Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures, Luke 24:45
A person known to be ‘open minded’ on matters is often applauded for their readiness to accommodate different views on current issues. This is highly valued by our modern world, especially in areas of ethics, morality and religion. For example, an open-minded person who approaches any of these areas to give an opinion will usually promote a position that endeavours to accommodate all views on any given matter. In other words, the open-minded person is guided by the many ‘narrow minded’ opinions and views of their day. So the open-minded person is not so open after all, as they are merely confined to amalgamating what others are thinking.
But is there room for the Christian to be open-minded? No. Not as the world values open-mindedness. Actually the word generally sees us as ‘narrow minded’ because we have the Scriptures that give us God’s ruling on all matters of life and godliness. We have God’s mind given to us so that we might walk in His ways that will glorify Him.
But there is an 'open-mind’ that we do need. In our text, the gathered disciples had their minds opened by Christ in order for them understand the Scriptures that spoke of Him.
We have the Spirit of God indwelling us, which means we have the capacity to understand the Scriptures. But often the flesh, our humanness gets in the way and dampens the sweet influence of the Spirit of God in us. So we often need to have our minds opened to understand what God is saying to us in His Word.
May this be an ongoing prayer; that God will open our minds to understand the Scriptures so we might live to please Him in whatever we do.