As the Day of Pentecost approaches, we are reminded of a wonderful, hope-giving truth. Yes, by God’s mercy we have a significant role to play in our salvation, as we celebrated during the Days of Unleavened Bread. Paul tells us to “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12). But why fear and trembling? Because “it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (v. 13).
So, He is working in us, accomplishing the transformation He seeks.
But just what is He accomplishing in us in this transformation? What difference is the possession of God’s Spirit making in our lives? If we are “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), what changes should we expect? Teachers in God’s Church have long pointed to the fruit of the Spirit as listed in Galatians 5:22–23 as a helpful focus of meditation in this regard, and it would be a mistake to let Pentecost pass without reviewing it.
There is also another, shorter list that deserves our attention—one that describes fundamental characteristics of the Spirit within us. We see it in Paul’s comment of 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
Let’s examine each of those three attributes and consider what it means to have a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind, and what we can do to increase the expression of God’s Spirit in our lives in these three areas.
The Spirit of Power
Scripture gives us profound encouragement concerning God’s power: “Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever” (Ephesians 3:20–21).
What a wondrous point this is. Imagine all you could ever ask of God. Then imagine His ability to do above all you can ask. Then abundantly above all you could ask. Then exceedingly and abundantly above all you could ever ask. Then, finally, exceedingly and abundantly above all you could ever ask or think! The extent of God’s power is far above even the limits of our imaginations.
However, God’s ability to do big, showy miracles is not Paul’s main point. His main point is that this very same power—capable of more than we can ever imagine—is the power that “works in us.” That power is in us, and by it our Creator and our Savior are working within us to change us, shape us, and form us from within, bringing us closer and closer to Their own image on the inside, just as we reflect it on the outside.
If we have been baptized and had hands laid upon us by God’s ministers, we have been given God’s Spirit of power—through which we can address our shortcomings with confidence of growing success.
How does that power express itself within us? Of course, miracles and healings are expressions of this dramatic power, and we should thank Him for such interventions in the lives of others and in our own. But obvious, external, physical miracles are not ultimately where we should be focused as we seek for the Spirit of power to be expressed in us.
We read that “though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh” (2 Corinthians 10:3). It is in this arena where we see the power of the Spirit in its most vital and needed expression. As we struggle in this life to follow Christ’s example, we need not do so by our own power. If the strength of the flesh is our only strength, we are doomed. Jesus is speaking to every one of us when He says that “without Me, you can do nothing” (John 15:5).
We then read that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God” (2 Corinthians 10:4). But for what end? To experience miracles? Healings? Other divine interventions? To be sure. But those aren’t the manifestations of God’s power in us that Paul has in mind here. He tells us that God’s power is mighty in us “for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled” (vv. 4–6).
When will our obedience be fulfilled? When we meet Christ in the air. That’s when we will be ready to “punish all disobedience.” But now is the time of seeking to grow in our own obedience.
The strongholds on Paul’s mind are not literal, but the broken mindsets, addictive habits, and sinful patterns in our lives that we have constructed and fortified over the years—justified in ourselves, defended pridefully, and clung to even as God continues to tell us in a thousand different ways that we need to change. But God’s power, he says, is mighty for pulling those strongholds down. And to what extent? “[B]ringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (v. 5). Those words—“every thought”—can be intimidating. If that task were entirely up to us, it would be a depressing and disheartening expectation. But it is not just up to us—Christ Himself, who has conquered every sin and defeated every temptation, is working in us by His power. In a real sense, our struggle in life is to step out of His way to allow Him to do that work. Paul reminds us that we are to put to death the deeds of the flesh, but how does He say we are to put them to death? By the Spirit (Romans 8:13).
This does not and will not happen immediately in every area of our lives. Conversion is a process, as we grow in righteous character. Romans 7 does not excuse sin, but reading it should encourage us as we see that Paul—who we should have no doubt will be in the Kingdom of God—saw his life as a continuing struggle against sin. He wrote, “I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find” (Romans 7:18). Yet he knew that, by seeking to walk in the Spirit, his struggle would be rewarded. He knew to continue fighting and allow Christ in him to continue wielding these weapons that are not carnal but mighty in His power.
Remember that God says of the New Covenant made with us at baptism, “I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them” (Hebrews 10:16). And, thus, we are rightfully focused on our need to change in our hearts and minds. But how often do we forget the all-important subject of those verbs? “I will put… I will write…” We are not writing His laws on our own hearts. God is writing them, by the power of His Spirit. Our task is to give Him the room to do that writing.
Our faith that God is keeping His word and that His own power is working in us should give us courage to charge against the inner shortcomings that scare us, the ones we think we’ll never be able to change. Jesus Christ promises us that—no matter how impossible it feels, and no matter how many times you have failed before—He is with us, His Father is with us, and Their Spirit of power is in us. So move forward.
