Series Title: The Life You Were Meant to Live

Sermon 4: The Mind of Christ: Your Mind!

1 Corinthians 2:6-16

July 2, 2006

This is part four of our series, “The Life You Were Meant to Live.” We’re simply trying to think biblically about the implications of the gospel in our everyday lives.

Most of us, probably all of us, acknowledge the truth that there is enough power in the provision of Christ Jesus for us, that our lives truly can be changed. So we’re trying honestly to compare what God offers to us in Christ with what we’ve really embraced in our everyday lives. My passion in this series comes from the truth that so many of us who know Christ still seem to live beneath our privilege in Christ. So the question is how do we live up to our calling? There is no secret answer. Everything we need to know has been revealed in God’s Word. It begins with the truth we saw in Jesus’ illustration of the vine and branches—that you will only find your real sense of purpose in life when you can finally let go of all the ways this world offers you to make life meaningful, and turn to live your life totally in God’s direction.

Another important piece comes from Paul’s advice to the Roman church when he warned them not to exchange the truth of God for the lies of the culture—a challenge you and I face every day. And then last week we eavesdropped on the conversation between Jesus and His disciples about what it means to call Jesus “Christ” —and we heard Jesus declare the mystery of the gospel. It’s the idea that if you try to secure your own life you’ll just end up losing it. For in the kingdom of God, the way really to live is to lay down your life in love for others.

Now we turn to the opening section of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, a church filled with believers who also were struggling truly to reflect the character of Jesus in their lives. And here Paul is talking about how we can know what truth is. This has to do with how the Lord Jesus wants literally to change our minds and lift our thinking from worldly values to heavenly ones.
[reading of the passage]

“But we have the mind of Christ” (v. 16). What is your first reaction to that amazing statement? I have to admit that sometimes when I hear this verse my first reaction is, “Umm, I don’t think so.” The mind of Christ must be perfect. The mind of Christ is holy, full of love, and totally at peace. Does that describe me? Does that describe you? So what in the world can Paul mean by this?

We do know the human mind is a mysterious and powerful thing. And we also know from our own experience and from observation that the processes of the amazing computer between our ears direct how we live.

There was a fascinating article in the New York Times a few years ago summarizing a study on the power of the human mind with regard to medical placebos. They told of a man who known as Mr. Wright, who in 1957 was found to have cancer, tumors the size of oranges, and he was given only days to live. But this Mr. Wright heard that scientists had discovered a horse serum that appeared to be effective against cancer. He begged his doctor to receive it. His physician finally agreed and on a Friday afternoon gave the patient the injection. The following Monday, the doctor was astonished to find Mr. Wright out of his death bed and joking with nurses. Tests were done and the doctor discovered that the tumors had truly “melted like snowballs” —that’s how the doctor put it in his notes.

Two months later, Mr. Wright read medical reports that the horse serum was really a quack remedy. He suffered an immediate relapse. His doctor told him not to believe what you read in the papers and gave him a new injection that he said was “a new, super-refined, double strength” version of the drug. Actually, it was saline, but again the tumor masses melted away. Mr. Wright was the picture of health for another two months; until he read a definitive report stating that the drug he was getting was worthless. He died two days later.

I have no idea about the veracity of that story. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting illustration of something we know to be true: our minds are powerful and mysterious controllers of how we live and the degree to which we have health.

There is no doubt that how we think significantly impacts our lives, even our physical health. And that’s why there is so much concern today over the rampant diseases of the mind. Statistics show that today one out of every four Americans is suffering from some form of mental illness. Think about your three best friends. If they’re okay . . . then it’s you!

The mystery of the human mind is what prompted one of my favorite authors, Calvin Miller, to pen the following ode to the mind, “The Mind of a Servant”:

Gray, wrinkled, three-pound thing, I clearly see
I cannot trap you with an EEG,
You nervy organ, you, skull cased and free,
A brazen challenge to psychiatry.
Soft mass, I cannot help resenting you
Each time they search and probe for my IQ.
Half of Einstein’s lobe was twice of you,
You joyless megavolt computer shoe.
Be careful, Judas organ, or you’ll find
God cauterizes every rebel mind.
You small, gray lump, you always seethe and grind,
Spend small electric currents thinking blind.
Yet, you’re the only shabby place I see
That his great mind may come to dwell in me.

The language of our religion is typically the language of the heart. And rightly so, for the essence of God’s relationship with us is love. But Calvin Miller is onto something important in his recognition that in the mysterious mix of what makes me a human being, it’s my mind that really is the arena where God is revealed. Yes, God revealed himself in a human body, but most missed the point. Paul says here that they didn’t get it or “they would not have crucified the Lord of glory” (v. 8). But now with the death and resurrection of that God-man, the Spirit has been given to reveal more fully than ever before not only who God is, but also what He has freely given to us (v. 12).

