`apprehended of Christ Jesus'. But has he not already done enough? He has, he tells us,

`counted loss' all the things of the flesh in which he might have confidence, and counts

them but dung that he might win Christ. His all prevailing passion is, he tells us, "That I

may (come to) know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His

sufferings, being made conformable unto His death" (Phil. 3: 10). He continues (15-17):

Become fellow-imitators of me in being `thus minded'. As Christ was completely

devoted to the mind of God, so Paul was completely devoted to the mind of Christ, and

his desire for other believers is that they should be equally devoted to the mind of Christ.

Paul could say, probably with unmatched devotion, "With the mind I myself serve the

law of God". But here he uses a different word for `mind': nous, it is `the organ of

thinking and knowledge, the understanding; or especially, the organ of moral thinking'.

It is that which is filled either with the `carnal mind' or `the mind of the spirit'. This is

the word he uses when he says, `we have the mind of Christ' (I Cor. 2: 16). The

Companion Bible note on Rom. 7: 25 includes this comment: "mind = mind (the new

nature) indeed". It is this which Paul says in Rom. 12: 2 needs to be `renewed' that

being thus transformed, we may `prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,

will of God'. It is also plain from the first two verses of Rom. 12: that the renewal of

the mind comes as we present our bodies living sacrifices, holy, acceptable unto God,

which is our reasonable service.

We have the responsibility as believers to see that the content of our minds, the

`minding', is worthy of the `mind' which is given to us. This mind, the organ of our

thinking and understanding, may be strengthened and nourished if occupied with `those

things which are above'; it will certainly be choked and weakened if occupied with the

things `which are upon the earth'. The more it is occupied with the things of the spirit,

the more effective it will become and the more certainly shall we fulfil the desires of God

for us. But if constantly kept occupied with the things of earth, with the `mind of the

flesh', it should hardly surprise us if we find great difficulty concerning the will of God.

Someone once said `Love God, and do as you please': if we love Him sufficiently to

count all things but loss, if our minds are so completely taken up with Him, then the

things we do will be such as will please Him.

We pointed out in the first article that in Rom. 12: 2 it would be more accurate to

render `the renewing of your mind' as `the mind', and that the word for `renew' includes

the preposition ana, which in a composite word has the significance of `up to, towards,

up, . . . . . hence with a sense of strengthening'. The mind of the believer needs to be

strengthened by being occupied with the things above.  This results both in the

transformation of the life, and the proving `what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,

will of God'.

However, few of us attain to the standard put forward by Paul in Phil. 3:, and, as we

have seen, even he was not satisfied with his attainment in this connection. Are we then