A Mind Like Christ

"Take Thou our minds, dear Lord, we humbly pray,
Give us the mind of Christ each passing day;
Teach us to know the truth that sets us free;
Grant us in all our thoughts to honor Thee."

Hymn by Calvin Weiss Laufer, 1918

     It is both incredibly strange and also quite tragic that we can read the Word of God and become conditioned to it. I, like so many others I'm sure, read His Word daily, sometimes with vigor and sometimes out of habit. More often than not, I read The Bible as an eager student and I look to it to learn, grow, and complete a cohesive picture of God's glory. And, perhaps, that is where my fault lies-too often I read it as a textbook instead of the uncompromising, sometimes unsettling, wonder that it is.
     Every once in a while, though, I am reminded that His Word still holds the power to take my breath away and bring me to my knees. One such occasion was the other day as I was reading through 1 Corinthians and I came to the second chapter and sixteenth verse:

For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?"

 But we have the mind of Christ. (NKJV)

     The implications of this are staggering. The text does not say: we strive to have the mind of Christ. Nor does it say: more often than not we have the mind of Christ. No, Scripture says "we have the mind of Christ"-unequivocally, indisputably, absolutely. I don't know about you, but when I meditate on the way my mind operates, I'd say more often than not it probably isn't very Christ-like. But, The Bible is clear, isn't it? If we are new creatures in Christ, if we have died to ourselves and to the world, if we become one with Christ, then we share in the mind of Christ.

     If we are to begin this journey of purging out ourselves and ushering in Jesus in order to become obedient then the mind seems both a logical and also biblical place to start. It's logical for a few reasons. First, our mind is a very primal thing we have command of. It may not be the easiest means to bring under our reign, or more importantly Christ's reign, but it is the most accessible. Which leads to the second point, the mind is the well-spring of everything else you have control over. The choices you make, the way you treat people, what you pursue-these will all be determined by how you think and what you think about. Finally, it is logical because it is biblical. In Romans 7:25 Paul teaches us something about the mind: "I thank God--through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." Transformation begins with the mind-it is the vessel that we learn and accept God and once we receive the Holy Spirit it is what He indwells-so that we have the minds of Christ. It is our mode of obedience, set apart for the depth and service of the Lord, while the flesh remains privy to worldly decay and self-pursuit.

     Imagine, if you will, that you were given a present as a teenager-an heirloom. As an adolescent you warmly accepted the gift with gratitude, perhaps humoring your parents, or grandparents, who gave it to you. You place it on your dresser for a while and then eventually it finds its way into a drawer. As time passes on, it makes its way into a box and you transfer it along as you go to college and then when you move into your first home. You forget about it for the most part, occasionally remembering it and that it's in storage somewhere. Then one day as the giver of the gift lies on their death bed, they ask you if you still have the heirloom and you tell them that you do. Though you don't tell them you haven't got a clue where it might be, just that you know you have it somewhere. They then proceed to tell you the story of how your ancestors fought long and hard to get that gift and that they kept it safe for many years, and they reveal that the gift which once seemed useless and trivial to you was actual the key to a great wealth that will change your life forever. You go home and frantically start searching for it, through boxes and boxes of stuff amassed over the years, through closets and the garage and finally the attic. And, then, after days of searching you find it, exhausted but elated and you cash in on the treasure that should have been yours years ago.

     So, my friend, as we begin to contemplate what a transformed, Christ-like mind looks like, let us not forget that this will not be a new discovery. We were given this gift years ago when we received the Holy Spirit. Our job now is only to uncover that gift from the years of clutter and neglect. A Christ-like mind is instantly given and is ours to uncover as soon as we are willing.