The State of Spiritual Schizophrenia

Websters definition: a severe psychiatric disorder with symptoms of emotional instability, detachment from reality, and withdrawal into the self An offensive term for a state characterized by contradictory or conflicting attitudes, behavior, or qualities

It would be real easy to jump all over several different places with this one but one of the most common would be a double minded man is unstable in all he does that however is not the text for today Today lets learn from the Apostle Pauls charge when he wrote to the church in Philippi while near the end of his 2 year imprisonment in Rome at about 61AD Philippi: Culture: a civically proud people as they became a roman colony after the great battle which ended the Roman Republic and birthed the Roman Empire. Therefore many veterans of the Roman army were settled there. Now why is this important to the text: have you ever been around military people? They are indoctrinated to a military system under a military leader and the only means of true survival was for a unity among the ranks to the governing authority which in this case would be the Roman Empire. It would be safe to say that many were devoted to ways of the military and therefore when introduced to the Gospel a form of Spiritual Schizophrenia came into being. But let me not get ahead of myself. Not only was Philippi a Roman Colony which granted them autonomy from the provincial government: exemptions from some taxes along with citizenship to all residents they were in some ways like a little Italy adopting Italian as their official language adding to this the fact that they were near the gold mines so the opportunity for great wealth was right around the cornerthey had as we would say today many things going on Having laid a little background info lets dive into the text itself. Let this mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus. It is a charge to be Christ-like mind 5858 Phroneo comes from Phren 5856 :diaphragm that which curbs or restrains. Figuratively, the supposed seat of all mental and emotional activity. Metonymically to denote the mind, intellectual nature/disposition diaphragm determined the strength of the breath, and therefore Phren came to signify the seat of intellectual and spiritual activity, involving the human spirit and its emotions. It refers to the ability not just to think but also to control ones thoughts and attitudes. Phroneo: The activity represented by this word involves the will, affections and conscience Christ 5986: referring to the Christian temper or nature/character arising from a sound Christian faith Let: denotes a choice, that there is more than one mind to choose from

Charge to be Christ-like

Bringing every thought into captivity

Mt 11:29