Greetings in the precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Before we begin this ministry, Let This Mind Be in You, let us read Philippians 2:1-11 from the Darby Bible. You may have other versions with you, but the substance is the same.
If then there be any comfort in Christ,
if any consolation of love,
if any fellowship of the Spirit,
if any bowels and compassions,
fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing,
having the same love,
joined in soul, thinking one thing.Let nothing be in the spirit of strife or vain glory,
but in lowliness of mind,
each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves;
regarding not each his own qualities,
but each those of others also.For let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, subsisting in the form of God,
did not esteem it an object of rapine
to be on an equality with God;
but emptied Himself,
taking a bondman’s form,
taking His place in the likeness of men;
and having been found in figure as a man,
humbled Himself,
becoming obedient even unto death,
and death, the death of the cross.Therefore also God highly exalted Him,
and granted Him a name
which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of heavenly, and earthly, and infernal beings,
and every tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to God the Father’s glory.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear heavenly Father, we thank Thee that by Thy beloved Son, our Lord Jesus, through His precious blood and the new and living way that He has opened for us, even through His body, we are able to come into Thy presence. We have assurance that we are in Thy presence because the veil has been taken away.
We pray that tonight the light of Thy countenance may shine upon us, upon our hearts, that we may truly walk in light as Thou art in the light; that we may have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all our sins.
We commit this time into Thy hands. We trust Thy Holy Spirit to quicken Thy Word to our hearts, and our hearts to Thy Word. Lord, we pray that Thou wilt gain something for Thyself tonight. To Thee be the praise and the glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.
You know, our Christian life, walk, and service have much to do with our mind. Our mind affects not only us individually and personally, but our mind affects us corporately, together.
In a sense, our mind plays a very important role in our spiritual life and service. I suppose, brothers and sisters, we all know that God created us with a spirit, a soul, and a body.
Now, it is true that it is through our spirit that we receive the knowledge of the will of God. But it is our mind, which is one of the main functions of our soul, that interprets the revelation God has revealed in our spirit, translates it, and transmits that understanding to our body for action.
So you find that our mind stands between our spirit and our body. It stands between revelation and action.
We may have a strong spirit, and we may also have a healthy body; but if we have a weak mind, the will of God will not be able to get through in our lives.
You know, in Romans 8:5-8, you find that the Apostle Paul writes:
They that are according to the flesh mind the things of the flesh;
and they that are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
For the minding of the flesh is death;
but the minding of the Spirit is life and peace.Because the mind of the flesh is enmity against God;
for it is not subject to the law of God,
for neither indeed can it be:
and they that are in flesh cannot please God.
So it is very clear that our mind determines our spiritual condition. I feel that at this time we would like to talk together about this matter of our mind.
Physically speaking, the mind is the brain; but functionally, it is the mind. The word mind in Scripture, in Greek, is nous—N-O-U-S, if you want to spell it in English. It is used twenty-four times in the New Testament.
According to Vine’s Dictionary of New Testament Words, the word nous, or mind, is the seat of reflective consciousness, comprising the faculties of perception and understanding, together with the faculties of feeling and discerning.
What is the condition of the mind of an unsaved person? If you go back to the book of Genesis, you find that when our forefathers were in the garden of Eden and the tempter came to tempt Eve, what he did was inject a thought into the mind of Eve.
“Did God say, Ye shall not eat of all the fruit of the trees?” That is the thought. Now, of course, it was not true. Adam and Eve lived in the garden, and their lives were maintained by the fruit of the trees. God told them that they could eat of every tree except one: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
So you find Satan, very subtly, throwing a thought into the mind of Eve—as if God were such a cruel God that He created man but would not allow them to live.
Unfortunately, Eve answered, “No, that is not true. We can eat of any tree except that one tree, and we cannot touch it.” Now, God did not say that they could not touch it. In other words, you find her mind beginning to work. Her mind was beginning to accept the suggestion of the tempter, as if God were a very harsh, hard, cruel God.
So it is through the mind that Satan got into man. Through the mind, of course, he got the will of man, and man became a fallen creature. To a fallen person, to a fallen creature, his mind is darkened and deceived.
