what is the carnal mind in the bible

This reflection continues our exploration of how the Master Jesus gave instruction regarding thought and the mind. If we are to understand what it means to “Take no thought,” we must look carefully at the nature of the mind that generates thought in the first place. That brings us to the question: What is the carnal mind?

If you had asked me that question when I was seventeen years old, I would have answered very differently. I would have assumed the carnal mind referred to the thoughts of a young man becoming aware of sexuality, and that such thoughts were somehow morally suspect. The word “carnal” carried the weight of guilt and shame; it suggested something dirty, something to be suppressed or battled against. In that youthful framework, the carnal mind was equated with strong desires and impulses, and the spiritual life was imagined as their restraint.

But this is not what St. Paul was pointing toward when he wrote of the carnal mind. In his letter to the Romans he states, “For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:6–7, KJV). Paul is not speaking about hormones or the natural awakening of the human body. He is not condemning instinct, nor is he defining spirituality as repression. He is describing something far more foundational than behavior. He is naming a mode of awareness.

The Nature of Separation

The carnal mind is not a mind filled with particularly immoral thoughts; it is the ordinary human awareness that assumes itself to be separate, self-governing, and independent from its Source. It is the awareness that experiences itself as a separate center that must secure, defend, define, and preserve its own existence. It lives from the premise of isolation. It measures, compares, judges, and strategizes because it believes survival depends upon its own effort and control. In this sense, the carnal mind is simply the normal state of human awareness prior to awakening. It is not something uniquely evil, nor something to be despised. It is the inherited pattern of perception through which humanity interprets reality when it does not yet KNOW its union with the Divine.

When Paul says that to be carnally minded is death, he is not threatening punishment; he is describing a normal human condition. This is the condition of personal self-awareness rooted in separation that inevitably experiences anxiety, striving, and conflict because it feels cut off—at least in perception—from the LIFE that sustains it. “Death” in this sense is not the death of the body but the felt experience of disconnection. By contrast, to be spiritually minded is “life and peace,” not because one has perfected behavior, but because awareness has shifted from self-enclosed existence to participation in the Divine flow. The Master’s invitation to “Take no thought” is not a call to mental vacancy or passivity; it is an invitation to step out of identification with this self-protective awareness and into a deeper mode of Being. He is not abolishing intelligence; He is liberating awareness from fear. In that liberation, thought is no longer driven by self-preservation but arises within peace.

When Paul writes that “the carnal mind is enmity against God,” it is easy to hear this as condemnation. The phrase can sound severe, as though the ordinary human way of thinking is morally corrupt or fundamentally opposed to the Divine. Yet such a reading creates unnecessary conflict. The word “enmity” describes opposition in orientation rather than emotional hostility. The carnal mind is not an enemy in the sense of hatred toward God, but in the sense that it operates from a premise that cannot perceive union. It assumes separation as its starting point and organizes its world accordingly. It is not wickedness; it is misperception.

Your mind cannot truly be an enemy of God unless you believe yourself to exist apart from God. Yet even that belief is not sin in the sense of moral failure; it is ignorance of what is already true. It is a misunderstanding of identity. The One LIFE remains whole whether or not it is recognized. The human sense of separateness does not fracture the Divine; it only veils perception. The carnal mind is like a wave imagining itself cut off from the ocean, or a sunbeam believing it has an independent existence apart from the Sun. The appearance of separation does not alter the underlying unity. As the Scripture declares, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28, KJV). This is a declaration of what is always and already true.

Putting on the Mind of Christ

The carnal mind, which is simply your mind and my mind functioning within the assumption of separateness, cannot KNOW the things of God because it attempts to grasp them from the outside. It seeks to understand Divine reality as an object rather than awaken to participation in it. What is infinite cannot be contained within an awareness structured around self-preservation and control. This is why the Master taught, “Take no thought.” He was not advocating passivity, nor was He condemning intelligence. He was inviting a release of identification with the self-enclosed awareness. To “give no thought” is the beginning of moving beyond what Paul referred to as the carnal mind—not by fighting it, not by shaming it, but by seeing through it. Just as the wave does not have to destroy itself to discover the ocean, the human mind does not have to become an enemy of itself to awaken to union. It only has to cease imagining that it stands alone.

The carnal mind is not to be considered wrong, yet by its very nature it generates the sense of personal separation that becomes the primary source of unnecessary suffering within this world of time and space. When awareness organizes itself around the assumption of “I” as a separate center, life becomes a project of management and defense. Comparison arises, fear follows, striving intensifies, and peace feels conditional. The suffering is not imposed by God, nor is it punishment; it is the natural consequence of perceiving oneself as isolated within a vast and uncertain universe. The moment separation is believed, effort replaces trust, and life becomes something to secure rather than something to receive.

St. Paul offers another orientation when he writes, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5, KJV). To “put on the mind of Christ” is not an achievement of the separate self; it is a revelation that dawns as the illusion of separateness loosens. It is not something constructed; it is uncovered. This unveiling begins in the simple yet radical invitation of the Master: “Take no thought.” As identification with self-protective thinking softens, awareness is no longer bound to the narrative of isolation. This is the beginning of what Jesus described as “deny thyself” (Matthew 16:24, KJV). He was not instructing self-hatred or repression, but the relinquishing of the false idea of a self existing apart from the Divine. To deny the self in this sense is to deny the illusion of separation. As that illusion loosens, what remains is participation rather than isolation, communion rather than conflict.

We arrive, then, at a fuller understanding of the question, “What is the carnal mind?” It is not a catalogue of forbidden thoughts, nor a moral defect to be condemned. It is the ordinary pattern of awareness that assumes separation and lives from that assumption. To see this clearly is not to judge the mind, but to understand it. And in understanding, something begins to soften.

If you would like to explore the foundational meaning behind Jesus’ invitation to “take no thought,” begin here: Take No Thought Explained.

This reflection is part of the wider Take No Thought series. You can explore the full collection of teachings here: Take No Thought Meaning Series.