“The Case for Christ - The Mind of Christ”

Tonight, let us look together at the ‘mind of Christ’ and what God is after in giving us the ‘mind of Christ’ as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:16.

In verse 15, he had quoted Isaiah 40:15 which says: ‘Who hath directed the Spirit of the Lord, or being His counsellor hath taught Him?’

The universal church, of which the Corinthians were part, was not to be subject to man’s judgment of spiritual things. ‘How can the natural man know God’s wisdom?’, Paul asked. (v 11) ‘The natural man does not have the Spirit of God and, thus, he cannot judge spiritual things.’ 

So, Paul reassured them that they have the ‘mind of Christ’ and can be wise in spiritual truths.

Now, the Moffatt translates this by saying, ‘Well, our thoughts are Christ’s thoughts.’ Let me ask you - are they always?

I do not believe that to be an adequate translation. In fact, it can be misleading, especially to the young Christan.

This brings us, then, to the question of ‘what is meant by the ‘mind of Christ’ that we Christians have?’

And for the answer to this, there is probably no other Scripture that explains it so well as Philippians 2:5-8 where it is applied to the church in dealings with one another, which is the way we will look at it tonight.

The problem in the Philippian church was their bent toward disharmony among themselves brought about by their spiritual pride.

They were suffering from petty jealousies, trivial things, ‘littleness’ of mind, as I will call it - in other words, shallow thinking that was creating disharmony and exposing spiritual pride. They were playing their own little games and missing the revelation of the mind of Christ in their midst.

But to create a climate toward spiritual unity, their thoughts and actions were to be predicated on four points, as Paul explained in verses 1-4 of Philippians 2.

It was to be, first, in the mutual love that comes through their union with Christ. (v 1)

Then, it was of being one in spirit and purpose through the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, which we see in vs 1-2.

Third, it was of doing nothing through selfish ambitions,  conceit, pride, or a factious spirit. (v 3)

And fourth, it was to be in not seeking private ends alone but looking out, as well, for the interests of others. (v 4)

We will come back to those points in a few moments, but first, let us see how Paul showed the Philippians the Lord’s way of the smooth functioning of His church.

Paul told them: ‘Let this mind be in you, as also in Christ Jesus’ (Phil 2:5). That is the literal translation. 

Another says: ‘Think this way among yourselves, as members of His church, which also you think in Christ Jesus...’.

They are to ‘think’ in the ‘same mind’ as Christ. And what was that ‘mind’?

In vs 6-8, Paul went on to say: ‘[Christ]...Who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient unto death...’.

What is it that Jesus left behind in His Incarnation?

Paul told them that Jesus renounced what was His by right - that is, His equality with God - and chose, instead, to stoop so low that He took upon Himself manhood in the  form of a servant. 

In other words, the very God of very God came from the highest of ‘Height’, so high we cannot even begin to conceive or imagine its loftiness. He was living in the Highest Heaven with His Father - infinitely rich and infinitely pre-eminent. 

In fact, someone has said that even if He had come in the form of a king or a high priest, rather than as a lowly Babe, the distance between His divine rank and this supposedly high rank in the world would still not have made any recognizable difference - Christ’s incarnation was still a condition infinitely less than what He had left behind.

He stooped so very low - so very, very low when He stooped from His heavenly rank of equality with God, when He left behind the enjoyment of that dignity that was rightfully His to hold on to.

But He gave that up and became a ‘slave’. 

And we already know that a slave had no rights of his own - such a man was generally considered less than a man and treated in that way!

But Jesus took on the rank of a servant - He purposely subjected Himself to the lowest of all human weaknesses and limitations, to the extent that His divine glory was mysteriously hidden in His manhood.

And His attitude was one of absolute submission toward God His Father in which He gave up all self-seeking impulses.

And - His way of humility was ‘in becoming obedient’ to His Father’s will which took Him in the way of the Cross. 

This was how His life was characterized - by His unconditional self-sacrificing, His perfect meekness and lowliness, and His surrender to the way of the Cross.

Turn over to Mt 11:28-29: what did Jesus say of Himself there?

In Mt 11:28-29, He, with a true servant’s gentleness, said: ‘Come unto Me...I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart - I am meek and lowly... - where? ‘...in heart...’, or, another translation, ‘...gentle and lowly-minded in heart’.

Now - if we were to say of ourselves, ‘I am meek and lowly in heart’, we would be showing conceit and arrogance.

If we really look squarely into the face of Jesus Christ today, not one of us could dare say this of ourselves.

But Jesus could say that of Himself without resorting to spiritual pride or conceit.

Why? He could say that because when He stooped from His heavenly glory, He had stooped in real, actual humility and what He was saying was really true of Himself.

In fact, what is also true, when we stop to think about it, is that He could not have said: ‘I am not meek and lowly in heart’ - that would have been an untruth!
 
But He could say: ‘I am meek and lowly in heart’ in truth and that is why He was able to also say: ‘Learn of Me...’, or ‘learn from the revelation that I alone impart’, ‘...I am a Gentle Revealer of meekness and lowly-mindedness’.

And, if we go back to verses 25-27, He had established  this revelation of Himself in His prayer. The revelation He alone would impart was not going to be a revelation to ‘game-players’, nor to ‘pretentious ones’, nor to those who think themselves to be ‘somebody’ in the church fellowship.

