Mind of Christ
If then there is any encouragement in Christ, any consolation from love, any sharing in the Spirit, any compassion and sympathy, make my joy complete: be of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Philippians 2:1-11
During the evening of the Last Supper, Jesus prayed for our unity. He prayed that His followers “may all be one” (John 17:20), and He continued praying, “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). So, Jesus prays that we might be one with each other, and one with the Holy Trinity.
Paul begins the passage above expressing the same thought. He urges his readers to be “in full accord and of one mind” (Philippians 2:2), driven by humility, serving one another. He continues by urging his readers to “let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5). He then reminds us who Jesus is because if we are to endeavor to have His mind, we must first know whose mind it is we seek.
Jesus is God. He has always been and will always be. He spoke the universe into existence out of nothing. He has all power and authority in heaven and on earth. He lived eternally in heavenly glory, but He did not cling to the privilege. He did not hold onto it like a prize or a treasure, in fact, He relinquished it for a time to come to earth as a human baby, to be raised in a normal working-class family, living in obscurity, knowing pain, suffering, grief, hunger, rejection and the broad array of human emotion. And then, He surrendered Himself, knowing fully that the very people He came to save would torture Him and nail Him to a cross, and He did it all so that we might gain life through Him.
Who is Jesus? Jesus is God. But I fear that because we are unable to fully comprehend who God is, we tend to underestimate Him and by so doing, we expand ourselves by comparison. Many consider Jesus to be merely a good man, a prophet, and a gifted teacher. They are quick to attribute to Him the best of human characteristics, but because they see humanity as the pinnacle of existence, they fail to consider who Jesus really is. But Jesus is God. He is holy. He has power beyond our comprehension. He is wrath beyond our imagination. He is also love, mercy and grace, and He is all these all the time. In Him, the attributes do not contradict one another.
If your image of Christ Jesus is something like a flower-child hippie espousing love and peace, not war, consider the image of Christ Jesus that John saw when heaven opened, and he peered in. John writes,
Then I saw heaven opened, and there was a white horse! Its rider is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems; and he has a name inscribed that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, wearing fine linen, white and pure, were following him on white horses. From his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations, and he will rule them with a rod of iron; he will tread the wine press of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has a name inscribed, “King of kings and Lord of lords.” Revelation 19:11-16
The image is of an all-powerful warrior carrying the “fury of the wrath of God the Almighty” and leading an army of holy soldiers. This is the Jesus who surrendered His heavenly glory for a time to come to earth as an infant. This is the Jesus who taught and preached and quoted Scripture with amazing insight and clarity, causing us to wonder, how could He do that? And then we remember, He wrote the words.
Through Jesus we see power, restraint and mercy. This awesome, all-powerful warrior who is capable of slaying nations with His tongue, this is the Jesus who surrendered Himself to die on the cross, knowing all along that He could easily have summoned legions of angels to destroy every human around Him. But He volunteered for it because only He could be the perfect, righteous, pure Lamb worthy of sacrifice for the sin of humanity. He did it all so that we might live. He is all powerful and He reveals His power through mercy and grace.
God’s holy word urges us to have the mind of Christ Jesus, and to reveal strength through humility, mercy and love. How can we possibly have His mind? The only way we gain bits and pieces of Him is through His holy indwelling, by abiding in Him and allowing Him to abide in us, through studying His holy word, by prayer, surrender and truly following Him, by loving Him, which necessitates following His commands.
The thought of power, restraint and mercy intersecting reminds me of a scene from the movie Schindler’s List. Late one night after a party, Oskar Schindler, a war profiteer who uses slave labor from concentration camps to work in his ammunitions factories, sits alone with Amon Goeth, a psychopathic concentration camp director. Amon remarks that Oskar is never drunk, noting that sort of self-control is power. The scene continues as follows:
Oskar: Power is when we have every justification to kill and we don’t.
Amon: You think that’s power?
Oskar: That’s what the emperor said. A man stole something. He is brought before the emperor, he throws himself down to the ground, he begs for mercy. He knows he’s going to die. And the emperor pardons him. This worthless man, he lets him go.
Amon: I think you are drunk.
Oskar: That is power, Amon. That is power.
Amon: I pardon you.
Oskar: Amon the Good.
Oskar Schindler was trying to convince the concentration camp director to stop killing Oskar’s workers. Amon had the ability to kill at his whim with impunity, and because of his limitless power within the confines of the camp, Oskar gently urged him to stop doing so, and presented restraint and mercy as a more powerful alternative. But Amon could not give up the sadistic privilege he had bestowed upon himself. For a moment he contemplated mercy, but his thirst for blood quickly overtook him.
I fear we are much closer to Amon than Jesus. We find it difficult to relinquish privilege. Jesus repeatedly gave up everything for us. He surrendered His heavenly glory and then He surrendered His earthly glory, which He counted as nothing, for us. Recall the crowds praising Him as He rode the colt into Jerusalem. How did He respond? Was it His glorious Instagram moment? No. He wept. He did not seize it because He knew it was nothing, it was fleeting, it was hollow. Yet we cling to the tiny taste of earthly privilege we know because we fail to see it for what it is through the lens of eternity.
God’s holy word connects the concepts of humility, surrender, relinquishing privilege and growing in Christ Jesus’ holy image with unity in the Body of Christ and communion with the Holy Trinity, because so long as we cling to earthly glory and focus on the bits of earthly privilege we possess, we lose sight of heavenly glory.
Jesus has limitless authority and power. He is a mighty warrior and He chose to relinquish His heavenly glory for a time to come to earth for a lot of reasons, but ultimately so that we might gain life. He demonstrated loving, merciful grace, not only through His relationships with people in need, through His healing ministry, through His teaching, by assuming the wardrobe and position of a slave and washing His disciples’ feet, but also by giving His life so that we might gain life.
God’s holy word says, “Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus…” (Philippians 2:5). What does that mean to you?