Do you have the mind of Christ?

We have the mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:16

Do you ever think about your mind? I don’t mean as in “Gosh, what a stupendous genius I am!”, but more simply as in “What a wonderful thing the mind is! How come it can actually do everything that it does?”

We’re told that even the most ordinary person’s mind is more powerful than the most advanced computer – that memory! that ability to calculate! that capacity to reason and argue, to hold a complex train of thought or to juggle five different responsibilities all at the same time! And it’s all contained in that squashy stuff packed inside your skull.

Last Sunday in our church we had a sermon on the theme of wisdom, based on 1 Corinthians 2. Paul tells the Christians of Corinth that he visited them as anything but a pedlar of human cleverness. Oh no, he says, my only concern was to declare to you the gospel – the good news – which God in his love has made known to men and women in the person of his Son Jesus.

Not that we are devoid of wisdom, he goes on to say: far from it! No, we declare a profound, divine wisdom which has only just been fully disclosed through the gospel. And it’s through God’s Holy Spirit that we have received it: “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God…” (verse12).

Paul is claiming that God’s whole purpose and intention in creating the human race (and what’s that if not wisdom?) is summed up in the life, death and resurrection of Christ. Nothing less than that. So… You want to know what life is all about? Well, you know where to look!

1 Corinthians 2 ends with a simple, very short sentence: “We have the mind of Christ”.

If that is right, then it’s a wonderful truth, something to humble us. But it does raise a question: as somebody said, smiling, after that sermon, “If we all have the mind of Christ, how come we disagree so much?” A fair question.

This was brought home to me some years ago when I had a disagreement (thoroughly friendly) with another member of our church’s eldership. After a bit of a discussion we decided to let the matter rest and each of us go away, pray about it and then compare notes next time. The result? He came round to my point of view… And I came round to his. Ah!

How could we explain that? Where was “the mind of Christ” then? My own conclusion was threefold: (a) God has a sense of humour; (b) some differences aren’t sufficiently important for even God to bother about; (c) perhaps our “Christ-mind” still has a bit of developing to do.

Right or wrong, I don’t think any of us in that meeting lost any sleep in the following weeks.

In the Bible the theme of wisdom is often mixed in with the theme of the Spirit. Go back to Isaiah 40:12-14, where the prophet reels off a list of rhetorical questions, making clear that no human mind can begin to fathom the eternal mind of God: “Whom did the Lord consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge, or showed him the path of understanding?” I think we all know what the answers to those questions are… Especially: “Who can fathom the Spirit of the Lord…?”, where “spirit” is pretty much tantamount to “mind”. Answer: no-one, actually.

It’s no accident that a large section of the Old Testament, especially Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, is often known as “wisdom literature”, where “wisdom” means not intellectual sharpness but a God-given , practical grasp of how life should be lived, a grasp given through the Spirit.

It’s no accident either that when Jesus tells us to obey “the greatest commandment” (Mark 12:28-31) he tells us to “love God with all your heart… soul… mind… and strength”. Our minds matter!

Perhaps the most penetrating verses about our minds in the whole New Testament are Romans 12:1-2: “Do not conform to the pattern of this world” (that is, don’t just go with the flow) “but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…” (that is, start thinking in completely new, fresh, Spirit-led ways).

Those words seem very simple, but in reality they are life-changing. They are asking “Do you sincerely want to be a transformed person, a Christlike person?” If you do, you must take seriously the need to have your mind renewed, and this happens through worship, prayer, scripture, fellowship and the whole panoply of God-given gifts of grace.

Oh yes, we believers “have the mind of Christ”, no doubt about that; daily we are learning to think with a new mind. But let there be no doubt also: there’s a whole lot more of divine wisdom for us still to enter into!

How keen are you for that?

May the mind of Christ my Saviour/ Live in me from day to day,/ By his love and power controlling/ All I do and say. Amen.  Kate B Wilkinson (1859-1928)