Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.
Summary: The construction of Paul’s sentence provides us with some interesting insights into our relationship with God.
This verse provides an amazing glimpse into Paul’s understanding of the spiritual realm.
“Once you were alienated from God …”
The story of Adam and Eve’s disobedience comes to mind (Genesis 3). God didn’t set rules arbitrarily. His rules were not there to make sure we knew who was “boss.” When God lays down the law, it is for our benefit. He is telling us, “Don’t touch the hot stove!” because he doesn’t want us to get burned.
Alas, we touched the “hot stove.” The “burn” was an eternity in the spiritual lake of fire (Revelation 20:14-15). God’s entire creation had just gone up in flames!
Before we knew Jesus, another result of the “burn” was that we became enemies of God. The battlefield we fight with God on is “in your minds.”
What does that mean?
There is a connection between our “evil behavior” and our status as enemies of God. Paul explains that being separated from God leads to evil behavior. Evil behavior, in turn, results in us being enemies of God.
Perhaps another way of looking at this is to use the Bible’s metaphor of sheep. Isaiah writes:
“We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way …” (Isaiah 53:6)
Like Paul’s statement, Isaiah presents our sin in two parts. The first part is that we have “gone astray.” This represents separation from God. The second part describes what happens when we go astray. We each turn “to our own way.” This is where we get into real trouble. Doing things “our own way” makes us enemies of God.
Perhaps you are wondering how that makes us God’s enemy.
Jesus summarizes the entire Bible with one simple command: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). When we place our will first, we put ourselves above God. That is what makes us his enemy.
There is a very close connection between our “evil behavior” and being God’s enemy. Are we enemies because of our evil behavior, or does our behavior make us an enemy of God? I doubt that one can exist without the other. Yet, there is one major difference. Our behavior is what we do in the physical realm. Where we decide what we do happens in our minds.
Paul’s point is a good one. The spiritual battleground is in our minds. Our behavior is simply the visible expression of how the battle is going.
Application: We must submit our minds, as well as everything else, to Jesus.
Food for Thought: How do we submit our minds to Jesus?
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