The Mind of Christ – Ready for Action
The Mind of Christ – Ready for Action.
“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.
“Gird the loins of your mind; be sober minded, self-controlled. Set your hope completely on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed.” (1 Peter 1:13).
Gird Your Loins (“anazonnumi”). In the biblical era, men always wore flowing tunics, a robe that could have been knee-length or even down closer to the ankles. To “gird up” meant gathering the loose lower parts of the tunic, folding them up into the waist area, and tucking it into the waistcloth. a belt-like article of clothing called a girdle. One’s loin was the waist area, the area between the hips and ribs. So “girding up” was done every day… hitch your tunic up and tuck it in, which is only common sense. If one didn’t gird their loins, one would not have the freedom of movement needed to take long strides, or run, or work, or fight. That was the whole purpose of that belt around your hips… to remove the hindrances of those long, restrictive tunics worn by everyone in those days. This very common practice turned into a sort of metaphor, an idiom used by everyone to say: prepare for action, get ready to move, do what you need to do in readiness for work and movement. The only time when one’s girdle was loosened was if that person was lazy, or apathetic, or was sleeping. An ill-prepared mind like that certainly does not have the freedom of movement needed to run the race of faith, labor for the Lord, or engage in spiritual warfare.
In Other Words. Since men don’t wear tunics or girdle-belts these days, of course, this metaphor for readiness and preparation is often spoken in phrases like, Time to roll up your sleeves! Get your thinking caps on! Fasten your seatbelts! Get your rear in gear! Keep your eyes peeled! Get ready to rumble! Be on your toes! Get your head into the game! Get your game face on! Focus! So if St. Peter were speaking to us today, he might have said, “Roll up the sleeves of your mind and get yourself mentally prepared!” “Put on your thinking cap and snap out of your stupor!” “Fasten your mental seatbelt because something challenging is coming your way!” “Get your mind’s rear in gear and get yourself ready!” Get your thought-life ready to rumble!” “Be on your mental toes!” “Get your head into the game and focus!” “Keep your intellectual eyes peeled and ready to do some serious thinking!”
Hope Protects the Mind. “Hope is a helmet” (1 Thess. 5:8). Hope keeps us from the ravages of despair. Hope keeps us healthy mentally, spiritually and emotionally. When we put on Christ’s living hope as a protective covering over our mind, we think more clearly, more purposefully, more faithfully. “Hope moves the heart of God to come to our help with His grace.” (Father R. Cantalamessa). Hope is confidently expecting a positive outcome, as opposed to despair, which is fearfully expecting a negative outcome; hope is trusting God for one’s future, as opposed to doubt, which distrustful of God for one’s future; hope is an optimistic assurance based on reality, as opposed to wishful thinking, which is based on uncertainty; hope is a patient waiting that keeps one actively moving forward, as opposed to a frustrating resignation which passively keeps one stuck; hope is the strong inner urge to work through a difficulty and do what one can to solve it, as opposed to the inclination to avoid a difficulty and thus not solve anything; hope is the positive conviction that there is something substantial to look forward to, as opposed to one’s pessimistic belief that the future holds nothing but a bleak emptiness; hope is the anticipation of a triumphant future in the long run, as opposed to one who doesn’t even believe in the possibility of a long run of any kind. As the ancient Church Father put it, “Hope is the loving movement of one’s spirit towards that which it hopes for.” (St. Didacus).
The virtue of hope is getting much more attention now because it is the virtue that has tended to get lost in the shuffle, lingering between those two monumental giants, Faith and Love (1 Cor. 13). Hope has been called by various theologians “the little sister” standing between two big brothers, or even “the poor relation” in a famous family. But the importance of hope has been resurrected by neuroscience, believe it or not. Brain research has uncovered the importance of hope to the degree that there is now a branch of neuroscience that is called “the science of hope.” Here we are in the 21st century, confirming that in the 1st century St. Paul was right on target when said that hope is like a helmet. We now know that the emotion of hope protects the brain, like a helmet worn on one’s head. Science has proven that our brain was made to function much more effectively when we engage in hopefulness. Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Paul was way ahead of the game.