Now in these letters to the Corinthian church, Paul was dealing with some very practical, earthy issues in their spiritual health. But he wanted to do that work on the foundation of this truth in our text for today. Why is that? Well, the apostle Paul regularly witnessed the miracle of people coming to Christ and experiencing God’s forgiveness and new life. But he noticed what you and I have also noticed. Far too often the new life we’re talking about somehow gets short-circuited. We hear the wonderful things the Bible promises a Christian, but too often they seem to elude our grasp. Perhaps that is even your experience. Does it have to be that way? Is this just how it is trying to live a Christian life this side of heaven? Is the struggle just something we will always have to put up with?

I believe Paul was trying to say to these first Christians and to us that there is a way truly to live the life of Christ here and now. And it has everything to do with whether or not our minds have been captivated by the mind of Christ. Now I know the important question is How? How does it happen?”

There are a number of ways to approach an answer to that question, but today I simply want to allow Scripture to speak to this amazing claim of verse 16, that we have the mind of Christ.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul told them we access the mind of Christ through offering ourselves to God as a living sacrifice. He said very practically, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind” (12:2). The NLT has it this way: “Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think.”

Sounds to me like there’s a decision involved over which I have power. Will I align my thoughts and beliefs with the messages coming to me from this world, or will I align my thoughts and beliefs with what God says is true?

Let me give you an example. We had a wedding right here Friday night. Weddings are great, but I also experience them with a bit of a heavy heart. It’s because so many people, even Christian people, align their thinking about marriage with what the world says instead of what God says. The world says, “You should be happy.” God says, “You should lay down your life for one another.” We align our thinking with the world, and then wonder why our marriages aren’t working any better than they are.

In his letter to the Philippians Paul said, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (2:5, KJV), then he described what that would mean. Christ humbled himself, poured out His life in love, and became a servant. Apparently having the mind of Christ involves not only what goes on up here between my ears, but also what I do with my hands and feet and mouth toward others.

The idea is not just in Paul; it’s throughout the Scriptures. In his final words to the disciples, Jesus said, “everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15). Then He described in the next chapter how that happens. Jesus talked to them about the fact that the Holy Spirit was going to come in a new way, and then He said “When he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (John 16:13). “The Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you” (John 16:15). It is clear that the life you were meant to live is a life where the very spirit of Christ himself lives in you and changes, shapes, reveals, guides, makes you think differently than you ever could without Him.

This is what Paul was talking about in our text for today when he contrasted human wisdom with spiritual wisdom. Human wisdom would say, “Forget this idea of having the mind of Christ. That’s ridiculous because Christ is God and you are not.” But spiritual wisdom is able to see that God is offering to us, as a gift of His grace, not only the chance to be forgiven and healed, but also the chance to be made new. And how does that “newness” really happen? Right here—in how we think. In our graced ability to align our minds and therefore our whole lives with the truth of God’s Word.

I’m not talking to you today only out of my study. I’m testifying to you out of my very real experience even this week. On Friday I told my wife and my accountability partner that I have been engaged in a struggle, a battle this week. And the battle has been in the arena of my mind. I’m still seeking to discern all of the reasons for it, but my experience has been that somehow I allowed my thinking to get aligned more with the world than with what God says is true. Consequently, my heart was, for a time this week overtaken with fear. Fear about who I am and what I’m doing and where I’m headed. Fear about how my life is really impacting others. I think God has shown me that this happened at least in part because I was physically drained and spiritually depleted. But I also believe there has been an “Ephesians 6 battle” going on that I don’t completely understand but do acknowledge. What I really want to testify about is that in the midst of the struggle there has been victory, and this is how it is coming: through purposefully and constantly re-aligning my thoughts, my mind, with the truth of what God says.

Here’s how I knew it was a spiritual battle. One afternoon when I feeling particularly oppressed and heavy of heart, I just began to recite in my mind the wonderful truth about the armor of God that is our possession as those who belong to Christ. I went through it out loud: “Lord, I receive the helmet of truth to protect my mind. I receive the breastplate of righteousness to protect my heart. I receive the shield of faith to extinguish the flaming arrows of the enemy. I receive the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. I receive the belt of truth that holds it all in place.” It’s Ephesians 6, if you don’t know. I’m telling you the truth, as I simply said that out loud, to re-align my thinking, the cloud lifted. I felt the fresh wind of the Spirit blow through my heart. And I began to see the way out of the darkness.

Loved ones, we have the mind of Christ!

This is the way to live the life you were meant to live. Let the mind of Christ dwell in you. I know I’m like a broken record on this, but the way to do it is to surrender your whole life to God. Stop thinking like this world thinks. Let Christ change your thinking. Stop filling your mind with the messages of this world, and fill your mind with the Word of God. The reason the Spirit of Christ could use Scripture to calm my troubled mind this week is because through the discipline of reading God’s Word, I had put it there so He could use it. I am convinced many of you could experience an amazing transformation in your lives if you’d simply fill your mind with the Word of God on a daily basis.

Trust God. Test Him in this. Take God at His word and see what happens in your life. Christian, the mind of Christ is your mind! So do not allow this world to tell you who you are. You belong to Christ!