Today I will broaden our targeted passage but not by much, so here it is, 1Corinthians 2:6-13, 14-16 which states this in the ESV, our target is verse 14, "Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away. But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of GOD, which GOD decreed before the (Genesis 1) ages for our glory. None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the LORD of glory. For, as it is written (by Isaiah in 64:4, 65:17), "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him"— these things GOD has revealed to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of GOD. For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit [be it evil or redeemed to goodness in righteousness] of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of GOD except the Spirit of GOD. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, again, but the Spirit Who is from GOD, that we might understand the things freely given us by GOD. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
For the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of GOD, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one. "For who has understood the mind of the LORD so as to instruct Him?" But [For] we have the mind of Christ." Over the past few days we have intensely looked at ignorance which carries the curse of Deuteronomy 18:15-22 and more of verses 18 and 19. Verse 14 speaks of the carnally minded (in the phrase the natural) person which is the beginning point for all. So I will undertake the looking into carnal mind, evil thoughts, evil imagination, grossness and then the spiritual mind.
Carnal Mind, by some general references,
Romans 1:18-23, 24-25, 26-27, 28-32, 2:1-11 "For the wrath of GOD is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about GOD is plain to them, because GOD has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew GOD, they did not honor Him as GOD or give thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal GOD for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
Therefore GOD gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about GOD for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, Who is blessed forever! Amen.
For this reason GOD gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
And since they did not see fit to acknowledge GOD, GOD gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know GOD's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things. We know that the judgment of GOD rightly falls on those who practice such things. Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of GOD? Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that GOD's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when GOD's righteous judgment will be revealed. He will render to each one according to his works: to those who by patience in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality, HE will give eternal life; but for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, there will be wrath and fury. There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek, but glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek. For GOD shows no partiality."
Romans 7:14-25, 8:1-8 "For we know that the [new covenant of grace or] law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the [old covenant of] Law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin [slavery] that dwells within me. So I find it to be a [principle of sin as a] law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the [new covenant of grace as a new] law of GOD, in my inner being, but I see in my members another [the new covenant of grace as a] law waging war against the law [the old now defunct covenant of] of my mind and making me captive [a slave] to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to GOD through Jesus Christ our LORD! So then, I myself serve the [new covenant of grace as a] law of GOD with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the [old now defunct covenant of] law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the [former] Law of [condemnation attached to] sin and death. For GOD has done what that Law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of that Law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to His Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things [outward things] of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the [inward] things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to GOD, for it does not submit to GOD's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God."
Ephesians 4:17-24 with Colossians 1:21 "Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. For they are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. Having become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. For that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about Him and are being taught by Him, as the truth [which resides] in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, by being renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."
Colossians 1:19-20, 21-23 "For In Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.
And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, HE has now reconciled in His body of flesh by His death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before Him, if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister."
Titus 1:10-16 "For there are many who are insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party. They must be silenced, since they are upsetting whole families by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not to teach. One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons." This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith, not devoting themselves to Jewish myths and the commands of people who turn away from the truth. To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; for both their minds and their consciences are defiled. They profess to know God, but they deny Him by their works. They are detestable, disobedient, unfit for any good work."
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