Of Two Minds

While waiting to board my flight home from Entebbe, Uganda, I struck up a conversation with a young man who happened to be from Ireland. He was friendly, outgoing, accomplished, and humanitarian in his pursuits. I learned that he had been a professional soccer player and now ran a nonprofit business to provide for needy Majority World communities through agricultural endeavors. He reinvests any profits in those areas. It is a selfless and benevolent enterprise.

The young man came around to inquiring about my reason for being in Uganda. I explained that I was there to train pastors who lack access to formal training. (Become a pastor—or missionary—if you want an easy opener for conversations about faith.)

He talked about his background in the Catholic Church. He had evident respect for his religious roots. But it was clear from much he said that his worldview was primarily secular. When we discussed the rural people in Uganda who had such joy and an overwhelming kindness toward us as visitors despite their very humble means, it became apparent. It prompted him to state his belief that “people are all by nature good.” It was tempting, but not the time or place for me to discuss the sin nature. Before boarding the plane, there wouldn’t be an opportunity to explain why there would be no Catholic Church if his belief were true.

I wish I had just left the young man with this question: Why do more people lead to more evil? Think about it: if rural people in a remote area are proof of the basic goodness of humanity, then more of them crowded together should produce nothing but more good. Instead, we see the opposite. The denser the population, the more evil is created. If we were good by nature, as kids, we would not have to be taught not to lie, be selfish, disobey, etc. We would have to learn how to do the wrong thing!

As lovely and sweet as people can be, humans can’t do what is pleasing to God on their own. Our nature leads us to do the opposite. Even if we want to, we can’t simply will ourselves into pleasing God. Paul knew how that felt. He said, “For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want” (Romans 7:19). In the next chapter of Romans, he explains why.

Two minds are directing our choices. One is the mind driven by the flesh, the other the mind guided by the Spirit. The mind of the flesh says, “I can do good on my own.” The mind of the Spirit says, “I cannot please God apart from the Spirit.” Ultimately, “those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5).

The only force that can help us to make God-pleasing choices is the power of God, the Holy Spirit. Without His power to make godly choices, our minds default to the flesh. As theologian N.T. Wright observes,

We are not to be surprised if living as Christians brings us to the place where we find we are at the end of our resources, and that we are called to rely on the God who raises the dead.

—N. T. Wright, writer, theologian, and Bishop of Durham in the Church of England (1948–) N. T. Wright, Following Jesus (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1997)

So it takes the power that raised Christ from the dead to put you in your right mind, allowing you to make choices pleasing to Him. That doesn’t mean you will never think about sin. There is no immunization from sinful desires. The difference is what we do with those thoughts and desires. Jesus said, “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).

“You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.” —Isaiah 26:3 ESV