God constructed our mind in such a way that hope will keep us mentally healthy and efficient. With hope we are mentally stable and productive, and without hope we become mentally unstable and ineffective. Neuroscience has established that the complex emotion of hope is associated with the brain networking in the frontal cortex, where our motivation, decision-making, and higher order thinking is stimulated. Hope actually begins a chain reaction in the brain that empowers positive changes in our neurochemistry. We now know that hope release endomorphins that increase brain connectivity that blocks pain, “dampens” the anxiety circuits, and acts as an antidepressant. Hope has a significant influence on healing and even on the aging process. And since hope helps the brain to function more effectively, hope improves the ability to learn, to think more clearly. A teacher will find her students performing much better when they are hopeful, optimistic, expectant of good things just around the corner in their education. Creator God made our brains to run best on the fuel of hope.
One neuroscientist puts it this way, “Hope is as vital to the human brain as the oxygen we breathe.” (Professor Terry Small). Perhaps we should take more literally Solomon’s observation in Proverbs 13:12, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick.” Other translations put it this way: “Delayed hope makes us heart-sick;” “Hope put off is a weariness to the heart;” “When hope is crushed, so is the heart;” “Delayed hope torments the soul.” If we abandon hope, our entire way of thinking and feeling takes a downward plunge. If we become hopeless, we become heartsick, imprisoned by despair.
“Put on God’s complete set of armor, that you may be able to stand your ground on the day of danger. Stand therefore, having tightened the belt of truth around your loins…” (Ephesians 6:13-14).
TRUTH is that which is merely common knowledge to God; the True Reality that has established reality; that which can never be changed or altered; that which is universally trustworthy; that which is established fact and filled with trueness; the fundamental essence of that which is indisputably real; God the Father is Truth, and God the Son is Truth, therefore the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. So, by gathering all the loose ends of our mind and fastening them together with our knowledge of truth is vital when we make our stand against the devil. In fact, fastening the truth around our mental loins is an important way to “love God with all our minds.” (Matt. 22:37).
MENTAL WARFARE. When Peter advised us to “gird up the loins of our mind,” he mirrored what St. Paul said in this famous passage about spiritual warfare. Could we have better marching orders as we prepare for our battles with the devil? For the devil tends to attack our minds before anything else, he likes to mess with our head: sowing seeds of doubt; creating confusion in our thinking; blatantly, and sometimes very convincingly, lying to us; making us uncertain in our beliefs; dissuading us from even believing there is a truth. So both Peter and Paul highlight the fact that in our Christian life, it is a sin to be mentally lazy, complacent, or oblivious to hindrances and limitations. Laziness or sloppiness in our thinking plays right into the hands of Satan. Instead, we are to be ready to outthink our opposition. We are not to settle for intellectual mediocrity in any way. We are to have our loins girded by committing ourselves to the truth of Jesus. We are to have a settled conviction of the truth so that it is a much-used reference point in the warfare of the mind. We are to be clear thinkers, we are to have our minds engaged at all times. We are to have our loins girded in order to be agile and free in our thinking, and ready to fight the devil. The belt of truth will guard our minds as we prepare for battle. This is the first piece of equipment that Paul mentions regarding the full armor of God, and for good reason. We simply are not ready for the devil’s clever warfare if we are not mentally prepared and thoughtfully ready for action. Knowing the truth intimately and walking in that truth is the first vital piece of spiritual protection for us. But this isn’t a one-time act, and we are to remain prepared mentally at all times, bracing ourselves for any mental or intellectual battles that might be just around any corner!
“This is how you are to eat your meal in Passover night: with your loins girded, your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hands. Eat it in haste; it is the Lord Yahweh’s Passover.” (Exodus 12:11).
There is little doubt in Peter’s passage that he is inspiring believers to remember the Passover night, an event that was never far from the Jewish memory. Just to make sure that readers didn’t miss the point, Peter said a little later in the same passage, “You were purchased with the precious blood of Messiah Christ, the Anointed One, the sacrificial Lamb without blemish or spot.” (1 Peter 1:19). Passover night in Egypt was the first time in Scripture we see the command to gird up our loins as God gave directions to the Israelites in preparation for their deliverance. God told them to get ready to leave at a moment’s notice. So then, for the Israelites to obey God and gird their loins was a sign of faith in Him that God would fulfill His promise. To refuse to gird one’s loins was a sign of unbelief and an apparent lack of confidence in God’s promise of deliverance.