But the revelation of Himself as the meek and lowly-minded, the humble One, is given to ‘babes’, ‘the unpretentious little ones’, to the ones who are childlike - childlike, not childish - the ones whose hearts make no claims to anything or of being anyone.

They are the ones who are in that place of the gift of the revelation of learning - of having imparted to them the true humility of Christ. 

With that view of what the ‘mind of Christ’ is, Paul’s challenge was: ‘How are we to think in that mind?’

He answered that by saying: ‘Let this mind be in you [that is, in your church fellowship] which was also in Christ Jesus.’

That is, each one [in your church fellowship] has the same power of the love of Christ - and what a power that is when His constraining love is at work in each one of us!

And each one [in your church fellowship] has the fellowship of the Spirit, making all one in spirit, purpose, and spiritual judgment.

And each one [in your church fellowship] is to learn from the revelation toward lowly-mindedness that Christ alone imparts in dealing with one another. 

And each one [in your church fellowship] has been divinely placed in the body of Christ for the divinely-ordained function of Christ’s humility working among you.

And if each one accepts that lowly-mindedness of Christ, there is no cause for discontent nor disharmony in His church.

If each has His disposition that is one of humility and lowly-mindedness -
 
If each one is operating in His constraining love -

If each one has His same fellowship of the Spirit toward one divine purpose - 

Then - the church is in one accord and of the one mind with the same common thread that ties it all together - that thread being the same mind of Christ. (vs 1-4)

How did James in James 3:13 explain this?

He asked the question: ‘Who among you claims to be wise, intelligent, and clever?’

And his answer to his own question was as if to say: ‘Alright, if you think you are in that category, then show by your perfect life a ‘...conduct of meekness, guided by gentleness and a humility that true wisdom prompts’.’

‘...guided by...a humility that true wisdom prompts.’

That was a strong, solid statement - was it not?

But he went on to explain what it certainly is not by saying that for a Christian, any behavior less than that is of the unspiritual nature and is devilish!

It shows itself as arrogance and as lying to the detriment of the Truth and the fruit of that is confusion, anarchy, disorder, disharmony, and all ‘kinds of evil’. (v 16)

But the mind of Christ is the direction the church is to take - that is the direction our thinking and our thoughts need to adjust to.

And if that be the case, then there is no ground for pettiness, for selfish ambitions, for pretentious attitudes, for game playing, for our own concepts of what the mind of Christ is.

So, Paul essentially asked: how can we - who have the ‘mind of Christ’ - not stand fast in Him and work together harmoniously toward the goal of what God has in mind for the church?

Therefore, he said: ‘Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory: but in lowliness of mind, let each esteem other better than themselves.’ (v 3)

That is, ‘let nothing be done out of selfish ambition or arrogance or self-admiration; in other words, weed out those selfish motives of zeal promoting your own agenda or your own advancement when it comes to the advancement of Christ’s church and His kingdom upon the earth.’

The disposition they are to have is one of humility: in fact, ‘count others better than yourselves,’ he said.

‘Make no claims to outward distinction. Do not push yourself forward when honors are in question but each must be willing to give way to his brother in Christ as being more worthy than he is.’

And Paul went on to say in v 4: ‘Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.’
 
The ‘also’ indicates that every man has his obligation to himself and to his family, something that no man should neglect, as he explained it to Timothy in 1 Tim 5:8.

But, here in Philippians, what is in mind is the fact that all in the fellowship of believers are to show a humble consideration toward one another in the heart of Christ’s love.

This is the place humility must have in the fellowship and with that mind in that one accord, disharmony is cancelled out and Christ can go on in His work in the church.

As far as His church goes and the advancement of His kingdom, history is still in the making but Paul gave the church every reason to abandon itself unto the mind of Christ.

From that vantage point, in respect to our present day outlook, it is absurd to be squabbling about unimportant matters when we look at the power and the wisdom God has given His church in Christ.

I pray that the events of this past week in our country have helped us to see our foolishness in the light of the weightier matter of the ‘mind of Christ’.

And - I pray we will always remember this one thing: God has His eye on His Son Who is the center of His church, and Who is the church.  

The church has yet to see what God is able to do with just a small, unpretentious band of His people who are part of His church universal, people whose corporate mind is ‘the mind of Christ’.

Perhaps you noticed, as we read through 1 Cor 2 last week, what verses 9-10 say. 

If you took notice, you saw that things that have not even been conceived by His church have already been prepared by God for those who love Him.

The Spirit is always ready to reveal God’s deepest secrets to those whose spiritual maturity has been developed in the mind of Christ.

The Spirit is more than ready to reveal the deep things of God to those whose spiritual maturity has been developed in the mind of Christ, for His goal lies beyond our range of seeing - we can be sure of that!

And the building up of His church in the mind of Christ assures us that what He has in mind is splendid beyond our highest imaginings! God has already done exceedingly above that which we have asked or thought and will  continue to do that!

I pray we will always hold fast as the power of God works so mightily in each of us, through the mind of the Spirit and the mind of Christ, to that great revelation of Christ in our midst!

I pray we all will keep this before the Lord in the week ahead and let the Holy Spirit minister it to our hearts.

Amen. Let us pray!