The mind of Christ? How can this be true, that we have the mind of Christ? I don't mind confessing that the first time I read this, I chalked it up to hyperbole. My own mind felt so far from the mind of Christ that I wondered whether we had much in common at all. Jesus is the Wisdom of God, and I have often borrowed a phrase from the book of Jonah to describe my own mind -- God tells Jonah that the Ninevites "don't know their right hands from their left," and so Jonah should not protest God's mercy on them. So often in prayer, I have said, "Lord, you know that I don't know my right hand from my left; I am totally dependent on and in need of your direction here."
And yet, when I look more closely at Jesus during His earthly sojourn, I see His total dependence upon the Father. He withdrew often from the crowds that He might commune with the Father. He said, "My words are not My own; they belong to the One Who sent Me," and "The Father works until now, and I also work." Clearly, Jesus had no thought other than to seek the Father and the Father's work in His own life. Here, we absolutely can have the mind of Christ-- even in our ignorance and waywardness, we can continually seek the Father's words and work in our lives.
The first letter of St. John tells us that we have an anointing from the Holy One, and that we all "know the truth." He contrasts this knowledge to the knowledge of those who love the world and everything in it: For everything in the world -- the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes, and the boasting of what he has and does -- comes not from the Father but from the world (v.16). The man without the Spirit, according to the letter to the Corinthians, cannot accept the things of God, for they are foolishness to him. But "whoever acknowledges the Son has the Father also...and his anointing teaches you about all things, and that anointing is real, not counterfeit" (1Jn. 2:23 and 27).
John goes on to tell us that in the "lavishness" of His love, God has made us His "children" and that is what we are. Now, it seems that children, even though they may stray for a time, have the mind of their parents, to the 3rd and 4th generation. The reason we do not have the mind of God is sin -- but the "reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work...."because God's seed remains in [the one born of God], he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God," and "in this world we are like Him" (1Jn. 3:9 and 4:17).
The very end of John's letter reiterates his central thought: We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one does not touch him...We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true -- even in his Son Jesus Christ.
So when we read that we "have the mind of Christ," we know that the Son of God is at work in us, destroying the work of the devil (sin) and purifying us from all unrighteousness, so that we can understand the things of God. We know that He has come to give us understanding of the things of God through an anointing that remains with us. And we know that we are "in Him who is true."
To know these things is to allow ourselves to be taught by the Holy Spirit -- and to encourage us to withdraw from the things of the world in order to receive the mind of Christ. Prayer, then, takes on a whole new dimension for the children of God -- no longer beseeching Him for favor, but running to the Father to be taught wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of ourselves and the world by His Spirit. Like Jesus, we seek solitude in order to receive the words and thoughts of the Father.
If we read the first letter of John, it becomes very clear that we no longer think at all like those who ...are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and who knows God listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood (1Jn. 4:5-6). The deep divisions in our society highlighted by the recent Presidential election make it even more easy to recognize those who 'have the mind of Christ' and those who do not.
No comments:
Post a Comment