The Mind of Christ – Spiritual Protection
The Mind of Christ – Spiritual Protection.
“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.
“We indeed are human and live in the world, but we do not wage war in the same way humans do, we do not fight as the world fights. For the weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. Instead, our weapons have divine power to knock down the fortresses built up in our massively corrupt culture, to demolish entrenched spiritual strongholds. We destroy false arguments, warped philosophies, and every intellectual arrogance that is exalted against the true knowledge of God. We capture every thought in order to make them obey Christ, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
It is no secret that the Devil’s first choice of battleground for believers is the mind. Satan wants to wage war on that front above all, because he knows that if he wins the battle for the mind, he is far along to winning the whole war. So Paul in this passage freely uses war imagery as he describes the inevitable spiritual warfare every believer faces. The mind of Christ is put into service when meeting up against the devil, for we know Satan is the enemy of the mind. Spiritual warfare is not the time to lose our head. It is most important to put on our helmet so our minds are protected from the ongoing assault of the demonic spirits. Many, if not most, of the assaults from our Adversary and his minions are at the intellectual level, our thought life. Instead of taking prisoners, Paul instructs us to capture every Christ-centered thought we can while in the midst of our warfare, embrace every thought that brings us closer to obedience and trust in Christ. It is essential that we know the truth, that we have solid and accurate knowledge of God so we have a reference point during those arguments that are clearly intellectual assaults from the evil one. To adequately defeat the assaults on our mind from Satan, we need to know in the biblical sense, so to speak. We need to possess the true knowledge of God as we continue the process of acquiring the “mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:16).
Paul isn’t shy about instructing us about our need for our mind to be protected whether by the helmet of hope or the helmet of salvation:
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.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For this struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints.” (Ephesians 6:10-20).
The Knowledge of Salvation Protects the Mind. What did Paul mean when he advised us to strap on the helmet of salvation? He probably wanted us to rely on the sure knowledge of our salvation as the enemy attacks our minds with doubt and uncertainty. When we place this helmet over our heads, we have full confidence that we are more than conquerors in Christ. The helmet assures us of our solid hope in our deliverance from the Evil One. This hope resides in our mind because we know that Jesus defeated Satan on the Cross. We also are living into the hope that He will return for our full redemption, our complete salvation at last, in which the Lord finishes the work of salvation and completes the work He has begun. This assurance protects our thinking and understanding like nothing else, even when the devil tempts our minds to give up any hope of deliverance and freedom. With the helmet firmly on our heads, we know that we are fighting in battle that has already been won. Because of the Cross, we can engage the enemy with the confidence that, even in the midst of fierce spiritual warfare… “If God is for us, who can be against us? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears today nor our worries tomorrow, neither powers high in the sky above nor powers down in the earth below, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 8:36-38). It is precisely that knowledge of God’s salvation and love which protects us in the battlefield of the mind.
The Helmet of Christ. “And the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no one to intercede. Therefore, His own arm brought salvation to Him; And His own righteousness sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a HELMET of salvation on His head.” (Isaiah 59:17, in reference to the coming Messiah). As we read this messianic prophecy in Isaiah, it is clear that when we strap on our spiritual helmet to protect the mind, we are actually strapping on the helmet of Christ who has come before us. In fact, when we put on the helmet of salvation, we are putting on the Person of Christ. The helmet is Christ Himself, protecting the mind He has given us.
Helmet: In Paul’s passage to the Ephesians, the Greek word for helmet was “perikephalain” which literally means, “around the head;” a headwrap; a high and rounded headpiece; any type of headgear such as a helmet, that protects the head.
Roman Soldier’s Helmet: Helmets changed through the Roman era, but during the 1st C. the soldier’s helmet was made of bronze, and included a tight skullcap worn inside the helmet that was made of thin metal and lined with leather.
High Priest’s Headpiece: Consisted of two pieces; a high turban made of fine white linen was put on his head first, and then a golden headband called a crown was worn over the turban. The crown was pure gold, worn over the forehead from ear to ear, and inscribed over the forehead of the crown was “Holiness to Yahweh”. God’s holiness was their protection and their salvation as they continued to trust in Him and that system of sacrifices that He instituted. With that inscription in full view of everyone, the Lord confirmed that worship is holy unto the Lord, and that Yahweh in His holiness will continue to graciously accept the sacrifices of His Chosen People. This headpiece was indeed a sacred garment, and was made to be beautiful and distinctively honored God.
Warfare is Inevitable. When a country declares war, the citizens don’t have much choice… the citizens are called to go into battle if one wants to remain a citizen. When someone starts following Jesus, that believer becomes a citizen of God’s kingdom. In our fallen world, the kingdom of Satan has declared war on the kingdom of God, so warfare comes with the territory. Only, Satan’s fighters in this spiritual battle don’t have bodies, they are invisible. These fighters of Satan are headquartered in the heavenlies where Satan has his hideout, and they conduct constant warfare on Christian believers here on earth. So our war is not against flesh and blood, it is fought with spiritual weapons in the unseen world. God has given us all the supernatural weaponry we need, which includes the armor of God. Most of the armor is protective equipment, but two are aggressively offensive in nature: the Word of God and the ability to pray. These two spiritual weapons are empowered by the Holy Spirit and are divinely effective in the unseen battle.
Soldier and Priest. There are two traditional ways of picturing our part in spiritual warfare… the military version and the priesthood version. St. Paul loved to focus on the believers as soldiers ready to do battle against the powers of darkness. But there is also the version which puts the believer in the role of priest in our inevitable spiritual battles. Both pictures of the armor of God are helpful to us, since as soon as we believe in Jesus Christ, we find ourselves on the devil’s radar. In his pride, Satan doesn’t yet accept that he has been forever defeated by Jesus, so he continues to wage these after-battles to make things as miserable for us as possible. So on the one hand, we believers are pictured as soldiers of the Cross, engaging in battles in the spiritual realms. On the other hand, we are in the fellowship of the priesthood, wielding the spiritual power of the Lord to put up a stiff resistance to Satan and his demonic horde.
It is fascinating that so many of us believe the spiritual equipment we need for the spiritual battleground is reflected in the sacred garments of the High Priest Jesus. The armor of God described in Ephesians 6 has often been historically seen as the holy clothing of our priesthood who have been outfitted by God to be spiritual warriors, using “weapons of righteousness” (2 Cor. 6:7), “pulling down strongholds” (2 Cor. 10:34-35), and “taking captive every thought” (2 Cor. 10:5) for Jesus. One could make the case that believers are called to fight our spiritual battles like a battalion of priests as we follow the High Priest into the action. Placing the priests on the front lines has been known to happen, fighting evil through prayer, praise and worship (Hi there, Jehoshaphat).
“But let us who are of the day be clear-minded, sober in our thinking, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.” (1 Thessalonians 5:8).