How Can We Make Our Thinking Reflect Jehovah's? (Romans 8:5-6)

Do you think like God? Is that always the case? That is highly unlikely: imperfect humans normally find themselves in the same boat as the apostle Peter, whom Jesus corrected for not thinking God's thoughts but those of men instead (Matthew 16:22-23). Everyone has their "Peter moment" including me. Therefore, what does it take to be a spiritual person or to think like Jehovah thinks? Compare 1 Corinthians 2:10-16.

One definition given for a spiritual person is someone who is "God-oriented." A spiritual person tries to reflect Jehovah's thinking even when there is no explicit law to supply direction, even with no express command. "You must not murder" is an explicit dictate (Exodus 20:13). However, Jehovah doesn't give explicit dictates for every situation in life. So, how can we reflect God's thinking when we don't have clear-cut laws to direct us? How can we possibly sync our thinking with God's if we don't have a law governing our choices (e.g., the law against murder)?

Rather than having clear-cut laws for everything, Jehovah supplies Bible principles. Mature Christians train their perceptive powers (powers of discernment) to distinguish right from wrong based on godly principles (Hebrews 5:14). One Bible principle is that we should do all things for God's glory (1 Corinthians 10:31); another principle is that Christians should cleanse themselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit (2 Corinthians 7:1). What will make it possible for us to apply such principles in the proper way?

1) A regular routine of Bible study and 2) We need to do research as the words of King Solomon suggest (Ecclesiastes 12:9-10; cf. Psalm 1:1-3).

Another essential step is prayer. Jehovah promises to direct our paths and make them straight if we rely on him, and look to him in all of our ways (Psalm 62:8; 65:2; Proverbs 3:5-6; 1 John 5:14-15).

2 Corinthians 12:10 (Weak, but still Powerful)

Greek: διὸ εὐδοκῶ ἐν ἀσθενείαις, ἐν ὕβρεσιν, ἐν ἀνάγκαις, ἐν διωγμοῖς καὶ στενοχωρίαις, ὑπὲρ Χριστοῦ· ὅταν γὰρ ἀσθενῶ, τότε δυνατός εἰμι.

ESV: "For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak, then I am strong."

NWT 2013: "So I take pleasure in weaknesses, in insults, in times of need, in persecutions and difficulties, for Christ. For when I am weak, then I am powerful."

David E. Garland, 2 Corinthians, 882-3 of the electronic edition:

Paul scores his point with a memorable aphorism, “when I am weak,  then I am powerful,” which is the key for interpreting all that he says in this section. The point is the same as in 4:7. The power working in Paul is most clearly seen as coming from God when he appears to be weak. “I delight in” means that he accepts the way Christ's power works in his life through his weaknesses. That does not mean that he does not groan under the load of suffering (5:2, 4) and long for the mortal to be swallowed up by life (5:4). But he knows that his suffering follows the precedent of Christ's suffering. It was something that God enables him to endure, not escape. What he endures, he endures for the sake of Christ, and the paradox of the power of God hidden in his apparent weakness parallels Christ's weakness and power  demonstrated in the crucifixion. Leivestad rightly sees, “As the power of God was revealed through the weaknesses of the crucified Lord for the salvation of  the world, so the life and power of the risen Christ are being revealed through  his weak apostles in the midst of humiliations and afflictions.”⁴⁴¹ The false apostles keep the Corinthians from seeing how Christ's power is at work in him and lead them away from the cross of Christ. Paul's goal is not simply to defend himself, but to help them “see things correctly” through the proper spiritual lens.⁴⁴² 

Paul concludes with a brief summary of the hardship lists in the letter. He “delights in”(the word eudoke can also mean “is pleased”) with his “weaknesses, insults, catastrophes, persecutions, and pressures.” If en hybresin is to  be interpreted as “with insults” rather than “with mistreatments” (see 1 Thess  2:2), Paul may have added it because of the rivals' insolent slander against  him as one who was weak, debased, and amateurish. “Catastrophes” refer to  the “hardships” he has listed in 4:8–9; 6:4–5; 11:27–28. The “persecutions” are  listed in 11:24–25a, and the “pressures” or difficulties (tight situations) are  listed in 11:25b–26. The phrase hyper Christou (“for the sake of Christ”) is interpreted by the NIV (RSV, REB) as connected to the phrase, “I delight in.” Paul placed it at the end of the lists of hardships, however; so it is better to connect it to the weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities for the sake of Christ (NRSV). This means that he is not pleased with them for Christ's sake but endures them for Christ's sake. 

Richard Longenecker and Romans 12:2--"But be transformed"

Yet even more important than this negative injunction for believers in Jesus not to live their lives according to the ways of thinking and the practices of the people of “this present age,” Paul exhorts all his hearers and readers of that day — as well as all of us today who profess to be Christians — as follows: “But be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (ἀλλὰ μεταμορφοῦσθε [the form of the verb here being passive] τῇ ἀνακαινώσει τοῦ νοός). This remarkable “metamorphosis” that Paul speaks of here is not some pattern of external decorum or form of outward expression that believers in Jesus are to accept by way of a makeover of their lives and practices. Rather, it is a complete inner change of thought, will, and desires that Christians are to allow God by means of the ministry of his Holy Spirit to bring about in their lives, resulting in a recognizable external change of actions and conduct. It is a metamorphosis of a person’s inner being such as Paul evidently had in mind earlier in 8:12-13 when he wrote: “Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation — but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.” It is, in fact, the renewal of a believer’s mind that is brought about by God’s Spirit, as also expressed in such later Pauline passages as Eph 4:23 (Christians are “to be made new” in their thoughts and attitudes); Col 3:10 (the believer’s “new self” is “being renewed [by God’s Holy Spirit] in knowledge in the image of its Creator”); and Titus 3:5 (God has “saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit”). The result of this inner renewal of the believer’s mind, which is brought about by the work of God’s Spirit, is this: “Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” This statement of result is grammatically introduced by Paul’s use of the preposition εἰς (“into,” “unto”) with the articular infinitive τὸ δοκιμάζειν (“to prove by testing” or “approve”) — with such a use of εἰς with an articular infinitive signaling the idea of purpose or result (literally translated “in order to”).

Quoted From: The Epistle to the Romans: A Commentary on the Greek Text, Richard N. Longenecker, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, GRAND RAPIDS, MI.