If we would know Christ as the pattern, we should let the mind which was in Christ Jesus be in us; we need to let this mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus.
This week we are focusing on, Knowing and Experiencing Christ as the Pattern, as seen mainly in Phil. 2:3-9.
May we in our Christian life focus only on Christ and not be deceived by the crafty and subtle enemy, who wants to corrupt our thoughts from the simplicity and purity toward Christ.
In Paul’s epistles we see that he was battling to bring the saints back to Christ from many things that came in to distract them. Initially Paul betrothed the believers to Christ, but then many different things came in to distract them from Christ.
Satan brings in many different things to cause us to take our focus off of Christ. This is why we need to return to the experience of Christ, focus on this one thing, the enjoyment and experience of Christ in a subjective way for the building up of the Body of Christ.
We may have a vision of Christ with all that He is, but do we live according to this vision, do we enjoy Christ and experience Him in our daily life? It is possible that, even as the Lord is giving us this vision, we would not be focused on the central part of this vision.
We see this in Matt. 17 where the Lord took three of His closest disciples up on a mountain and there He was transfigured before them; even in such a situation, Peter was drawn off by secondary things, suggesting that they would build three tents, one for the Lord, another for Elijah, and another for Moses.
He unconsciously devalued the vision to either bring Christ down or to bring Moses and Elijah up to the same level as the Lord; so the Father came in, covered them with a cloud, and spoke, This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight; Hear Him! And then they opened their eyes, they saw no one except Jesus only.
It is easy for us to be distracted by secondary things, even in our receiving of the vision, and thus take our eyes off the Person of Christ. We need to pray that we would be impressed with nothing else but Christ, be focused on Christ, and enjoy and experience Christ.
And as we want to see today, we need to let this mind be in us, that is, let the mind which was in Christ Jesus be in us also.
As we come to Philippians chapter two with the description of how Christ humbled and emptied Himself, may we be emptied and refreshed in our vision, and may we see the thought and mind of Paul in writing these things.
To Know Christ as the Pattern we need to Let this Mind be in us, the Mind of Christ
If we would know Christ as the pattern, we should let the mind which was in Him also be in us; as Paul says in Phil. 2:5, we need to let this mind be in us, which was also in Christ Jesus.
This means that this mind is a living thing, for we cannot let something not living be in us; just as we see in Col. 3:16 that we need to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly, so here we see that we should let the mind of Christ be in us.
The mind of Christ is a living mind, and this mind hast o be our person.
When we are with someone and he doesn’t speak to us, we may ask him, What’s on your mind? In this way we want to know the person, his thoughts, what is he thinking of.
Christ with His mind is the most living and active, and we need to allow this mind be in us. And in Philippians this mind refers to something quite particular, not something general.
We need to take Christ’s mind as our mind, opening ourselves to “let this mind” also be in us (Phil. 2:3-5). “This” in verse 5 refers to the “considering” in v. 3 and the “regarding” in v. 4. We need to consider one another more excellent than ourselves, not regarding each his own virtues but the virtues of others also.
As we come to the steps of the Lord’s humiliation, His emptying and humbling Himself, these are connected to the prior verses.
Here we see that Paul had a burden for this wonderful church in Philippi, who was started in Acts 16 with the salvation of two families, who had a good order with elders and deacons and saints, but who had a situation of not thinking the same thing among the saints – there was a problem in the soul.
The antidote to such a situation is to let the mind of Christ be in the saints. Lowliness of mind is in contrast to both selfish ambition and vainglory; this lowliness of mind is not our natural lowliness but the lowliness of Christ.
Our virtues are limited; we may feel we have some lowliness of mind and endurance, but when these are tested, they fail and run out.
But the lowliness and endurance of Christ are unlimited. Experiencing Christ in His lowliness of mind is in contrast to having ambition and vain glory.
This kind of mind, this kind of thinking, was in Christ when He emptied Himself and humbled Himself (see vv. 7-8); He didn’t seek His own glory, neither did He have ambition, but He had lowliness of mind.
We should let this thinking be in us, let the mind of Christ be in us. As the Lord was in the process of emptying and humbling Himself He had a particular mind; we can and should have this mind in the church life. This is our great need today.
