Evidences of the Carnal Mind

In dealing with this phase of our subject we can mention only some of the outstanding evidences and some of the most deadly and deceptive. As we proceed with this, let everyone breathe an earnest prayer that the Spirit may give light and understanding so that if any of the symptoms are present the devil may not get us to cover up the fact, but with honest hearts confess it to Him who alone can deal with it. There are many things we could well afford to be mistaken in, and there are those questions that we might brush aside without very serious consequences; but the question of heart purity is one in which none of us can afford to be mistaken.

We take the position that anything in the human heart that is an any way adverse to, or out of harmony with, the Spirit of Christ is evidence that the carnal mind is dwelling within. Now let us consider some such symptoms; and if you find that any of them are in your heart, be alarmed, for it is evidence of a diseased condition.

All of the conditions are not necessarily true of one individual life, for the carnal mind does not manifest itself alike in all. it works in various ways, and manifests itself in different ways in different people. In one it may show itself as pride, while another may find that in his case it is a spirit of retaliation; and another may not find either of these present in any marked degree, but find within him something that wants to become angry when things do not go to suit him. Some may find that several symptoms are present, while others may find a smaller number that actually exhibit themselves.

1) In Luke 9:54 we read: "And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them?" All Bible students will recall that this was uttered because the Samaritans would not receive Jesus. They acted unfriendly. Here is manifested the spirit of retaliation. Jesus immediately turned to them and rebuked them, and not only them but also the spirit in them that caused them to take such an attitude. How often do we see this spirit manifested, even in people who profess to be disciples of Jesus! It is an earmark of the carnal mind. We never find the disciples of Jesus acting in this way after Pentecost. When the fiery baptism with the Holy Ghost came upon them in the Upper Room, all this was burned out of them, and they went forth in love, blessing rather than cursing people.

When someone treats you with indifference, or does not give you the consideration you think you ought to have, or treats one of your friends in that way, do you want to avenge the deed? Do you feel that you would be glad for an opportunity to avenge it, even though you know that it would not be proper for you actually to carry it into effect? When someone criticizes an act on your part, do you become "wrought up" over it, and do you take a "fling" at him when the opportunity presents itself? Read slowly now. Do not get in too great a hurry to read the advance pages of this treatise. If you are a pastor and one of your members should venture to say something about a word or deed on your part, do you want to get rid of that person? Do you want to dismiss him from the church? do you meet the criticism by finding fault with your critic? If you are a Sunday-school superintendent and one of your teachers fails to fall in line with all your plans immediately, do you look about for some excuse to dismiss said teacher? We hear a layman say that if you do you are carnal. And we are very much inclined to believe that he is correct. Such is surely the doings of the carnal mind. But the same principle in a layman would also be carnal. We would not defend the official who displays such a spirit, but neither can the layman be defended. Of all misfits. we can think of none so pronounced as the official in a church being provoked to retaliation. To want, or actually, to crush one who offers a bit of criticism to some word or deed on his dart is certainly the work of the carnal mind; but in the end it is no more fatal to the official than it is to the layman or common citizen of the realm. If the disciples needed the sanctifying fire to burn out of them unholy tempers, we certainly all need it.

In Romans 12:17-19 we read, "Recompense to no man evil for evil ... If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men ... Avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath." We have heard people say, "I don't care what folks think of me or how they feel about it," and then proceed to act as though they were sincere in their statement. Every child of God should care a great deal what people think, and how they feel; for only as long as they have confidence in you is it possible for you to help them. Confidence can be easily broken down, but once lost it is extremely difficult to regain.

