John Owen, on Spiritual-Mindedness

Taken from Romans viii.6, "...the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace," rendered in the Authorized Version as "to be spiritually-minded is life and peace."

Here is his general thesis:

Whoever he be who doth not sincerely aim at the highest degree of being spiritually minded which the means he enjoyeth would lead him unto, and which the light he hath received doth call for, --whoever judgeth it necessary unto his present advantages, occasions, and circumstances, to rest in such measures or degrees of it as he cannot but know come short of what he ought to aim at, and so doth not endeavor after completeness in the will of God herein, --can have no satisfaction in his own mind, hath no unfailing grounds whereon to believe that he hath anything at all of the reality of this grace in him.

Owen goes on to say "such a person possibly may have life, which accompanies the essence of this grace, but he cannot have faith, which follows in a due improvement."

Do you aim at the "highest degree" of fixing your thoughts on Jesus? Do you ever feel like there are so many commands that we do not take with the seriousness that their author aimed at?