the mind on things above, and not on things on the
earth, is to forget the things that are behind and to reach forth for the things associated
with the prize of the high calling. The history of Israel illustrates the principle. After
their deliverance out of Egypt, instead of forgetting the things which were behind, we
read that they said "we remember", and this remembrance of things left behind proved
their undoing.
Most of our readers are aware that, in a lower sphere, Philippians finds its most perfect
parallel in the epistle to the Hebrews (For demonstrative evidence of this feature the
reader is referred to Volume XX, page 231). In Heb. 6: 1 we have the exhortation:
"Therefore leaving . . . . . let us go on." To mind things that are on the earth may
therefore have regard to the ignoring of dispensational changes, as, for instance, mixing
the things of the kingdom with the things pertaining to the church of the mystery, and this
is prominent in the exhortation of Col. 3: 1, 2.
We now observe that the N.T. uses two expressions:
"Things on the earth" (Ta epi tes ges, Col. 3: 2).
"Earthly things" (Ta epigeia, Phil. 3: 19).
We have already seen that the phrase used in Col. 3: 2 may refer to good things,
such as the future kingdom that is to be on the earth, and that the only evil connected with
such "things on the earth" arises from an undispensational use of them. There is the same