2) Mark 9:33, 34: "And he came to Capernaum: and being in the house he asked them, What was it that ye disputed among yourselves by the way? But they held their peace: for by the way they had disputed among themselves, who should be the greatest." Many have gone to the rocks because they had this same spirit of office-seeking. There are those who are always seeking the place of prominence in the church or community. If they are not elected, the people do not know how to appreciate talent, that is, to hear these office-seekers relate about it. If you are not elected to a position on the official board of the church, do you want to kick out of the traces and leave all the load for those who are elected to pull? Do you absent yourself from Sunday school when you are no longer elected superintendent, or appointed as one of the teachers? Is your place in the choir vacant after someone else has been elected leader of song? Or if you are not guilty of any of the above-mentioned deeds, do you "pull wires" that you may be elected to a high office or as a delegate to the annual meeting? Those who do the above-mentioned deeds, or use any other method of electing themselves, need to unload some pride or selfishness. Get rid of the carnal mind.

In Matthew 20:24 we read, "And when the ten heard it, they were moved with indignation against the two brethren." Is that the way you acted? We once had a member where we served as a pastor, who was very indignant about something one Sunday. After the service we ascertained that the cause for the indignation was that we had called on another brother in the church to lead in public prayer more often than we had called on him. This is an unmistakable mark of the carnal mind.

3) Mark 9:38: "And John answered him, saying, Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us: and we forbade him, because he followeth not us." Here we see displayed the disposition to think that we are IT, that no one else has a right to a place for divine service. It is a feeling that we have a monopoly on the supply of grace. But just as surely as Jesus rebuked John on that day would He rebuke all of like disposition or spirit in this or any other day.

4) Matthew 25:25: "And I was afraid, and went and hid thy talent in the earth." Here is a failure to perform a known duty, a failure due to indifference, or perhaps due to the fact that he did not want to shoulder responsibility. There are many who will not leave their comfort to help someone in need, or to help push the battle against unrighteousness. They think more of their easy chair than they do of the souls of men; more of physical rest for themselves than they do of soul rest of others. Now, we would not have anyone think that the failure to perform known duty is carnality. That is sin in action. But that which causes the neglect of known duty is the carnal mind. The failure itself is merely a skin eruption of the disease. While the teeming millions are without God and without hope in the world, how can anyone withdraw to the pleasant confines of home and ease and personal interests instead of being about his Master's business-that of rescuing souls at all hazards? We all need to get rid of the carnal mind and be possessed with an all-consuming passion for the souls of men.

5) Matthew 23:14: "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye ... for a pretence make long prayer." We must not understand here that long prayers are condemned. Jesus Himself sometimes prayed all night. That person who does not spend much time in prayer cannot hope to keep a lively and rich experience of salvation. Prayer is the Christian's breath. Those who have accomplished the most for God were individuals who waited much in the presence of God. The condemnation here is on the hypocrisy, because through pretense they prayed long prayers, by this pretending that they were very pious. It is not always necessary to use long prayers as a hypocritical cloak. Short prayers would invoke the same condemnation when uttered in pretense. We would not discourage long prayers. But when it comes to public prayer, we might take a thought here and throw away all routines and forms, introductories and conclusions, and by the help of the Spirit focalize and concentrate our prayers -- not pray "at folks," but direct the prayer to the throne of eternal grace. David said, "In the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." Here seems to be a metaphor taken from an archer. He sees his mark, takes aim, lets fly. Prayers that have a right aim will have an answer. "He who sends up his petition to God through Christ, from a warm, affectionate heart, may confidently look up for an answer, for it will come." We have known people who always commenced their prayers something like this: "It is through the unending chain of Thy divine providence," etc., or some other such phraseology;' and then, after having prayed a while, or having said some sentences of a prayer nature, they again have a set form with which to close their prayer. If a person who is acquainted with them should come into the assembly while they are praying, he could almost guess just where they are in their prayer, and about how long it will take for them to arrive at the other end of their prayer. Surely a heart that is filled with the Holy Ghost ought not to have a stereotyped form of prayer.

6) The disposition to push blame off on someone else is a very prevalent mark of the carnal mind. This is one of the very first evidences that Adam displayed in manifesting that the deadly work had been accomplished, and that Satan had planted the seeds of sin in his heart. But, oh, how miserably he failed in his effort! The God of all wisdom could not be deceived. We may blame others for this or that, but when the records are opened they will surely reveal who is to blame and where the responsibility lies.