The Spirit of Love
We are also told in 2 Timothy 1:7 that God’s Spirit is a spirit of love. As the end of His earthly mission approached, Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34–35).
It is easy to miss the significance of this command. After all, the Old Testament taught the Israelites to love their neighbor as themselves (Leviticus 19:18)—that isn’t new. So, what made Christ’s commandment new? It was that He set a new bar: to love each other not just as we love ourselves, but the way Jesus Christ loves us. That is a supernatural level of love—a self-sacrificial love that is only truly and fully accessible when we are partakers of the very nature of God. We read that “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit” (Romans 5:5). We have access to a supernatural source of love, to the very Spirit that dwelt within Jesus Christ Himself when He chose to sacrifice Himself so completely and fully for us. We should ask Him to use that Spirit to help us love others in the same way in our daily lives.
The Father and Son love others—have an outflowing concern for others—to such an incomprehensible extent that the Apostle John wrote simply, “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 16). Possessing love to that degree, loving others the way Jesus loves us, is the highest of bars. Mastering such outgoing concern is the project of an entire lifetime. Yet God’s own Spirit of love dwells within us—so there is no need to be disheartened or discouraged. Every one of us who has God’s Spirit has the ability to tap into the greatest source of love we could ever imagine. We just have to want to grow in that love.
If we do want the love of God perfected in us, we must seek to walk humbly in the manner He commands of us, for “whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him” (1 John 2:5). Keeping God’s commandments is not merely an exercise in checking off items in a list—it is part and parcel of His purpose of reproducing Himself in us, including His perfectly loving nature. Paul’s first letter to Timothy highlights the purpose of our obedience: “Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a good conscience, and from sincere faith” (1 Timothy 1:5). There is a connection between obedience and love.
Thus, if we want to love God more, we should examine ourselves concerning obedience to God’s commands: Are we fully taking advantage of the Sabbath, seeking to set that time apart for God? Have we examined the idols or false gods in our lives—looked for things that we haven’t even realized we’re putting before God? Are we truthful to others? Honoring of our parents? Generous or covetous?
Going further, if our goal is to love others more—to grow in Christ’s own outgoing concern for them—then we can examine our obedience with that in mind. Consider the Sabbath, for example. Do we seek to make it a delight for others, including those in the congregation with whom we don’t normally fellowship as much? Or ever? Maybe this is the time to risk the awkward silences. Outside of services, do we consider asking others over to fellowship at our home? Do we do anything to bring cheer to those who are unable to attend services due to illness or infirmity? Jesus did not obey God’s commands purely for His own benefit. He was focused on the benefit of others.
Consider further: We already read that John wrote “whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him,” and “His word” is more than just the Ten Commandments. The four gospels record more than Jesus’ teachings, but also His example. And in the very next verse, John tells us that we should “walk just as He walked” (1 John 2:6).
For instance, when Christ and the disciples were hungry and exhausted and sought rest, He still gave when people needed more from Him (Mark 6:31–34). When there were those in society no one would come near due to their uncleanness, such as the ten lepers of Luke 17 or the “sinner” who anointed His feet in Luke 7, He addressed them and treated them as people whom God loved as much as anyone else.
Many of us have our own “lepers” in our lives—those against whom we bear grudges, or those who have hurt us and have never truly apologized. Christ told us to love those individuals the way He has loved us—and He forgave even His persecutors and murderers as they were torturously executing Him (Luke 23:34). In fact, the very reason He was suffering and dying was for them.
Such levels of self-sacrificial, supernatural love may seem impossible to achieve. And, humanly, they are. But we have been given a spirit of love, God’s own Spirit. The Spirit that animated and empowered Jesus’ love for others is available to all who have been baptized and had hands laid upon them by a minister of Christ. But we must seek it—asking our Father for it daily, proving the sincerity of our request with real effort, and believing, in faith, that our Father will provide as He promises He will (Luke 11:13).
A Spirit of a Sound Mind
Finally, the Spirit in us is called the spirit of a sound mind. Sometimes we may think we have a sound mind—so logical, so refined—but even a rock-solid argument can be unsound, depending on the assumptions upon which it rests. God sometimes shatters us by revealing where we have made flawlessly logical arguments that, in the end, have no value—because they are based on false assumptions. So, if we want the sound mind His Spirit offers, we will allow Him not only to help us think more clearly, but also to show us the flaws in the assumptions we have made.
Consider: What is the condition of even the finest minds in the world apart from God’s Spirit? Paul described people who, “even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting” (Romans 1:28). It is easy for us to write that off as not applying in any way to us, but we should pause and weigh the possibilities.
Surely none of us refuse to “retain God in [our] knowledge,” but we can, at times, sort of ask Him to leave the room, as it were, for a time. After all, the Creator was probably, in many ways, more real to Adam and Eve, who spoke with Him directly in the Garden of Eden, than He is to us. But when the “lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” (1 John 2:16) entered the calculations, suddenly their knowledge of God didn’t factor into their thinking like it should. And, as a result, they did something very unfitting. Even a “small” amount of sin debases the mind and corrupts sound thinking and judgment.
