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double meaning attached to this expression, Ta epigeia, as to Ta epi tes ges, that is a thing
can be good in its right place or it may be positively, and not merely relatively, evil.
As the phrase occurs seven times, we had better record the references. Two references
are found outside of Paul's epistles, the one, in John, being an example of dispensational
usage, the other, in James, being an example of positive evil.
"If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not" (John 3: 12).
"This wisdom descendeth not from above but is earthly sensual, devilish" (James 3: 15).
The remaining occurrences are found in the epistles to the Corinthians and the
Philippians.
"There are also celestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial: but the glory of the celestial is
one; and the glory of the terrestrial is another" (I Cor. 15: 40).
Here the subject is the resurrection body and the two spheres in which the raised
believer will enjoy his inheritance. There is nothing evil about the terrestrial body, in fact
it has its own peculiar glory.
"For we know that if the earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a
building of God, an home not made with hands, eternal in the heavens" (II Cor. 5: 1).
Here the contrast is between the earthly, mortal, state and the heavenly and immortal
state (see verse 4).
The remaining references in Philippians are:
"That at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven and things in
earth" (Phil. 2: 10).
"Whose end is destruction (or waste) . . . . . who mind earthly things" (Phil. 3: 19).
These references to "mind" in Philippians are focused on Phil. 2: 5 which finds its
complement in Col. 3: 2.
Let us consider this reference in Phil. 2: 5.
"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."
The verses that follow this exhortation contain some of the most sublime statements
that are to be found in Scripture. Yet the passage is primarily introduced to provide an
example for the believer to follow!
A superficial objection to the use of the passage as illustrative of what is intended in
Col. 3: 1, 2 would be, that the example does not fit the exhortation. The Lord left the
heavenly glory and came to earth, whereas we are told to leave earthly things and set our
mind on things heavenly. It is true, that on the surface, the two passages appear to move
in opposite directions. The same class of criticism would find fault with the examples of