7) Then there is that disposition of wanting to shift responsibility, as we see in the case of Peter as recorded in John 21:19-21. If there is a tendency to want to get out of responsibility because you see someone else who does not seem to "shoulder" responsibility, be alarmed, find a place of prayer, and ask God to take that deadly opiate out of your soul. It will bring death and decay to spiritual life If there is not an eagerness to please God and to grant His every wish regardless of what someone else may do, or may not do, then certainly there is a diseased condition and it needs immediate attention.

All the divinely bestowed endowments and opportunities will one day have to be accounted for. In that day faithfulness will be rewarded while retribution will be meted out to the unfaithful. The talents that we possess are not our own. They are merely loaned to be used, and we each have a responsibility in the great work of rescuing souls from the curse of sin. In all that we do, God's glory and not personal gain or advancement must be the objective. "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."

8) If there is any kind of disposition whatever of avoiding the cross, run to be delivered from that deadly thing, for "whosoever will save his life shall lose it." The apostle Paul was eager that he might find his glory and boast only in the Cross. Do you avoid the cross? Or, if not, is there a desire to avoid it? Is there a disposition of wanting to shun reproach? A lady said she liked the holiness folks when they acted nice; but when they got on a rampage, oh, my! Do you seek for someone else to do the disagreeable task? Do you go the way of least resistance? That will certainly prove your undoing sooner or later if you allow it to remain; for what gangrene is to the physical man. the carnal mind is to the soul or spiritual man.

9) Another outcropping of the carnal mind is a something within that wants to become angry. It may not always show itself on the surface, but there is a stirring within when things do not go just as we think they ought to go. Or it may be a feeling of resentment when we are prevented from having our own way about things. Many lives that would have been useful have been spoiled by that something in their hearts. Perhaps every pastor of a few years' experience knows what it is to have someone on the official board who wants to dictate the policy of the church and, if he is not allowed to have his way, will try to "upset the wagon" and ruin the whole plan. He wants to be the whistle. If he can't be that, he will become an obstruction in the way. A Sunday-school teacher was trying to teach her class the meaning of unity, that each is different from the rest, yet all have a place to fill. Said she, "Now, children, we will imagine that this class is a locomotive pulling a long train. One is a wheel, one the throttle, another the piston, etc. Now what part of the locomotive would each of you like to be?" All were silent in thought for a few seconds. Then one little fellow held up his hand. "Very well," said the teacher, "what part of the locomotive would you like to be?" "The whistle," responded the lad. There are those in the church who always want to be the whistle. But it is a fact that the locomotive can pull just as heavy a load, and climb the grade just as easily, without a whistle as it can with one. In fact, if the whistle is used the grade will be climbed with greater difficulty, for it wastes steam and dissipates power.

When you are out about your own labors and something "goes wrong," is there a feeling of anger on the inside? If so, deadly carnality is lurking there and endeavoring to do its work. When the wrench slipped while you were trying to tighten that nut, did you feel like saying something ugly? When the clothesline broke, did you feel like singing the doxology, or did you "fly off the handle"? We once saw a man up on a roof shingling. While driving away at his work, for some cause or other he drove a shingle nail through his thumb. The first words he uttered were, "Glory be to God!" There was glory in his soul, and a circumstance a little different from the usual brought some of that glory to the surface. When ugly words are spoken, it is because there is something ugly in the heart. Jesus said, "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." The German translation reads thus: "What the heart is full of runs over at the mouth."

Anger is an awful, deadly thing. It deadens body and spirit. It is spiritual poison within that causes anger, and then anger causes physical poison that is deadly to the body. We can all remember that time, before we were sanctified, when we were really angry. It caused a feeling of weakness to come over us. Our appetite disappeared. Some of us can remember that we were sick for some time after the "spell." That was due to a poisonous secretion within the body because of the spell of anger. We all know that tears contain common salt, but tears that are shed when one is angry contain many times the amount of salt that tears do that are shed when. one is in a good mood. Rev. A. G. Jeffries once told the writer of a woman in California who, in a spell of anger, nursed her infant child. Soon the child became ill. A doctor was sent for, but the child died in a few hours. The doctor declared that the woman had poisoned her own child by nursing it while in a fit of anger. But this thing is many times more deadly to the soul than it is to the body. You say, "Can I be delivered from that thing?" There is balm in Gilead, and there is a Physician there. Thank God!

