No Heavenly Good!

This is a journal entry of mine from reading Philippians 3:19. The commentary is on Phil. 3:19d. Philippians 3:19-20 says, “Their end is destruction, their god is their belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things. But our citizenship is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. . .”

“we are so earthly minded we are no heavenly good! Notice: Scripture never warns of being ‘too’ heavenly minded, for it is not the tendency of man to do so, but rather it is the tendency of man to set his mind (heart) on earthly things.

But, it is those who are most heavenly minded who are the most good for the world. Think of Abraham who lived in the land of promise, as though he were in a foreign land, because he was looking for a heavenly city, and was it not John, the apostle of love, who was given visions of things to come from heavens point of view, or the Apostle Paul, who set his mind on the heavenly mysteries and sought to reveal those things to the saints, was it not also Paul who was caught up to the third heaven, and finally look at our LORD Jesus Christ whose mind was only heavenly, and did only the will of His Father.

Did not the LORD Jesus accomplish all good things for all in His life, which was set only on the heavenly. I would submit to you that the saying, ‘he is so heavenly minded, that he is no heavenly good’ is what the Devil has whispered in our ears when we are walking in the flesh, and so, we accept it.

However, in a sense this statement is true. The earthly minded have never accepted the heavenly things. Look at: Cain, or Esau, or stiff-necked Israel to the heavenly oracles of God from the prophets, or finally the Pharisees. For it would seem that the most heavenly minded man (Jesus) was no earthly good to them. Perhaps the problem is not the heavenly minded, but rather, the earthly good.

And humbly I must accept, this is only a problem the Holy Spirit can solve and no man! This is what the Apostle Paul meant in I Corinthians 2:6-16″

which says,
“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 hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the 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. But as it is written, ‘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 the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit 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, 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. 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 we have the mind of Christ.” (italics added for emphasis)