Spirit-controlled thinking

 
         A major concern of every thoughtful person is the nature and purpose of life. Why am I here, and what should I be doing? Both parts of the question are dealt with in today’s passage (Rom. 6:8). We are to let our minds be “governed by the Spirit” and the result will be “life and peace.” Verse 8 tells us the way to live (Spirit-controlled) and the result of living that way (life and peace). But the verse also tells us how to “die” and that is to allow the mind to be "governed by the flesh." So we are faced with two options (life and death) and they both depend upon how the mind is being controlled. The Greek word used here (phronema, “mind”) is not the normal term for what we think of as the thinking mechanism. It occurs but 3 times in the New Testament (always in the book of Romans) and refers to a person's way of thinking or mindset. What Paul means by the word is how we view things – do we look at reality from a this-world point of view or do we have a spiritual perspective. It makes all the difference in how one understands reality.
         Let's use Scripture as an example. From a worldly perspective it is an ancient book honored by the Jewish religion. However, modernism, unlike Judaism, could not hold it to have a divine origin because strict materialism is at least agnostic about anything thought to be "out there." However, from a spiritual perspective (understanding "spiritual" as related to God's Spirit) it is the very word of God, inspired and authoritative. So when the world reads, "thou shalt not commit adultery" they may smile (it’s not all that big a deal), but the sincere believer will take it seriously as God warning him, "Don't go to bed with that man's wife." The illustration represents how these two points of view lead to vastly differing results.
         What Paul is saying is that the worldly perspective leads to “death.” The death of which he speaks is not only eternal separation from God, but the failure to use the present life in any meaningful way. That is certainly the wrong direction so where will a spiritual perspective take us? The apostle’s answer is "life and peace." In the final analysis life is an attribute of God alone. Before there was anything there was God and therefore there was life because "God is life" and apart from him nothing but death. The other result of thinking spiritually is the continuing sense of spiritual wellbeing that we call "peace" – the shalom of God. Outside of God’s presence all is in turmoil. There is individual unrest and there is global confusion. But in God’s presence all is well. To view all of life from a perspective supplied by the Spirit is to live life as it meant to be lived, and therefore prepare us for eternity.