The physical can entrap the mental
Though we walk in the flesh, we do not walk according to the flesh (2 Cor. 10:3).
There has to be a deep difference between those two clauses: walking in the flesh, and walking according to the flesh. My Greek Bible says, “Although we are living in the flesh, we do not wage war according to the flesh,” because the weapons of the flesh are human by nature and do not have the power to defeat the forces we encounter. Walking according to the flesh is a type of mental incarceration.
Bob Marley penned a song quoting Marcus Garvey: Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds. But how does a slave come to understand the need for mental freedom? It must be noted that it takes no scientist to understand the physical and emotional anguish of slavery and the pain it inflicts. So, it is natural for humans to struggle and fight for freedom from that type of suffering. However, when the forced labour ends and the whippings stops, and the sale of children ends, and raping ends, after hundreds of years of animalistic treatment, what is that human’s mental status?
The value that is placed on the mental status at that point will determine whether one is walking in the flesh, or according to the flesh – whether the focus on our entrapment goes beyond the physical.
Physical versus mental slavery – The house and field Slave
So, whenever that house Negro identified himself, he always identified himself in the same sense that his master identified himself. When his master said, “We have good food,” the house Negro would say, “Yes, we have plenty of good food.” When the master said that “we have a fine home here,” the house Negro said, “Yes, we have a fine home here.” When the master would be sick, the house Negro say, “What’s the matter boss, we sick?” And it hurt him more for his master to be sick than for him to be sick himself.
But then you had another Negro out in the field. When the master got sick, they prayed that he’d die. If his house caught on fire, they’d pray for a wind to come along and fan the breeze.
If someone came to the house Negro and said, “Let’s go, let’s separate,” He would say, “Go where? What could I do without my boss? Where would I live? How would I dress? Who would look out for me?” That’s the house Negro. But if you went to the field Negro and said, “Let’s go, let’s separate,” he wouldn’t even ask you where or how. He’d say, “Yes, let’s go.” And that one ended right there (Malcolm X).
In the same way, we can juxtapose Paul’s view of mental struggle with the behavior of the house negro and the field negro.
Eph. 6:12, For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Unless you can see where you are mentally in that fight, you will be forever enslaved. The house negro struggles for only the first clause of Paul’s statement: wrestling against flesh and blood, and is totally oblivious to the real struggle – the mental. And as he wrestles, he feels like he is winning that battle because is focused on a very low level of success.
If his enemy was a giant, he would fight only its toes.
The house negro is captivated by comfort, he sleeps in a quilted bed. He enjoys the fireplace in the winter. He wears warm clothes; he has shoes on his feet, and he even gets a warm bath. He is also held captive by his appetite. He eats steak, freshly brewed coffee, and the occasional Sunday soup. When the master hosts a banquet, he is there. He also believes that he shares the master’s power, because he carries the master’s instructions out to the field slaves. It is that type of slave the master gives the keys to his house. The master has no fear of the escape of that slave.
This is like the Christian who is focused on material gain. That type of Christians sees God only in the size of the house he has. That type of Christian sees God in the quality of the car he drives. That type of Christian sees God only in his education. That type of church member praises God for only worldly achievements. He does not seek God for things that are eternal: a changed heart, a character driven by the fruits of the spirit, a desire to be a kingdom agent, or the desire for a new mind.
That’s the type of slave that the devil wants, the one that has forgotten the value of his soul – the one who trades the temporal for the eternal. He is the one who is mentally and spiritually myopic but has 20-20 vision. He is walking both in the flesh and according to the flesh. Recognise that the house slave has given his allegiance to his master. The field slave’s allegiance is to the freedom of his soul.
The question is “whose slave are you?”
The master to whom you submit your will determine the type of liberation you receive, whether it is physical freedom or mental liberation. The house slave believes this earth is his home, the field slave will sing: this world is not my home, I’m just a passing-through. My treasures are laid down, somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven’s open door. And I can’t live at home in this world anymore (Jim Reeves).
Emancipation and sight restoration is not a self-driven remedy
Garvey is right on target with the need to emancipate the mind but is wrong about us doing it ourselves. Slavery was abolished in the United States in 1864; 150 years later its legacies are still alive – Black people in the West are still among the poorest, least educated, still spend more money on looking good than being healthy; and are still among the most splintered communities. These are all vestiges of slavery. These exist even though we had the Civil Rights Movement, enactment of laws-for-justice, and built many institutions to rid us of the legacies of slavery. The truth is, it does not matter how hard we try, we cannot self-emancipate, especially the mental part.
Remedy for the blinded and chained mind
The first thing to acknowledge in the repairing of the mind is Only God can restore the mind.
He said “And I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit in you. I will take out your stony, stubborn heart and give you a tender, responsive heart” (Ezek. 36:26). Second, the knowledge of truth provides mental freedom.
John 8: 32, And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
One key weapon of the slave master is to keep the slave from the true knowledge of his value and his rights. You have heard that in the era of slavery, it was a crime to teach a slave how to read or to own books. So, you remain mentally blind and entrapped even though you may have clear vision. The truth is, “to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.”
The prodigal son was always a son. His father knew it all along, the boy just forgot that. Knowing the truth is a start to mental emancipation.
To escape your Constraint in mental blindness with opened eyes, recognize Jesus has made us sons of God; and realize that an intimate knowledge of the true God is real freedom.