10) Another trait of the carnal mind is that disposition that does not want to be patient. The apostle Paul says, "Be patient toward all men." It is sometimes quite a proposition to be patient "toward all men." It is not so difficult to be patient toward some people, but there are others who are a real trial. Perhaps none are more aware of this than the minister of the gospel, especially the pastor. The schoolteacher also soon learns that there are those who seem to have no other ambition in life than to try the patience of their instructor. However, that spirit of impatience will do much harm if allowed to remain. Patience enables us to bear affliction and calamities with constancy and calmness of mind, and with a ready submission to the will of God. It will enable us to bear long with such as have greatly transgressed, and continue to expect their reformation. But lack of patience destroys these beautiful graces of the Christian's life.

We have no doubt but that the good Lord allows some disagreeable people to come into our lives in order that the sweet spirit of patience may be better cultivated in us. We would urge everyone to make the very best use of such golden opportunities.

11) Then, too, we find that something that is touchy and sensitive, that something that wants to be petted; and, if someone fails to give us the recognition that we think ought to be given, we are offended. Someone with whom we are acquainted met us on the street and did not bow and scrape his feet to us. It may be he was in deep study on some momentous problem of life that was his to solve; but we do not think of that, but only of the fact that we have been slighted. We know there are some people who are very important and should never be slighted, no matter what the occasion; but it is a dangerous thing for even the important ones to "have their feelings sticking out."

12) There is also that disposition to find fault and grumble. This or that is not right and does not please us. Whatever someone else does, he did not do it in the right way, or should not have done it at all. We ourselves could have done it so much better! That disposition not only greatly decreases our usefulness, but surely must displease the Father in heaven, who looks on and sees the disease in the heart that causes the attitude, as well as the act itself. Here let us also mention fretfulness and peevishness. Though people try to help us and do their best to please us, we are of such a disposition that they cannot please us. O brother! run to the Cross. Do not allow that thing to make your life, as well as the lives of those about you, miserable any longer, and bar you from heaven at last

13) Do you have a love for human praise? Do you desire that people brag on you a little more than they do on others? Do you desire that they should say more good things about your singing, or your preaching, or your rendition of some kind, than they do of what someone else did? Is there an inner impulse to go about seeking compliments? Or are you willing that others should be praised, perhaps even for some noble deed that you did? Because no public mention was made of the fact that you contributed a few dollars to the church and its program, did you withhold your means? When your efforts or your money or your utterances were the cause back of some accomplishment, did you demand that people, or the church, should give you due and full credit? In the second chapter of I Peter we have these words, "This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with God." This tells us that there is such a thing as suffering for having done well, suffering because we did the thing that we should have done, being persecuted because we obeyed the Spirit of God. It also implies that it is possible to take such suffering or persecution patiently. It also tells us that only when we take it patiently do we receive any credit from God.

14) Along with love for human praise, yet somewhat different, is the spirit of secret pride -- a feeling that my talents and gifts are a little superior to those of someone else. By this we do not mean that sense of satisfaction that one has because of having accomplished a difficult task, but that feeling that I am naturally superior to you. We may never express it in words, or let anyone else know that we harbor such feelings; yet the presence of such feelings indicates that the carnal mind is still alive and active. In Proverbs 8:13 we read, "Pride do I hate." And in Proverbs 29:23, "A man's pride shall bring him low." Proverbs 16:18: "Pride goeth before destruction." In I Timothy

3:6 Paul warns, "Lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil." John tells us that the pride of life is not of the Father, but it is of the world. It will blight and wreck and curse what might have been a useful life, for pride is a plant that does not take its origin in divine love, but springs forth from the carnal mind. Here let us also include family pride, that feeling that my family has somewhat redder blood than yours, that my children are naturally better than your children; in fact, if it were not that my children are forced to associate with your children, my children would be very nearly perfect -- that feeling that I am somewhat of a privileged person because my father or grandfather was a doctor, or a lawyer, or perhaps served a term as justice of the peace. Do you find in your heart such feelings as these? They are symptoms of a deadly disease now lurking in your members, and sure to result in death sooner or later.