There are two places in the New Testament that show us very clearly the condition of the mind of an unbeliever. One is Romans 1:21 and Romans 1:28.
Because that, knowing God, they glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful;
but fell into folly in their thoughts,
and their heart without understanding was darkened.
And according as they did not think good to have God in their knowledge,
God gave them up to a reprobate mind,
to practise unseemly things,
being filled with all unrighteousness.
Here you find that because they did not think good to have God in their knowledge—they did not want to have God in their knowledge—God gave them up to a reprobate mind, a mind without moral character.
Again, in Ephesians 4:17-18, you find a description of the mind of a natural man:
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord,
that ye should no longer walk as the rest of the nations walk
in the vanity of their mind,
having their understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God
by reason of the ignorance which is in them,
by reason of the hardness of their hearts.
So, to a natural man—to a person who is unconverted and unsaved, whoever he may be—he may be a genius, humanly speaking, or he may be an illiterate person, but whoever he may be, the condition of the mind of the natural man is vain, foolish, and without moral character. His reasonings lack moral character. That is the condition of the mind of a natural person.
Now, thank God, when the gospel is preached and we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit touches our conscience. The Bible says that when the three thousand heard on the day of Pentecost, they were pricked in their heart.
In other words, you find that the Holy Spirit uses the living Word of the gospel to pierce, convict, and touch the conscience of the heart. The seed of the gospel enters through the heart, through the conscience; and after the conscience is touched and convicted, there comes a change of mind.
Repent and believe in the gospel. When we are convicted of our sins and convinced of the reality of the finished work of Christ, then repentance is given to us. The word repentance simply means a change of mind.
Formerly, your mind was going in one direction; now you make a one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn, and you turn in the opposite direction. That is repentance: a change of mind.
I remember a story about repentance. One day there was a convention, and all the theologians were gathered together discussing some of the basic truths in the Scriptures. Repentance was one of the topics they discussed.
Different professors of theology and theologians gave long dissertations and speeches on what repentance is. But the more they presented their dissertations, the less people understood what repentance really was.
Finally, a retired missionary, an elderly gentleman, was sitting in the back. He did not have a Ph.D. or D.D. degree, and he was not a recognized theologian—just a foreign missionary. He had been sitting there listening, and he could not stand it anymore.
So he raised his hand and asked the chairman whether he could have five minutes to talk about repentance. The chairman looked at that poor missionary and thought, “What will he know about repentance?” But because he was a veteran in the foreign field, and out of respect for his age, the chairman said, “All right, I will give you five minutes.”
This elderly missionary stood up. He was sitting way back in the hall, and he began to walk toward the platform. As he was walking, he talked aloud, saying, “I am going to hell. I am going to hell. I am going to hell.”
Of course, everybody was surprised. When he reached the platform, suddenly he turned around, raised his two hands, and said, “I am going to heaven. This is repentance.” Then he came down. Now everybody knew what repentance really is.
That is repentance: a change of mind. So when we believe in the Lord Jesus, something happens to our minds. We change our minds. Formerly, we despised the gospel; we despised Christ. But now we want Him. Formerly, we loved sin; but now we are tired of it and want to get rid of it. A change of mind.
But strangely, when you read the Scriptures, you find the expression “a new heart” and “a new spirit,” but you do not find the term “a new mind.” If you find it, please let me know.
In Ezekiel 18, God says that He will give us a new spirit and a new heart. But somehow I cannot find in the Scripture the term “a new mind.” The only expression I can find is “a renewed mind.”
Now, why is it so? I am not a theologian, so I dare not give you a dissertation. But, so far as I feel, probably at the time when we are saved there is a change of mind. That is repentance.
How far does that change go? That is the question. Is it a complete change, or merely a superficial change? Is it a permanent change, or only a temporary change?
In one sense, you do find that when we first repent and believe in the Lord Jesus, we seem to have a new mind. During that period when you are newly saved, when you are in love with Christ, it seems that your whole outlook has changed. Your evaluation of things—how you value things—seems to have changed.
If, at that time, people asked you to leave the world and give up everything, you would gladly do it. There seems to be a new mind there.
