The Mind of Christ – Fearless and Sensible
The Mind of Christ – Fearless and Sensible.
“Who is able to understand the mind of Lord Yahweh? Who is able to be His teacher? We, however, have the mind of Christ!” (1 Corinthians 2:16).
“We have…” (Greek, “echomen”), which means ‘are having,’ ‘are keeping,’ or ‘are holding;’ to have and to keep on having, an action in progress; a process that is now taking place; the present state is a continuing state. So the literal translation is, “We, however, are having the mind of Christ.” Through the Holy Spirit, we now are new creatures who were given the capacity to learn how to think like Jesus.
… the mind of Christ.” (Greek for mind is “nous,” which means the highest knowing faculty of the soul; the spirit and understanding behind all we think and do). Through the Holy Spirit, then…
We are being given the capacity to think the thoughts of the Anointed One;
We have the growing ability to reason, to be logical, and to think things through like Jesus;
We are being infused with the ability to understand God’s wisdom;
We are being equipped with the moral intelligence of the Lord;
We are being given access to the reasoning behind the actions of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit;
We are in the process of perceiving spiritual matters as Christ perceives them;
We have an increasing ability to understand life from God’s perspective;
We will be continually inspired to develop the divine common sense and street-smart shrewdness that Jesus was known for;
We are gaining insight into what truly matters according to the thinking of God;
We have a growing ability to reflect and ponder according to the will of Christ;
We enjoy an ongoing co-mingling of our mind with Christ’s mind, until the end, when the new will have completely replaced the old, and those two minds will be indistinguishable.
“Fan into flame the spiritual gift that God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God will never give you a spirit of fearful cowardice, but instead the Holy Spirit, who equips you with divine power, agape love, and a sensible mind.” (2 Timothy 1:6-7).
POWER (Greek, “dunamis”): divine energy that is efficient and productive; a supernatural power from God that fulfills a function according to His will; the spiritual energy that produces miraculous outcomes; the lifegiving force from God that provides a believer’s transformation; the Personal divine energy from the Trinity that brought about Christ’s conception and resurrection; the supernatural power that produces and distributes the spiritual gifts to believers. Even though the Greek word dunamis is the root word for dynamite, God’s power isn’t necessarily limited to an overpowering explosiveness. Certainly there was a powerful explosion of light at Christ’s resurrection, or an explosion of wind at Pentecost, but just as often dunamis is also referring to the more quiet changes within each believer that transforms each of us from our old human nature into a new creature. Perhaps the most powerful aspect of God’s nature – His agape love, mercy and grace – often does not even draw attention to itself despite its powerful, life-changing effects. It’s important to note that God’s dunamis is most effective when working through our weakness, but not our fearfulness. (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). Our weakness is an invitation for God’s power to become most evident. But fearfulness seems to be a whole different matter. God can work with our weakness, but not with our timidity. A weak person can at least take one step, even though weak. And a weak person can even just stand there in God’s strength (Eph. 6:8-10) without taking a step. But a timid, cowardly person turns and flees, and how can God work with that? God can use a spirit of weakness, but it looks like His hands are tied when we are in fearful timidity. The Holy Spirit is our power source, our dunamis, while our unredeemed human nature is our source of impotence.
LOVE (Greek, “agape”): Agape love is the supreme of all the loves, and desires the highest good of someone else. Agape is “the highest level of love known to humanity,” (C. S. Lewis), and thus can only come from above with God as its source. The most virtuous person on the planet cannot manufacture agape love as if it’s merely a highly esteemed trait. We don’t have it in us. We aren’t born with the ability to show agape love. It is impossible for us to demonstrate agape love on our own, because it can only derive from God, and not from human nature. Agape love is the ultimate expression of God’s nature, the essence of His character (see Exodus 34). Agape love is not Eros, which is romantic love. It is not Phileo, which is brotherly love. It is not Storge, which is family love. Agape love is the divine love that can only come to us from the heart of God. Agape love is the love shared between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. God is truly the source of all these other loves, but it is only agape love that is poured into our hearts from the Holy Spirit, to those who believe in Christ. Agape love is an eternal virtue outlasting all the other virtues (1 Corinthians 13:8). Agape love is the primary fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22) Agape love, the sacred love of God, is universal, it is a gift, it is highly active, it is sacrificial, and it is unconditional. Agape was translated into Latin as Caritas, and thus agape has long been translated as Charity. “Beloved friends, let us agape-love one another; because agape-love is from God. Everyone who agape-loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of Him. Those who refuse to agape-love don’t know the first thing about God, because God is agape-love – So you can’t know Him if you don’t agape-love” (1 John 4:7-8).
MIND (Greek, “sophronismos”): literally means a “saved mind;” translated as a sensible mind, a sound mind, with balanced judgment and prudence; a self-controlled mind that isn’t mastered by emotions; a reasonable, moderate mind with self-discipline; a sober mind that is well-balanced. One scholar describes the sound mind as “a mind with the sanity of saintliness.” What else could this be but the mind of Christ given to believers through the Holy Spirit? A sensible mind is able to properly use the divine energy and the supernatural love of the Spirit together as teammates. What happens when there is no love to go with the power? What happens when there is no power to go with the love? That won’t happen with the almighty God. The sensible mind, the mind of Christ, knows how to flesh out these inevitable character traits of God. Because when have we ever seen in the history of the world a person who perfectly blended power with love? Only the Person of Jesus. By acquiring the mind of Christ, we are able to grow in blending together the explosive power of God with the unconditional love of God. Only the mind of Christ is up to that task.
“I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great ‘dunamis’ power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…” (Ephesians 1:18-20).