We have listened to people who use the "perpendicular pronoun" a great deal, and who like to tell about the noble members of their family, how great and brilliant their uncle, or their father, or their cousin was. This is distasteful to the listener, to say the least. Especially is this distasteful when it comes from the pulpit.

It would not be amiss, at times, to forget about the noble ones in our family ancestry and think of the "black sheep" that have marred the fair pages of the history of our forebears. Perhaps some of them will be traced back to the rogues' gallery. That would have a tendency to humiliate us a little, and then we would feel more like praising the good Lord for noticing us at all.

15) Another very ugly thing that springs forth from the carnal mind is a love of supremacy, wanting to rule, be the boss. You must do as I dictate. If you want to do something, you must not fail to secure my permission. If you do not get my permission, I will cause your undoing if I can. Jesus condemns such a spirit in the most condemnatory terms. In the twenty-third chapter of Matthew He speaks of those who love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogue, and tells His disciples not to do after their work. Mark tells us in the twelfth chapter of his Gospel that Jesus told His disciples to beware of those who love the chief seats in the synagogue. Luke records in the eleventh chapter of his Gospel that Jesus pronounced a woe upon those who love the uppermost seats in the synagogue, and greetings in the markets. If it were not for the deadly disease within, these external eruptions would not appear.

16) Along with love for supremacy, and akin to it, is that desire to draw attention to yourself. I have arrived. Now everybody notice ME. This is a very nauseating eruption of the carnal mind. It is repulsive. It makes the spectator sick.

17) Man-fear is another. Afraid of what someone might say or do if you are true to your convictions, and true to the voice of the Holy Spirit. Afraid to preach "straight." We were once conversing with another preacher who lamented the fact that he no longer had the results from his ministry that he once had. He said he was getting the crowd to preach to, but was not having so many professions of salvation as he formerly had. He also admitted that he did not now preach the rugged gospel as he did formerly. Upon asking him why he did not go back to the old way of preaching, knowing that when he did he had more converts, the only reply he submitted was, "I have a wife and four children to support." Thus he admitted that he was afraid to preach the truth as he saw it, afraid that his salary would not be paid.

There are those who preach an easy religion in order that they may have many followers, that they might be able to send a glowing report to the church paper. They desire to "count noses," and do not want only a few noses. In order to swell the number they lower the standard of salvation.

Not only preachers are affected with the man-fearing spirit, but sometimes laymen as well-afraid to stand for the right, and in defense of God's kingdom, in opposition to the encroachments of compromise and sin.

18) Self-will and stubbornness are akin, and both are manifestations of an evil principle within. Peter tells us in his epistle that the "selfwilled ... shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings."

19) Jealousy. Jealous of another's success, or of another's achievement. Jealousy has often been referred to as being "green-eyed." If such be the case, it must most assuredly be due to the gangrenous poison that it generates.

"Jealousy may be compared to Indian arrows, so envenomed that if they prick the skin it is very dangerous; but if they draw blood, it is irrevocably deadly. The first motions that arise from this root of bitterness have their evil effects; but where the disease progresses, it poisons all our comforts, and throws us headlong into the most tragical resolutions" (Wanley).

"Let there be no room in all your house for jealousy -- either to sit or stand. It is a leprous abomination" (Talmage).

20) Close kin to jealousy is envy, which is "an evil affection of the heart, which makes men grieve and fret at the good and prosperity of others." Rachel envied Leah because of her fruitfulness. Joseph was envied by his brothers because he was loved by his father. Envy leads to malice, causing one to wish another evil, and this is certainly a very deep pollution of the spirit. The converted man who allows such a disposition to harbor in his life will soon find that it has alienated himself from God. "Envy is not only contrary to supernatural grace, but to natural conscience, and turns a man into a devil." Envy not only leads to eternal loss, but torments one in this life. Job says that "envy slayeth the silly one," and Solomon declares that "envy [is] the rottenness of the bones." One may have been born again and have felt the refreshings of divine grace, "but when envy stirs itself it stops the descent of all divine blessings, and turns the petitions of the envious into imprecations against themselves."