Lord Jesus, we want to know You as our pattern by letting the mind which was in You also be in us. Amen, Lord, let this mind also be in us, which was in Christ Jesus. We open ourselves to let the mind of Christ be in us; may Your mind saturate and fill our mind until Your mind becomes our mind. We want to know You in a subjective way, Lord, by opening ourselves to You and letting Your mind be in us. May Your word dwell in us richly and let Your mind be in us in our daily living and in the church life.
To Let the Mind of Christ be in us is to be one with Him in His Inward Feeling and Thinking
To have “this mind” – the mind which was in Christ Jesus – requires that we are one with Christ in His inward parts, in His tender, inward feeling and in His thinking.
Paul took Christ as his pattern and he lived Christ; therefore, Paul became our pattern, for Christ as the pattern got into Paul and made him a pattern to the believers.
In Phil. 1:8 Paul said that he longed for the saints in the inward parts of Christ Jesus. He entered into the inward parts of Christ, he let the mind of Christ enter into him, and he had the feelings of Christ toward the saints; when he contacted the saints, he had this mind, this feeling, this desire that Christ also had.
Also, his co-workers had the same mind; Epaphroditus longed for the saints, and Timothy was like-souled with the apostle, caring for the saints.
We need to have Christ’s feeling expressed and reprinted in us by letting this mind, the mind of Christ, enter into us and become our mind. This means that we become the same in thinking as He is.
We all have our way of thinking, our own thinking, and we come up with our own conclusions.
In the Gospels we see that the disciples, who were closest to the Lord Jesus, many times didn’t think the same way that He did.
One time in Mark 9 they told the Lord that they saw someone casting demons in the Lord’s name so they forbade him because he didn’t follow them; the Lord, however, did not think the same way, for He said, Don’t forbid them, for he who is not against us is for us.
Then in Mark 10 the parents brought their little children to the Lord, but the disciples refused them; the Lord, however, was indignant with the disciples, who did not have the same mind as He did, and He blessed the children, and in this way He shepherded the parents also.
A number of times there was contention among the disciples about who is the greatest; even after the Lord instituted His table in Luke 22, hours before the Lord was about to go to the cross, the disciples were contending who was the greatest. And the Lord told them, I am in your midst as One who serves.
In the church life we need to let this mind be in us; the way we take Christ as our pattern is by letting this mind, the mind of Christ, be in us.
For the mind of Christ to be in us actually means that this mind is something living – the mind of Christ is Christ Himself, for His person is manifested in His mind.
This living mind needs to be in us as we live the church life, our daily life, our family life, and our ordinary daily life with all its activities.
When we let the mind of Christ be in us, this mind will be moving and operating in us, transforming our mind by renewing it (Rom. 12:2) and we will have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. 2:16).
As we are about to say something in response to someone’s provoking, we may stop, for this mind in us will stop us.
If we let the mind of Christ be in us, even our reactions will be adjusted by the Lord; we may not roll our eyes or purse our lips in reaction to what others tell us, but rather we may allow this mind to live in us.
Lord Jesus, we want to let the living mind of Christ be in us to saturate our mind and cause our mind to become the mind of Christ. Amen, Lord, renew us in our mind for the transformation of our soul. We want to be one with You in Your inward feeling and thinking, having this mind – the mind of Christ – be in us. May the mind which is in Christ saturate our mind, indwell our mind, transform our mind, to the point that we live a mingled life, a life of divinity mingled with humanity! Amen, Lord Jesus, may we all let this mind be in us for the church life, for the family life, and for every aspect of our daily life!
This article can also be read in the Romanian language / Citiți acest articol în limba română vizitând următorul link, Ca să-l cunoaștem pe Cristos ca model trebuie să lăsăm ca această minte, mintea lui Cristos, să fie în noi.
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Ricky Acosta for this week, and portions from, Elders’ Training, Book 6: The Crucial Points of the Truth in Paul’s Epistles, ch. 7 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Experience of Christ (2019 Memorial Day Conference), week 2, Knowing and Experiencing Christ as the Pattern.
- Hymns on this topic:
# May the mind of Christ my Savior / Live in me from day to day, / By His love and pow’r controlling / All I do and say. / May the Word of Christ dwell richly / In my heart from hour to hour, / So that all may see I triumph / Only through His pow’r. (Hymns #401)
# Though Thou art God, most glorious, high, / Thou in the flesh to us came nigh, / A lowly man become thereby; / Lord, I remember Thee! (Hymns #86)
# Christ to me is so subjective, / All my being He transforms; / By the mind and will renewing / To His image He conforms. (Hymns #537)
