The Mind of Christ

In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus. Phil. 2:5

From Guest Blogger Jim Wiebel:

Now we come to what is one of the most breath-taking passages in all of Scripture. You might say this is the Mt. Everest among the mountain peaks of revelation concerning the person of Christ — the amazing story of how the eternal Son of God stepped out of eternity into time and became a man, as God always intended man to be. These few short verses capture some of the most amazing truths that have ever been written.

Lest we be tempted to remove this passage from its context, however, we must never forget that it’s set against the background of two quarreling ladies in the church at Philippi. That quarrel was threatening to destroy the unity of the whole church. The apostle has made it clear that the secret of maintaining unity is humility. Wherever there is contentiousness, it’s a sure sign that pride is at work. Pride — whether in a person’s life, or a family, a church, a government, or a whole nation — always divides, destroys, and perpetuates conflict of every sort.

Paul’s antidote to quarreling — the only path to peace, in fact — is to seek the path of humility. When tempers are hot, passions are aroused, and patience is strained, how can you get people to calm down and start thinking about a humble attitude? How do you stop the urge to defend yourself, and the stubborn insistence of what we call our “rights”? The answer is in this marvelous passage concerning Christ.

Unlike cult heroes of every age, whose success stories follow a pattern from “rags to riches,” Jesus’ “success story” was just the opposite: “riches to rags.” And in that story of “downward mobility,” Paul is challenging us to rethink our whole picture of God around Jesus. This is a God who is known most clearly when he abandons his rights for the sake of the world. Yes, says Paul; and that’s “the mind of Christ” — that pattern of thinking that belongs to you because you belong to him! And if you are truly living “in him” and by his kind of life, the exhortations of verses 1-4 (yesterday’s post) suddenly make a lot more sense!

Prayer: Forgive me, Father, for insisting on “my way” and “my rights” so much of the time. Give me the mind of Christ, so that I might live to serve others in his name and so fulfill my calling as your dear child, just like Jesus. Amen.


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