Most have heard the popular proverb, “A person should not be so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good.” I understand the intent of this warning to be: We should not be so focused on eternal and spiritual things that we forget about today and the people around us. Interestingly, the Bible never warns God’s people about being, “too heavenly minded.” Given the state of modern Christianity and contemporary church culture, I don’t think we have to worry about being, “too heavenly minded.”
This old proverb may seem to make sense if we don’t analyze it too critically. However, the truth is that the more focused God’s people are on eternal things, the more good they will be here and now.
The Bible is clear that everyone who is born-again is to be focused on heaven and eternity. Thoughts of heaven are to be our focus and a powerful motivating force. Colossians 3:1-4 says, “If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
Christ admonishes his people in Matthew 6:19-21, “Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”
The proverb is often nothing more than justification for not being heavenly minded enough, or not at all. The real danger is in God’s people being caught up with thoughts of this life only.
The more heavenly minded a genuine child of God is, the more earthly good he or she will be. In II Corinthians 5:1-11, Paul is discussing the resurrection of the saved and the influence thoughts of eternity are to have on those who have been made new in Christ. In verse one he mentioned the assurance that the saved have of a new body, “eternal in the heavens.” He is referring to the assured hope that the saved have of receiving a new body like unto Christ’s glorious body at the time of the resurrection. II Corinthians 5:1, “For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.” As a heavenly minded saved person, we are to “earnestly desire this coming day.”
Then in verses 4-8, he said, “For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord: (For we walk by faith, not by sight:) We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.”
Paul stated, in verse 6, that while we are here in this fleshly body, on this earth, we are absent from the direct presence of the Lord. Yet, in verse 8, he went on to say that he would prefer to be absent from this earth and earthly body and present with the Lord in heaven. Paul was not suicidal and understood the need to leave the time of our departure from this life in God’s hands. Paul wanted us to understand that we are to be so heavenly minded, that when God does call us home, we will not see it as loss, but great and amazing gain. That is only possible when we are “setting our affections on things above and not on things on the earth.”
When a child of God is this heavenly minded, it makes them more earthly good because of the way it influences their thinking. Notice Paul’s heavenly minded concern in verses 9-11, “Wherefore we labour, that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.”
Because Paul was so heavenly minded, his foremost concern on earth was to live a life that was pleasing to his Lord. Being heavenly minded makes us more earthly good because it reminds us daily of the coming day when we will stand before the Lord who died for us. When this is true in our lives, heaven and eternity will become the motivation behind how we live here and now.
You will never be so heavenly minded that you are of no earthly good because the more biblical and frequent your thoughts of heaven are, the more standing in the presence of your Savior becomes a daily motivation. The more real that becomes, the more aware you will be of living to please Jesus Christ here and now. Heavenly mindedness keeps the truth of Colossians 3:4 ever in our thinking, “…When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.”
We are never warned in the Bible of being “too heavenly minded.” Nevertheless, we are cautioned repeatedly of being “too earthly minded.” We need to be more focused on heaven and the life to come. If we would set our affections on the things of heaven, many would be of far more earthly good as they wait to see their Savior’s face for the very first time.
Pastor Merrick
