Vincent Word Studies - Ephesians 4:23 - 4:23

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Vincent Word Studies - Ephesians 4:23 - 4:23


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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:

In the spirit of your mind (τῷ πνεύματι τοῦ νοὸς ὑμῶν)

The spirit is the human spirit, having its seat in and directing the mind. In the New Testament the Holy Spirit is never designated so as that man appears as the subject of the Spirit. We have Spirit of adoption, of holiness, of God, but never Holy Spirit of man. Furthermore, the apostle's object is to set forth the moral self-activity of the christian life. Hence πνεῦμα spirit, is here the higher life-principle in man by which the human reason, viewed on its moral side - the organ of moral thinking and knowing is informed. The renewal takes place, not in the mind, but in the spirit of it. “The change is not in mind psychologically, either in its essence or in its operation; and neither is it in the mind as if it were a superficial change of opinion either on points of doctrine or practice: but it is in the spirit of the mind; in that which gives mind both its bent and its materials of thought. It is not simply in the spirit as if it lay there in dim and mystic quietude; but it is in the spirit of the mind; in the power which, when changed itself, radically alters the entire sphere and business of the inner mechanism” (Eadie).