Renew, Renewed, Renewal, Renewing

            

As a part of another study I was looking at and meditating on a few verses penned by the apostle Paul.  Romans 12:2 is one of those that we often quote, his admonition to “be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind...”  In his second letter to the church at Corinth he made the statement that “the inward man is renewed day by day.”  (2 Cor. 4:16) In his letter to the church at Ephesus he instructed them (and us) to “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.”  There are a couple more verses with similar statements made by Paul.

In doing a word study I discovered something that really was powerful to me.  There are three different Greek words that is used in these verses, all having the same basic origin.  They are anakainoo, Strong’s number G341, anakainosis, Strong’s number G342 and ananeoo, Strong’s number G365.  What I found that spoke to me was the definition given for these three words.  Renew, renewing, renewed are all valid and correct renderings but the primary definition given for all three is renovate, to renovate, renovation. 

Maybe it is because I have done renovations of homes, buildings, etc. that this struck me.  But, to renovate seems just more pointed than renew.  Notice some definitions of the word renovate.  This is from an on-line dictionary, “Renovate, renew, restore, refresh and rejuvenate all mean to make like new.  Renovate (a word ultimately derived from the Latin verb novart, meaning ‘to make new,’ itself a descendant of novis, meaning ‘new.’) suggests a renewing by cleansing, repairing, or rebuilding.” 
When one begins a renovation project the first step is to tear out and remove the old, damaged or dirty items.  If the plaster is bad, cracked and falling off we need to remove it before new dry wall can be put up.  Old floor tile, worn linoleum, filthy and threadbare carpet all must be torn up and removed before new floor covering can be put down.  Likewise, before our minds can truly be renewed, renovated,  the old thoughts, the old way of thinking, the old reactions to things must be gotten rid of.  Only then can the correct thoughts and way of thinking be “installed.”  Elsewhere Paul tells us to “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” (Phil. 2:5) Christ’s mind is not compatible with our old thoughts and way of thinking.

I recently heard a speaker make the analogy of this to a card game.  When we draw a new card or are given new cards we have to discard a like number of old cards.  We can’t keep the old along with the new.  In order to have our minds renewed, renovated, restored and rejuvenated we have to discard a lot of old.  Thankfully we don’t do this on our own but the Holy Spirit is doing the work, handling the renovation project.

October 2019