21) Another manifestation of the carnal mind is deceitfulness, pretending to be something other than what you are. Any kind of lie, whether spoken or acted. is deceit. When a person testifies to an experience of grace that he does not possess, he is a deceiver. The carnal mind is ever prone to want to appear to be better than it really is, or to appear wiser than the facts in the case admit.

They who would mingle the Word of God with their own philosophical inventions are deceitful. Such are the doings of the carnal minds. The apostle Paul places deceit in the same catalogue with murder. He also tells us that deceitful workers are false. And again he tells us that the "old man" is corrupt according to deceitful lusts. Peter asked Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to deceive?" Deceiving and being deceived is given as one of the abominations of the last days when sin shall wax worse. Peter speaks of those who sport themselves with their own deceivings.

There is not only danger of being a deceiver, but there is the greatest danger of being deceived, or else there would not be found so many warnings against it throughout the Bible. This warning stands from Genesis to Revelation like a red light on a rock-bound coast. "Be not deceived" flashes out constantly from the mighty towers of inspiration like the glaring flash of a lighthouse across a storm-tossed sea. Deceit is lurking on every hand, and the carnal mind has deceived its hundreds of thousands. As evidence of this we need look no farther than the realm of the church. The devoted Catholic claims to belong to the only true church, claims to worship the only true God in the only true way; yet he can go out, still wet with holy water, and commit any sin in hell's catalogue. Why? He is deceived. His carnal nature has so befogged him that there is great probability of his never finding his way back to God.

The Christian Scientist can fly in the face of all Christian consciousness, reject every cardinal doctrine of the Bible, and boldly declare that things which are, are not. Why? He is deceived. The carnal mind has led him so far from truth that, if he were to drop dead, an angel in a billion years of constant flight with the swiftness of lightning could not find the wreck of his thought chariots.

The modern church is loaded down with card-playing, dancing, giggling, show-trotting, half-dressed, hand-painted, unholy people who have lost all regard for church vows. Why? They are deceived.

Even among us, a holiness people, there are those who can shout loudly, preach eloquently, prove our doctrine, and at the same time stoop to the meanest trickery and intrigue that man ever stooped to. Why? They are deceived. Light has become darkness, and how awful is the gloom that has fallen upon them! We read, "Speak evil of no man." Yet with what complacency do some go about from person to person, from town to town, from city to city, bearing all sorts of scandal, like a vulture with its claws full of putrid flesh! If it cannot be done by word of mouth, the government mail service is resorted to. The deceiver and deceived are both in a bad way, and will come to a sorrowful end.

22) Unbelief. Here we do not mean that unbelief that is bold in declaring its arrogance against God, but that secret unbelief. Secretly do not believe all of the Bible. Of course we will say that we believe it in order to maintain our standing in the church; but down underneath there is a reserve, and a failure to accept all that the Sacred Book declares. Only the carnal mind can be so tricky and deceitful as to do such a thing.

And now what shall we say more? There are many other symptoms, such as unteachableness, unconcern for the souls of others, malice, striving, the "get-even" spirit, etc. But these are more or less akin to one or another of the above-named; and, lest we dwell too long here, we shall mention no more.

When hunting squirrels in the Southland, as a boy, we learned that when we saw a squirrel's tail sticking out of a hole in a tree there was sure to be a squirrel in the hole. So, when you find the manifestations of the carnal mind, do not try to deceive yourself into thinking that there is no danger. Be alarmed. Flee to the fountain that was "opened for sin and for uncleanness."

Do not forget that anything that is in any way adverse to, or out of harmony with, the Spirit of Christ is an unquestionable evidence of the carnal mind within.