In 1 Corinthians 2:16, it says, “But we have the mind of Christ.” Now, the mind of Christ, of course, is to us a new mind. We have the mind of Christ.
Also, in Romans 7, Paul describes his own experience of civil war within himself. Finally, he concludes in Romans 7:25, “With my mind I serve God’s law; but with my flesh, sin’s law.”
So it does seem that when we believe in the Lord Jesus, there is such a change in our mind. I do not know whether the change is permanent or temporary, drastic or superficial; but when you first believe in the Lord, there does seem to be a change in your mind. You look at things differently.
But how long does that last? That is the question.
Unfortunately, you find that our mind has been going in a certain direction for so long that there is a habit in our thinking. After you are saved—perhaps during the first month, or perhaps during the first year—in your first love, it seems that you have a new mind.
It seems very easy for you to know the will of God, and you want to do the will of God. You do not care about anything else. You look down upon anything else. It seems that you have a new mind at that period.
But gradually, unconsciously, you find that your mind begins to revert to the old way of thinking. Why? Because the mind has been thinking in a certain way for so long that it becomes a habit.
It is just like driving. I do not drive now, and brothers and sisters have to take me to the meetings. Sometimes, when a brother or sister is taking me back home, they pass my home. Why? They are driving toward their own home. They have driven that way so often that, without thinking, they simply do it by habit.
Our mind works like that. Before we are saved, our mind works in a certain direction, in a certain way. It becomes a habit—almost automatic. Gradually and unconsciously, when your first love begins to wane, you find your mind reverting to its old habits of thought.
You begin to love the world again. You begin to be afraid of the will of God. Somehow, you find that your mind is working in the old way. When your mind works in the old way, of course you walk in the old way, because you walk as you think. Your thinking determines your conduct.
That is why I feel the Scripture says that we need to have our mind renewed. The Apostle Paul says that our mind is a battlefield. The enemy has taken control of our mind for so long—from the very beginning of human history.
If you have read The Holy War by John Bunyan—if you have not read it, I hope you will read it—you will find that it is a tremendous book. We are familiar with Pilgrim’s Progress, but probably The Holy War is not as familiar.
In The Holy War, Bunyan uses metaphors. Our will is the citadel of the city; our mind is the battlefield. In order for the enemy to get into our will, the battle is set in the mind. Through the mind, the enemy is able to get into the citadel and take the city—the will.
Through the years, the enemy has built up strongholds in our minds: imaginations and high reasonings that resist the knowledge of God. These have been built up within us over many years.
So, with us as believers, the battle of the mind becomes a very real issue. Whether you are able to live a spiritual life depends very much on your mind. If you are defeated in your mind, you are not able to live a spiritual life, because the minding of the flesh is death, but the minding of the Spirit is life and peace.
The battle is very real—very real. How are we going to fight this battle? Paul says that we do not fight this battle with carnal weapons, because we will not be able to overcome. But with spiritual weapons, we are powerful before God to overthrow the strongholds of the enemy.
All these high reasonings and imaginations must be cast down and brought into subjection to the obedience of Christ. Whether you are able to fight that battle determines your spiritual future.
Dear brothers and sisters, as you begin to go on in the Lord, you will find that the battle is not outside. The battle is in the mind.
It is very important that we have our mind renewed. How can our mind be renewed? There are two Scriptures in the New Testament. One is Romans 12:1-2. I think we are all familiar with it.
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the compassions of God,
to present your bodies a living sacrifice,
holy, acceptable to God,
which is your intelligent service.
Here you find the Apostle Paul, after he has shared with the Roman believers all the mercies and compassions of God—all that God has done for us in Christ Jesus, from Romans 1 through Romans 11. After we have heard all these things and received all the mercies of God, what should be our reaction? How shall we respond?
The apostle says, “Therefore, brethren, by the compassions, or the mercies, of God, I beseech you.” There is one thing that we must do: present our bodies a living sacrifice.
Here you are: redeemed. You do not belong to yourself. He has done so much for you, and He has given His life in you. He has given His Spirit in you. How are you going to use that body? Are you going to keep your body for your own use, or are you going to present your body—a redeemed body—to the Lord and let Him use it according to His will?
