One Mind in Christ
One Mind in Christ. Pride! One of the greatest obstacles of the Christian life is overcoming our own pride. Paul, in this passage of Scripture encourages us to overcome our pride by looking to Jesus Christ, and by His grace, modeling our lives after Him.
1 Therefore if there is any
consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the
Spirit, if any affection and mercy, 2 fulfill my joy by being
like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 3
Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in
lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. 4 Let each
of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the
interests of others.
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being
in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7
but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant,
and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a
man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even
the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and
given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of
Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth,
and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:1-11, NKJV
One Mind in Christ
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
Pride!
One of the greatest obstacles of the Christian life is overcoming our
own pride. Paul, in this passage of Scripture encourages us to overcome
our pride by looking to Jesus Christ, and by His grace, modeling our
lives after Him. As such, we are to think of everyone else as better
than ourselves and to look after the interests of others. In doing so we are to have one mind in Christ.
What
is our great model? Our model is the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is equal to God because He is God! Yet, look at what He
did? He put on the likeness of men, became flesh, and entered this life
as a servant. He was not born as a King in an ostentatious castle, but
rather in a shed among the cows and sheep. Even more amazing, He did all
of this for His people, knowing from the beginning that His purpose was
to die on the cross to save a people for God.
As
we meditate upon this, do you see how very foolish our own pride is? What
could we ever possibly be or have that would make us higher or better
than God? Nothing!
Upon becoming a Christian our goals and purposes in this life immediately change. Before our goals were to glorify ourselves, but now our new goals are to glorify God and to advance His Kingdom here on earth. We may not be called upon to die for our faith, but even if we are, how can we not humble ourselves and submit ourselves to that death for the sake of Christ, who willingly left His Heavenly home to come to this earth to die for us? Our death will not save anyone, not even ourselves. Only Christ could do that, but, our death may be used by God to grow His Church.
Do you realize that everyone in verses 9 through 11 really means everyone?
At the end of time, everyone, Christians and non-Christians will bow
the knee to Christ. At that time everyone will understand who Christ is
and what He has done for His people. The unsaved will be cast into Hell
knowing that they truly deserve that punishment for rejecting Christ;
for rejecting God Himself!
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Think about these verses and pray, today, that God will give to us one mind in Christ!
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