CHRISTIAN PSYCHOLOGY DR. E. C. BRAGG - Trinity College

- "I put my laws in their minds (10:16 - "in their minds will I write them."); I Peter 1:13 -
"Gird up the loins of your minds;" II Peter 3:1. - "I stir up your pure minds by way of
remembrance," so used three times of understanding (a full grasping of the knowledge by
the mind, or lack of it); Ephesians 1:18 - "The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened;" Ephesians 4:18 -"Having the understanding darkened." (Note the
psychology of the sinner's downward progression in this text, Ephesians 4: 17-19)
1. "Walk in the vanity: of their mind", lit. "Minds full of folly." Conybeare,
Williams - "Frivolity of mind."
2. "Having the understanding darkened." II Corinthians 4:4 "In whom the God of
this age hath blinded the mind s of them which believe not."
3. "Alienated from the life of God through ignorance."
4. "Because of the blindness of their hearts", lit., stupidity, callousness of their
hearts, insensible.
5. "Being past feeling," "Ceased to feel," "Conscience seared with hot iron." I
Timothy 4:2.
6. "Given themselves (abandoned themselves) over to all licentiousness, (lewdness,
uncleanness, living only in lusts.)"
7. "With greediness," with all lusts or eagerness.
8. I John 5:20, "And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an
understanding, that we may know Him that is true, and (know) that we are in Him
that is true.” The ability to know Him that is true is a gift of God, which agrees with
Ephesians 1:18, "The soul or mind as knowing, its rational ability to understand.
C. Ennoi - -only occurs two times in the New Testament. It is not the mind itself as much as
one of the faculties of the mind. It carries the idea of inner designs, motives of the heart, the
part of the mind which influences decisions, and motivates choices; certainly one of the
most mysterious of operations of mind, the why a person chooses as he does. What rational
processes go on to determine choice? Hebrews 4:12, The Word of God - discerner (critic) of
the secret intents of the heart, I Peter 4:1, "For as much as Christ hath suffered in the flesh
arm yourselves with the same mind," the same mind," the same intentions, design, and set
purpose of mind as Christ, "For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased (been made to
cease) from sin", i.e., identification with Christ in His death is to judge sin in the flesh and to
pass out from under its dominion, so vs. 2, "That he should no longer live the rest of his
time in the flesh to the lust of men but to the will of God."
D. Noema - only six times in the New Testament, five of them in II Corinthians and one in
Philippians. Paul is the only New Testament writer who uses it. It is a very unusual word
and, with the next word, explains quite a lot of Paul's Christian psychology. II Corinthians
3:14, "But their minds were blinded," so a veil. II Corinthians 4:4; "In whom the god of this
age hath blinded the minds of them." It has the idea of the thinking faculty, thoughts as we
think them. Note a very important truth taught here by Paul in the other two times the word
occurs, Philippians 4:7,"The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep
(guard, garrison, do sentry duty) your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus." Keep this
verse in mind and read II Corinthians 10:3-5, our mighty spiritual weapons, "Casting down
imaginations (‘logismous' – reasoning; Williams, "demolishing arguments') and every high
thing (lofty bulwark or fortress) that exalts itself against the knowledge of God," "And