That is consecration. In a sense, consecration is our first Christian experience. If you have never presented your body as a living sacrifice—putting your body on the altar, as it were, and saying, “Lord, it is Yours”—then it is taken out of your own hands and delivered into the hands of God. Let Him have control over your life.
If you have not done that, even though you are saved, you have not started in your Christian experience. The first Christian experience is consecration—and probably the last one too.
This sacrifice is holy, separated, and acceptable to God. It is your reasonable service. We want to serve God, but how are we going to serve God? Present your bodies a living sacrifice. That is your reasonable service.
If you have not presented your body as a living sacrifice, no matter how much service you perform or how many so-called Christian activities you are involved in, you have not yet rendered your reasonable service. You have to present your body as a living sacrifice.
The same word can also be translated, “This is your spiritual worship.” How are you going to worship God? You do not begin to worship Him until you present your body a living sacrifice. You may think that you are worshipping Him, praising Him, and thanking Him; but if you keep your body for yourself, you have not started worship yet.
Worship begins with consecration. Present your body a living sacrifice.
Why is this so important? Because this is the secret of the renewing of the mind. How is our mind renewed? You cannot change your own mind. Nobody can. You may say, “Well, I can change my mind,” but it will be very superficial.
No one can change his or her own mind. This is the work of the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit will not begin that changing work until you present your body a living sacrifice.
Romans 12:2 says:
And be not conformed to this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind,
that ye may prove what is the good
and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Before our mind is renewed, we conform to the world. The word here is not cosmos; the word here is age. In other words, do not be conformed to the fashion of this age.
This world has a fashion in everything. Every age has its own mode and its own fashion. What it means here is: do not squeeze yourself into the mould of the modern fashion. Yet that is what everybody is doing.
Whenever a fashion appears in Paris, especially among ladies, immediately you find the whole world squeezing itself into that fashion. That is the world, and that is the natural mind. You conform to the world. You follow the crowd. Do not be different; be one of them. That is the way our mind works.
Before our mind is renewed, we are afraid of the will of God. We do not like the will of God. Some young people say, “What is the will of God?” The answer is, “Whatever is against me is the will of God.” So naturally they do not love the will of God. That is the natural mind.
But when the mind is renewed, what happens? You find that you will not be conformed to the world. Instead, you love to prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God. The will of God is perfect, good, pleasing, and acceptable.
Because the mind has changed through its renewing, you begin to look differently. Every time you come to a crisis or a decision and find it difficult to follow the will of God, you may struggle over it. But when you yield yourself to the Lord, immediately you find that something changes. You find it easy to do the will of God. It becomes pleasing to you.
The renewing of the mind is an experience that we must have at the beginning, and it is not only a door; it is also a way. Christian experience is like that. You enter the door of the renewing of the mind through consecration.
Then, every day, you need to consecrate yourself and have your mind renewed, and renewed, and renewed, to keep it in that condition.
Some people may say, “Well, five years ago I offered myself and presented my body a living sacrifice to the Lord.” But how about today? It is not just once for all.
A burnt sacrifice was to be on the altar day and night, twenty-four hours continuously. The fire never went out. When one lamb was gradually burned into ashes, another lamb was put on in the evening; and in the morning, another one. The fire continued day and night.
That is consecration. That is presenting our bodies a living sacrifice. That is the way our mind is renewed. Day by day, every day, our mind needs to be renewed; and it is always renewed on the principle of consecration.
Whenever you find that your mind cannot get through, go back to consecration. Then you will find that the Holy Spirit will transform you and give you a renewed mind. With a renewed mind, you are able to follow the Lord.
In Ephesians 4:20-24, we read:
But ye have not thus learnt the Christ,
if ye have heard Him and been instructed in Him
according as the truth is in Jesus;
namely, your having put off according to the former conversation
the old man which corrupts itself according to the deceitful lusts;
and being renewed in the spirit of your mind;
and your having put on the new man,
which according to God is created
in truthful righteousness and holiness.
