“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5).
I love those crazy mind-swapping movies. You know the ones I’m talking about. The plots usually involve some sort of experiment gone wrong, a lightning strike, or a freaky device that involves putting colanders on your noggin. Minds are exchanged. One person acts like the other. The story usually wraps up with the two characters getting their minds back in their own bodies. In his letter to the Philippians, Paul says that God has been in the mind-swapping business long before Hollywood. “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus” (v5). Once Jesus comes to our rescue, we each have access to His thoughts and His way of thinking. No lab mistakes. No lightning bolts. No nutty contraptions. God does it when He makes us new and gives us His Spirit. And the great thing is that we don’t have to take our old minds back!
Paul writes to the folks in the church God used him to plant in the Roman colony of Philippi. It’s easy to forget that this is a REAL letter to REAL people in a REAL place. He rolled into town during his second tour to spread the Good News of Jesus. His traveling partner Dr. Luke wrote all about the amazing days the apostle and his posse spent in Philippi over in Acts 16:12-40. I certainly wouldn’t have chosen the founding members of this church but God did. A fashionista named Lydia. A demon-possessed young woman liberated from human trafficking. A hard around the edges prison warden. Talk about a motley crew! But these are the people Jesus used to build His first congregation on European soil.
You might think that this bunch of believers was doomed to fail from the get go. Instead it’s the only church Paul planted that wasn’t jacked up with all sorts of issues. Let’s take a quick review. Corinth was a hot mess. The churches in Galatia got hoodwinked by spiritual snake oil salesmen moments after the apostle left the region. The Ephesians were on the verge of being infected with heresy. Somebody duped the Thessalonians into believing Jesus had already made His second coming. The apostle never set foot in Colossae but a man who heard him preach the Gospel did. False teachers derailed the Colossians by fooling them into thinking it was up to every follower of Jesus to keep themselves saved. But the Philippian disciples are different. They are proof of what happens when God gives us the mind of Jesus. If He can do it Philippi, He can do it our church too.
So what does it look like to be mind-swapped with Jesus? How would somebody know He’s taken control of me? Some of the those clues are in the following verses (Phil 2:6-11). We can see others in the biographies we call the Gospels. The short list includes humility, forgiveness, and a passion for search and rescue. It doesn’t take long to see the contrast with the attitudes the world promotes. We’re continually told to aggressively grab everything we can get our hands on. It’s survival of the fittest. It’s up and to the right. Money. Power. Self. So when God suddenly pulls off one of patented supernatural mind-swaps with a follower of Jesus, it really sticks out like a sore thumb.
The overriding characteristic of having the mind of Christ is humility. As a matter of fact, the translators of the Amplified Bible make this loud and clear (“Amplified…loud and clear”…see what I did there?). “Let this same attitude and purpose and [humble] mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus: [Let Him be your example in humility” (v5 AMP). A humble attitude. A submissive purpose. A modest mind. Our Savior invited His followers to learn from His selfless example. “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls” (Mt 11:29). Stop fighting for your own way. Relax. Christ doesn’t call for a revolution against the government but a revolution of the mind. In a note to his friends in Rome, Paul gives us an example of that Jesus’ mind. “For Christ did not please Himself” (Rom 15:3). Who could blame Jesus for looking out for Number One? For heaven’s sake, He IS Number One! Instead the King of Kings becomes the Servant of Servants (Jn 13:12-17). As a result, He made friends in low places a couple of thousand years before Garth Brooks (Lk 5:29-32). I need to get over myself. And that starts with humility of Jesus.
The second tip of God mind-swapping His Son with one of His followers is an attitude of forgiveness. Rewind to that gruesome scene at site of Roman executions outside of Jerusalem. At a crucial moment during His crucifixion, Jesus pleads with His heavenly Dad, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34). He doesn’t ask for some of that patented Old Testament wrath and judgment. He doesn’t call in angelic backup. He asks for forgiveness. That’s exactly the example we’re to follow as we follow Jesus. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:32). Before I think I’m entitled to pay back somebody for what they’ve done to me, I need to slow my roll. Slow it WAY down. My Savior forgave me despite the fact I was a rebel terrorist against God’s kingdom (Rom 5:8-11). So when someone hurts me, what ground do I have to fight back? Once the mind of Jesus is in us, we have the power to forgive.
Another sure sign of the divine mind swap is a passion for search and rescue. Specifically, the search and rescue of those far from God. At a huge shindig at Zaccheus’ mansion in Jericho, Jesus announced, “The Son of Man came to seek and to save” (Lk 19:10). Later He says that if just one sheep in His flock of runs off, He won’t rest until He knows is safely back home (Lk 15:3-7). We need to remember the mind-bending sacrifice Christ made to bail us out of our self-made mess. He left the life of luxury in Paradise and swan dive into the dumpster of our sin. It’s the ultimate search and rescue mission the universe has ever seen. A sure sign of having the mind of Jesus is a similar broken heart for those who don’t know Him. Craig Groeschel says he’s willing to do anything short of sin to tell others about His Savior. Am I willing to take those kinds of risks and let God use me to seek and save?
Paul tells us that Jesus’ attitude and purpose are available to you and me as part of God’s work in our lives. A big part of being born again is being mind-swapped with our Savior. Martin Luther liked to call it the Great Exchange. “For our sake He (God) made Him (Jesus) to be sin who knew no sin, so that in Him (Jesus) we might become the righteousness of God” (2Cor 5:21). We don’t just get His mind but every single bit of His sinless perfection and obedience. We hand Him the steaming pile that is our life of sin and rebellion. He lived the perfect life that I failed to live. He died the death for my sin that I should have died. He rose to a glorious new life that I don’t deserve. God doesn’t just mind-swap me with His Son, He life-swaps me with Him!
No comments:
Post a Comment