How do we gain a sound mind? We start from the foundation—with the fear of God as the beginning of knowledge and wisdom (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10). That “fear” is an awe of God—a reverent respect for who He is and what He represents.
For most of us, it is not simply that we do fear Him or don’t fear Him, as if there are only two possibilities, like a light switch. Think of the father who asked Christ to cast a demon out of his son, saying, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief” (Mark 9:24). Human beings are complex and complicated creatures. We can fear God to some extent, even to a great extent, while still needing to grow in that fear.
“Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). Here, “things of the flesh” means more than just the disgusting or the debauched. Paul is speaking of setting our minds, our focuses, and our primary cares on the things of the physical world around us, rather than on the things of God and the Spirit. As he says in a parallel statement, “Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). The world is filled with very smart men and women—scientists, leaders of nations, educators—who lack a truly sound mind because their thinking is only on the things of this physical world. They do not fear God, so their minds are not primarily focused on those things He cares about. Yet, as we grow in the fear of God, the things of God become more and more important to us.
How important? Jesus tells us: “Then He said to another, ‘Follow Me.’ But he said, ‘Lord, let me first go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and preach the kingdom of God’” (Luke 9:59–60). That is a strong statement. Of course, we’re quick to point out that Christ didn’t mean we can’t go to funerals or that we shouldn’t honor our duties to our families. But what did He mean?
Think of the things it’s easy for us to get caught up in, like world news and politics. We could obsessively spend all our time focused on such events, claiming we’re simply “watching world events” but not noticing that we’re replacing the things of God with the things of this world, bit by bit. There are many examples we could name—in fact, if we want to see what things of the world risk taking over our thinking, taking a look at our social media feeds is a good place to start, since the algorithms that run them already know our obsessions and respond by feeding us more of them. Yet who is arguing about these things on Facebook? Who’s sharing all those YouTube videos? In Christ’s clarifying words, the dead. The dead are setting their minds on those things. And He told us we have larger priorities.
We should not devote a great deal of brainpower toward what the presidents of the United States or France should do or what the prime ministers of Great Britain or Israel should do on the political stage. While the spiritually dead work out their own problems their own way, we have a more important task.
The only thing in this world that can bring the dead to life is the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. Why indulge in the things of the dead, participating in their decay, when we have the secret to life? A dead mind is never a sound one. Instead, we must devote ourselves to the priorities of our Creator. We must start with the things of God as our foundation. It is the fear of God—the awe of Him that puts His things first—that lays within us the foundation needed for a sound mind.
Jesus Christ is living within us. We can say, with Paul, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20, King James Version). Christ has a desire for us. He has a purpose. He longs to express His own life in our lives. He longs to devote Himself to the things of God in our lives. He longs to empower our minds to think His thoughts—to help us fulfill the admonition, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
If we want a sound mind—and the only truly sound mind is a godly mind—having that mind means putting His things first: in our marriages, in our families, in our practice of the four spiritual disciplines of Bible study, prayer, meditation, and fasting. And that soundness of mind isn’t something we ever stop developing. We can always grow, and the moment we think our minds are fully sound, incapable of error, is perhaps the moment we’re in greatest danger of losing that soundness (1 Corinthians 10:12).
He Will Complete His Work
As Christ’s disciples, we have a date with destiny. Jesus Christ will meet us in the air, and we will be rewarded according to our works. This may seem discouraging sometimes, because our works often don’t satisfy us. It can seem as though the closer we come to God, the more we are disappointed in ourselves—the more we learn about His goodness, the more we realize how far we fall short of it.
Similarly, the more we examine the Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind, the more we might think, Is there any hope for me to have that kind of power in me to overcome? Is there any hope for me to have that kind of love? Is there any hope for me to have that kind of mind—to truly put the things of God before all other things?
So, let us never forget what Paul wrote to our Philippian brethren. First, He told them, “I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making request for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now” (Philippians 1:3–5). That “from the first day” is important. He found joy in them from the moment their walk with God began—and, of course, Christ did, too. And he continued to rejoice in them as their walk continued.
And what was Paul’s confidence? That the Philippians, themselves, would complete the work of self-transformation? No. Rather, he was “confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ” (v. 6).
If it were dependent only on us to develop the power of God in overcoming, the love of God in how we look upon other people, and a sound mind in how we think and see the world, our lives would be hopeless. But they are not hopeless—because we have access to God’s Holy Spirit. We are not alone in the work of transformation. God the Father and Jesus Christ are personally at work within us through the Holy Spirit to achieve the growth They long to see.
But we must long to see that growth in us, as well, and humbly commit ourselves into Their hands. To the extent we do so, we can expect to see Their Spirit of power, love, and a sound mind expressed more and more fully in our lives.