If a man's nous is not renewed, this nous will have some particular experiences in its dealing with men. If a man's nous is not renewed, naturally he will have some very inaccurate thoughts toward other men. One interesting thing is that he will never trust in anyone; he will always have doubts about others. Only criticisms come out of him; his thoughts are engaged in "splitting hairs" to find fault, and he always speaks poorly of others. We can find out how our nous is by asking ourselves what kind of thoughts we have toward others. The Bible says that the Lord Jesus never judged anyone according to what He saw and heard; He judged everything according to the sense in His spirit. However, we judge others only according to what we see and hear. It would be wonderful if we could, as Paul said, prove all things. The nous of a criticizing believer is wrong. There is a very precious verse in the Epistle to Philemon; Paul said that Philemon had faith toward the Lord Jesus Christ and toward all the saints. If a believer depreciates everyone else, something must be wrong with his nous. Therefore, every time we see others or listen to others speak, we should ask ourselves if we are depreciating them.
I know a brother who always undervalues the things others give to him. For example, if someone gives him something worth two dollars, he will say it is worth only thirty cents. If someone gives him a gift worth thirty dollars, he will say that the gift is worth only about ten dollars. He is not the only one like this; many believers have the same kind of mentality. What is the reason for this? It is because their nous is worldly and old. Worldly people always think that others are not good, that others are wrong, and that there are always hidden words behind the words of others, just as there are fillings within pie. This is not the way we should think. The reason we have these kinds of thoughts is that our nous is not renewed and also Satan is working behind us. An unrenewed nous is the base for Satan's working. Everything from Adam can become the base for Satan's working.
Our Christian lives are not necessarily the same toward God. In a believer whose nous has not been renewed we can see the following characteristics toward God: he cannot trust God, he cannot know God in the same way that he knows the Lord Jesus as his Savior, and he has many doubts. He doubts God's power, God's wisdom, and God's lovingkindness. These three points constitute his attitude toward God: he doubts God's power, thinking that He is not capable; he doubts God's wisdom, thinking that He is wrong; and he doubts God's lovingkindness, thinking that He is unwilling.
In addition, he cannot understand the Scriptures; he cannot understand God's teaching; his nous is not clear, and he cannot receive God's light in his nous. It is true that he did have an enlightening at his conversion. If his nous were open to God every day, it would not be as powerless or critical as it is today. If every one of us has an open nous, we will receive much enlightening. If we can only be a courier, simply passing on to others what we have received without receiving anything directly from God, our nous must be wrong. If we merely depend on others to pass things to us and then simply pass to others what little we have received, without receiving anything directly from God, we are not very useful. I am not saying that we do not need to receive help from others. Rather, I am saying that if we do not receive something directly from God, something is wrong with our nous. I myself like very much to receive help from others. As long as the one who speaks receives his words in his nous through God's enlightening, his message will surely enlighten the nous of others and help them. That is why I say every one of us needs to receive something from God in our nous.
A person with an unrenewed nous surely cannot know God's will. He may reason with logic, but he cannot know the will of God in his nous. He should know God's will in the same way that he knew that Christ is the Son of God and that he was saved at the time of his conversion. To know God's will should be a matter of inward knowledge. Concerning the knowledge of God's will, there are many times when we only know that a matter is God's will, but we have no reason that can explain it. This is like putting a newly saved country person with an unbelieving but knowledgeable person and asking them to debate. The latter may argue with the former for two or three hours, and the country person may not be able to retort with any reason, but he can say that he knows he is saved. It is the same way in regard to knowing the will of God.