Scripture mentions the girding of loins often, including Elijah (1 Kings 1:8), Jeremiah (1:17), the righteous woman (Proverbs 31:17), Job (38:3), and even John the Baptist (Matt. 3:4). Jesus tells His disciples in Luke 12:35 to gird up their loins and be dressed ready for service, and to keep their lamps burning. In all cases it described someone in the state of readiness for whatever may come their way. The Christian would do well to live in the spirit of Passover this way… be ready to thoughtfully obey the Lord’s directions; be mentally prepared to serve Him when the time comes; be nimble-minded, free to move at the signal of the Lord’s word; make sure there are no mental hindrances to the freedom of movement needed to fully follow what God wants us to do.
“Righteousness will be the girdle around His loins, and faithfulness-truth the belt around His waist.” (Isaiah 11:5).
The mind of Christ is well-girded. This amazing messianic passage from Isaiah describes how the mind of Christ works, putting on the garments of righteousness and truth. In Hebrew, “faithfulness” and “truth” are interchangeable, and the literal meaning is: True to His word; steadfast loyalty; trustworthy; truthful about promises; reliable; constant and dependable; act in good faith; certain in commitment; His word is His bond. Many Biblical scholars believe that John 1:14, where John states that Jesus is “full of grace and truth,” is an intentional repetition of the phrase in Yahweh’s important self-revelation (Exodus 34:6), “abounding in love and faithfulness.” John is so convinced of this that he repeats that claim in verse 17. The Hebrew word used is emeth, which means faithfulness, truth, certainty, stability, trustworthiness. John 1 no doubt hearkens back to Yahweh’s nature in Exodus 34, flatly stating that Jesus is of the very same eternal nature as Yahweh, the glorious God of the Hebrew Bible. The fact that the Hebrews saw truth and faithfulness as interchangeable points to God’s character, that He is true to His word, true to His nature, that God keeps truth certainly and with stability and trustworthiness. God is literally, truly faithful, and His true and faithful nature becomes part of our character as we live into His Spirit’s transformation of us while acquiring the mind of Christ.
“As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct.” (1 Peter 1:14-15).
Ignorance. In Peter’s passage about mental readiness, he includes the idea of ignorance. In biblical terms, ignorance doesn’t have anything to do with intellectual ability or mental giftedness. The Greek word for ignorance is “agnosia,” which is someone who is “without knowledge” on purpose. A person who is ignorant doesn’t mean he is dim-witted or slow, but instead is someone who chooses to ignore what he needs to know. A well-educated, brilliant person who is considered to be “enlightened” can still be terribly ignorant. An ignorant person is one who intentionally disregards what is true and good and beautiful. One who is ignorant is one who has chosen to put mental blinders over their mind’s eye, one who has chosen to live in blindness. In many New Testament passages, an ignorant person is one who has distanced himself from God, and has chosen to be ignorant as an act of contempt against God. So, ignorance is actually an act of the will, choosing to reject the wisdom and knowledge of God. The mind of Christ is exactly the opposite of ignorance. As we continue to acquire His mind, the ignorance of our old self will diminish to nothing, and we will become hungrier and thirstier for the knowledge of the Lord. Paul was definitely on the same page with peter when he told the Corinthians, “Awake from your stupor and return to sober sense, to your right minds, and sin no more. For some of you don’t even have basic knowledge of God, and are willfully and disgracefully ignorant, and you continue to be so, lacking the sense of God’s presence and all true knowledge of Him. I say this to your shame.” (1 Corinthians 15:34, Amplified Version).
The Anti-Christ Mind. Instead of girding up the loins of the mind, instead of rolling up the sleeves of your mind to be ready and prepared for whatever the world, the flesh or the devil throw at us, Paul has given us a description of the old mind that has rejected the new mind of Christ…
“You must no longer walk as the unbelievers do, in the folly and futility of their minds. They are darkened in their moral understanding, and their reasoning is clouded over. They are alienated from the life of God, self-banished from Him, because of the ignorance that is deep-seated in them, due to their hardness of heart. In their spiritual apathy, they have become callous, reckless, and have abandoned themselves up to unbridled sensuality, and are eager to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!” (Ephesians 4:17-21).