In Romans 12, you have, “Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Your mind is renewed; that is, the attitude of your mind is renewed. Then, in Ephesians 4, it begins to take action. You continue to put off the old man, and you continue to put on the new man. That is the way you learn Christ.
Our mind needs to be renewed. We need a renewed mind every day.
What is the proper spirit of the mind? What is the right attitude of the mind? Or, to put it another way, what is a renewed mind? What characterizes that renewed mind?
Of course, we know that the renewed mind is nothing but having the mind of Christ. Here, in Philippians 2, Paul says, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
We know whether our mind is renewed, whether our mind is in the right spirit and attitude, by seeing whether we have the mind of Christ within us. If the mind of Christ is in us, then we know we are in our right mind. If the mind of Christ is not there, then we are not in our right mind.
What is the mind of Christ? In Philippians 2:5-8, Paul gives us a description of the mind of Christ—what is the spirit of Christ’s mind.
The theologians call this the kenosis theory. Kenosis means emptying—the theology of emptying. Here you find our Lord Jesus, who is equal with God and subsists in the form of God.
The word form there does not refer to outward appearance. The word form actually refers to inward character. In other words, our Lord Jesus, even before the world was, in eternity past, being the Son of God, subsisted in the form of God. He has the same character as God.
He is the exact image of God. All that God is, that is what He is. He is one with God. He is God, the Son of God. He subsists in the form of God.
He did not esteem equality with God an object to be grasped. In other words, He is equal with God; that is His right. It is not something He tried to grasp or seek for Himself. It is His right because He is God, the Son of God. He has the same essence as God the Father. They are eternally the same, the one.
Why does the Scripture put it this way? Because there is history behind it. Someone in the history of the universe tried to grasp that equality for himself—not because it was his right, but because he wanted it for himself. That was the archangel Lucifer.
He was a created being. Even though he may have been the first created being, the highest created being, he was still a created being. He was not the Creator. He was not equal with God, and yet he tried to grasp it for himself. He did not have the right to it, but he wanted it for himself. He became the devil, the adversary of God.
But Christ, the Son of God, possessed that right. It was His. That was what Christ was before He came into this world.
Yet here you find that He emptied Himself. That is the first step: He emptied Himself.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in Him. You can see how full He is, how rich He is, and yet He emptied Himself. It was an action that He took voluntarily. No one tried to empty Him; He voluntarily emptied Himself.
Brothers and sisters, we have to see very clearly that, as one writer says, “This emptying baffles our mind, but it moves our heart.” You cannot explain that emptying—God emptying Himself. How did He do it? What has He done? It is beyond our understanding.
Probably there is something we need to know. As one writer puts it, He emptied Himself of all His metaphysical attributes.
The metaphysical attributes of God include omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. God is everywhere; you cannot limit Him to one place. He is everywhere at all times. There is no time limit to Him. He is omnipresent.
He is omniscient. He knows everything from the beginning to the end. He does not need to go through the process of thinking, reasoning, or collecting data. He knows everything immediately.
He is omnipotent. He is almighty. He can do anything He wants to do. Whatever He wants to do, He says, and it is done.
These are the metaphysical attributes of God. But here you find that the Son of God emptied Himself of all these metaphysical attributes. When He became a man, He was no longer omnipresent. When He was in Jerusalem, He was not in Galilee. He had to travel from place to place.
He was no longer everywhere at the same time. Neither was He omnipotent in the sense that He acted independently. There were many things, you find, that He could not do unless the Father willed it. He said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself.” He also said, “Of that day and hour knoweth no man … but the Father.”
He emptied Himself of these metaphysical attributes. But, of course, as God, He could not empty Himself of His moral attributes. He is God, even when He was a man on earth.
He could not empty Himself of His righteousness, His holiness, His love, or His purity. These moral characteristics He could not empty Himself of. Or, to put it another way, He could empty Himself of all the glory, honour, and majesty associated with Him as God, but He could not empty Himself of the glory of His Godhead—of His being God.
I hope it is clear. At least we know something about this emptying. Sometimes people fall into error, thinking that because He emptied Himself, He was no longer God when He became a man. No, He is still God. But He did all this emptying.
