Sober Minded?
Image via Wikipedia All of us, I presume, change our minds from time to time. We know that we err, and we know that we grow in grace. At least part of that growth happens when we no longer believe the errors we once believed. Sometimes we add new information to what we believe. Sometimes we jettison old information. And sometimes we do both. Paul commands that elders be sober-minded. I suspect that many of us give precious little thought to this command. Too many of us dismiss all of Paul’s qualifications. However, even if we try to apply them we often slide right over this one. We may assume “sober-minded” means the same thing as “not given to much wine.” To be sober-minded, however, is to treat truth seriously and to have a healthy doubt as to our own understanding of truth. A sober-minded person should think through the challenges of the incarnation. A sober-minded person ought to contemplate the law of God. But there are two things a sober-minded person doesn’t do.