Think of it: what love must be behind such emptying! He emptied Himself of all these things for our sake. It is beyond us—really beyond us. Why did He do it? How could He do it? Yet He has done it for us.
He took upon Himself the form of a bondman. The word form here, again, is not outward appearance. The form here is the inward quality and character.
In other words, being God, He emptied Himself and took another form: the character of a bondservant. Think of it—from the highest to the lowest. As God, every right belongs to Him. He is the authority in the universe. There is no authority above God. He has every right to do whatever He wants to do. No one can question Him.
But a bondservant has no rights whatsoever. Not only a slave, but a bondservant. A bondservant is a love slave.
In the Old Testament, a Hebrew could become a slave for six years, and in the seventh year he could go free. But if he loved his master and wanted to be a bondservant, he could offer himself. His ear would be pierced at the doorpost. When the ear was pierced, it meant that he was a love slave forever.
A bondservant has no rights whatsoever. Not only does he have no rights, but all his descendants have no rights whatsoever.
Now, think of the Lord Jesus. For the love of us, such as we are, He emptied Himself of all glory and honour and took the lowest place: a bondservant. From all rights to no rights.
How we fight over our rights! But He had no rights. Being in the likeness of men, of course, His outward appearance was that of a man. He was born a man, just as we are. But His inward character was that of a bondservant.
That is what man ought to be before God. Man’s place before God is the place of a bondservant. That should be our inward feeling as men.
Unfortunately, in man’s mind, man is the highest—on the top. It is true that man is the masterpiece of God’s creation, above all but under One. Yet somehow we think we are above everybody. We are gods ourselves.
But the place of man actually is the character of a bondservant, a love slave. We love Him, we have no rights, we give all our rights to God, and we are willing to do whatever His will may be. That is what Christ is.
When He was on earth, He took upon Himself the likeness of men. Being a man, man as God intended man to be, He was obedient to God. That is what a man ought to be: obedient to God, even unto death, and death on a cross.
That is the theology of emptying. That is the mind of Christ.
What is the mind of Christ? The mind of Christ is a mind of self-emptying, a mind of giving up His rights, a mind of humility, a mind of self-effacement.
In this world today, people talk about self-esteem. They say that you have to esteem yourself as excellent. If you have an inferiority complex, they say you must develop a superiority complex. Self-esteem: how to raise your self-esteem.
That is what the world is trying to do with everybody. Unfortunately, that is what people are trying to do even in Christian circles.
But if you go back to the Word of God, you find that the mind of Christ is not self-esteem; it is self-effacement, self-denial, self-emptying. How opposite our mind is to the mind of Christ!
Have you discovered that? Even if you love the Lord, even if you may have a strong spirit and a healthy body, somehow you find your mind is at odds with God.
We stand upon our rights. When our rights are violated, we get angry. We feel our dignity has been touched. Is that the mind of Christ?
The mind of Christ is a mind of humility.
I wonder whether you have read a book called Beyond Humiliation. It is a good book—I am not selling books. Humiliation is something we are all afraid of. We do not want people to humiliate us.
No matter how old you are, when people humiliate you, you get angry. You cannot stand it. But our Lord’s humility is beyond humiliation.
Humility is an inward quality. Humiliation is something imposed from outside—an outward action. People humiliate you. But our Lord Jesus is truly beyond humiliation.
Think of how they humiliated Him. I do not think anyone was ever humiliated as our Lord Jesus was. When you read the Gospels, you find everybody mocking Him and humiliating Him. The soldiers put a purple robe on Him, a crown of thorns upon Him, a reed in His hand, and bowed before Him, saying, “King of the Jews.”
What humiliation! But His humility was beyond humiliation. You could not stir Him up. That is the mind of Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
If there is any consolation in Christ, any comfort in Christ, any consolation of love, any fellowship of the Spirit, then we need that kind of mind.
Sometimes you find that a person’s spirituality frightens people instead of helping them. I do not know whether you understand me or not. Some people may seem to be so spiritual that they frighten you.
Why? When you come before them, all you receive is scolding, blaming, and judging: “This is not right. That is not right. You are wrong here. You are wrong there.” Their spirituality frightens you.
They may have a strong spirit, but certainly they do not have the mind of Christ. If they have the mind of Christ, then what they receive from the Lord in their spirit should be able to build up even the weakest of the saints and bring them up instead of frightening them away.
The reason we cannot comfort people, console them in love, or have fellowship of the Spirit is that something is wrong with our mind. There may not be anything wrong with your spirit. The revelation you receive from the Lord may be correct, but something is wrong with your mental attitude.
When that is corrected, you are able to help, to console, and to fellowship.
Our Lord Jesus, because that is His mind, is able to comfort us, console us in love, and have fellowship with us in spirit.
In this chapter, you find that Paul not only mentions, “Let this mind of Christ be in you,” but you also find in the letter to the Philippians that this mind is in Paul. Paul does have the mind of Christ.
Think of Paul’s situation at that time. Paul was in prison in Rome, yet he wrote this letter to the Philippian believers. In the whole letter, you find that he was not thinking of himself. He was thinking of others.
When you are in prison unjustly—when you are in prison for the gospel’s sake, not because you have done anything wrong—you would probably develop self-pity or even murmuring. You might be offended by the Lord and ask, “Why has God allowed this thing to happen to me?”
But you find no such spirit in Paul. On the contrary, he thinks only of the Philippian believers. They had a little problem, and because of that problem they were not happy. They had lost their joy.
The joy of the Lord is your strength. When joy is lost, it shows that something is unhealthy. Somehow, they were under a cloud; the people were not joyful. But Paul, in prison, rejoiced in the Lord, and he wanted to share his joy with the Philippian believers. That is the mind of Paul—the mind of Christ.
When Paul was in prison, there were some people preaching the gospel in order to increase his bondage. Most likely these were the Judaizers. They followed him all his life. What did he say? “Never mind. Christ is announced; that is all right.”
Even if they wanted to increase his sorrow, it was fine. If Christ was announced, that was fine with him.
If you are in prison and really prepared to go to the Lord, what would you want? Of course, you would want to leave immediately—to depart and be with the Lord. There is nothing better than that. Paul desired that, and all who love the Lord desire to depart and be with Him.
But then Paul thought of the Philippian believers. They needed help. So he said, in effect, “I am in a dilemma. I do not know what to do. Should I go, or should I remain here? Well, I will stay here for your sake.” Think of that. That is the mind of Christ. He never thought of himself.
Brothers and sisters, Paul had the mind of Christ. Not only Paul, but in the same chapter he mentions another one: Timothy, his son in the truth.
Paul said that everybody was minding their own things, caring for their own interests. But Timothy cared for the Philippian believers as Paul did. Timothy had the mind of Christ.
Not only Timothy had the mind of Christ; Paul mentioned another person, Epaphroditus. The Philippian church sent Epaphroditus across the sea to Rome in order to supply Paul with material help.
The journey, of course, was very dangerous. When Epaphroditus arrived in Rome, he nearly died. He was very sick, but fortunately the Lord raised him up.
Paul wrote that Epaphroditus ventured his own life in order to fulfil what the Philippians lacked in their ministry. That is the mind of Christ. He was not thinking of himself. He was trying to fulfil the ministry of the brothers and sisters—what they wanted to do and what they ought to do—even at the cost of his life.
Brothers and sisters, I do feel that probably many problems among God’s people today, especially among people who love the Lord and have a strong spirit, are problems of the mind.
If our mind is renewed daily, taking on the character of the mind of Christ, then we will be able to build up one another. We will be able to fulfil all that God has ordained and called us to do.
To me, I feel that this is very important. May we look to the Lord that He will show us whether our mind is renewed every day, whether unconsciously our mind has gone back to the old mind, and whether today we have the mind of Christ.
Is the spirit of humility and self-effacement still our spirit, our mental attitude? If that is our attitude, I think not only will many problems among God’s people be solved, but the joy of the Lord will return to His people.
Shall we pray?
Dear Lord, we put Thy Word back into Thy own hands and pray that Thy Holy Spirit will quicken each one of us, that Thy Word may fall into good ground and bear fruit for Thy praise and glory. In the name of our Lord Jesus, Amen.