The Mind of Christ, and Rejecting It

God speaks to us individually, and also collectively as his Body. We must hear him and walk with him individually and also depend on each other for his voice. Believers all have the mind of Christ, but none of us alone has all of the mind of Christ.

This post will discuss four related points:

1. Through his Holy Spirit within us, God has given us “the mind of Christ.”
2. We have the mind of Christ, not so that we may know facts, but so that we may live in it, and so know him.
3. Our experience of the mind of Christ is both an individual and a collective experience, and neither aspect is complete without the other.
4. It is possible to reject God’s voice, and, over time, to harden our hearts to it.

All four of these points are illustrated by 1 Corinthians 2:6-13, a passage addressed by the first-person plural “we” to the first-person plural “we:”

Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away;  but we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written:

“Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the human heart, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among people knows the thoughts of a person except the spirit of the person that is in him? So also the thoughts of God no one knows, except the Spirit of God. Now we have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God. We also speak these things, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

1 Corinthians 2:6-13 (NASB)

So, here a body of people which must have included its human author, the Apostle Paul himself, addresses its message to a body of people–not necessarily a different body–that also includes the Apostle himself. Speaking of the first group, if it is distinct from the second group, Paul says that “we” speak wisdom among the mature. He then declares that the wisdom “we” speak to each other is not what the world understands as wisdom. In fact, as he wrote a little earlier, the world regards the heart of our message–Christ crucified, demonstrating God’s power and wisdom through weakness and death–to be the highest folly. 1 Corinthians 1:18-25. By God’s wisdom, his Son Jesus came “through death” to “destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Hebrews 2:14b-15.

Indeed, all human servitude, even that which appears to be one mere human oppressing another, flows from this same source: at least a veiled threat that “unless you do as I say, you will die.” (There are many ways and many senses in which one can be made to “die” even while still retaining, for a time, physical life. But they all ultimately contribute to physical death). With that threat neutralized, no servitude, either spiritual or to our perception merely human, can stand. If the world and its rulers had understood God’s wisdom, they would not have caused their own defeat by crucifying the Lord!

Paul, still speaking for/as “we,” states that God “predestined,” marked off for us, this “hidden” wisdom “before the ages,” from before time as we know it, for “our” glory. And in this use of “our,” Paul clearly includes individual believers, and the whole Body of Christ, his Son, on earth, along with himself. The hidden wisdom of God in defeating death through the weakness and death of his Son (and of us, in Him) is something he makes available to all of us, but not to the world. The hidden wisdom is marked out for us as our glory. In this world, it is our glory. Our glory is not our accomplishments. Our glory is not our wisdom, strength, wealth or power. Our glory is God showing his wisdom and power in our “folly” and weakness, and his wealth in our lack, just as he did through Jesus during his earthly ministry. Ultimately, it is God showing through us that even death itself cannot kill us.

“The last enemy that will be abolished is death.” 1 Corinthians 15:26.

It is in this context that Paul writes about God speaking in, to, and through us. He speaks to all four of the points made made in this post.

On the first point, God “reveals” his wisdom–something that would otherwise be hidden–which comprehends intimate knowledge of “all God has prepared for those who love him”–by placing His Spirit within us. Just as our individual spirits know, in the deepest sense, everything that is within us, so God’s spirit knows everything that is within God. Now that the Spirit has been given to us, we “know” everything God has given us, in the same way that we know our own spirits. Here I hasten to say that, just as we often ignore or silence our own spirits, we have a tendency to ignore or silence God’s Spirit within us–and so not to be consciously aware of what we inwardly “know” he has given us–until God himself teaches us to listen to him. This has been a very hard and long-fought lesson for me, personally! (And there have been many “casualties!”)

But this does not take away anything from the fact that he has already revealed everything he has for us (and for me) through his spirit within us. It means only that we still need to grow in our willingness to listen. “ If anyone is willing to do His will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is of God, or I am speaking from Myself.” John 7:17.

With regard to the second point, in this passage the communication or knowledge of “objective facts” is strictly secondary, if it is present at all. God does not give us a collection of doctrines and commandments to “learn” in order that we may know what he wants us to do. No, he gives us himself, in the person of his Spirit, to live within us, so that we may come to know him. He is the teacher within us, and he is teaching us to come to accept and live in “all that he has prepared for those that love him.” When we do speak of him, if he is having his way within us, it will not be us individually speaking, but the Spirit speaking through us to each other, transmitting the knowledge of (not just about) God.

On the third point, this entire passage is written in the first person plural. It speaks to what God has done and is doing for”us” together–the Apostle, who does not separate himself from “us,” the believers in First Century Corinth, and all who then followed or will ever follow Christ. He has given “us” His Spirit in order that “we” may know all the things he has given “us” in Christ. This all applies to me, and to each of “us” individually, but only because it first applies to “us” collectively. What God is doing, he is doing with “us.”

This should come as no surprise. I have previously explained, in a different context, that Hearing and Understanding God’s Voice is Dependent on Our Oneness as his Body on Earth, and that his promises are almost invariably God’s Promises for the Church Together as One, not made to each of us individually to enable us to do our own thing. The same things apply in this context, as well.

On the fourth point, this world and the rulers of the present age are unable to understand what God is saying because they have rejected him.

By contrast, we are, individually, able to understand what God is saying to us, if we individually “walk” according to the Spirit, responding to God’s voice inside us going with the Spirit where he leads us:

Therefore there is now no condemnation at all for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Romans 8:1-4 (NASB)

This states very clearly the individual aspect of our relationship with God. There is no condemnation for those who are “in” Christ Jesus. But being “in” Christ is not just a matter of my “position” before God in a distant “Heaven,” with no practical bearing on my present conscious existence. Those who are “in” Christ are those who have been set free from the law of sin to live under the law of the Spirit of life. Or, stated in the other way Paul states the proposition, now that Jesus has by his death condemned the sin within me to death, I am free to “walk according to” the Spirit, to go with the Spirit where the Spirit goes. It is now the Spirit that guides me, or should guide me, not the sin in my flesh. It is only in this way that the requirement of the law (“be holy, for I am holy”) can be fulfilled in me–in my present life. The focus is not on my “position” in a spiritual realm detached from this life, but on who is guiding me right now.

Paul reinforces this point a few verses later:

So then, brothers and sisters, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh— for if you are living in accord with the flesh, you are going to die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons and daughters of God.

Romans 8:12-14 (NASB)

All who are–right now–being led by the Spirit of God, these are the children of God.

This assumes, of course, that the Spirit can lead me right now. It assumes that he speaks, and speaks to me where I am.

But, returning to the collective aspect of God speaking to his Church, this does not happen in competition with or in tension with God speaking to and guiding us individually. No, the two work seamlessly and naturally together:

But a natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. But the one who is spiritual discerns all things, yet he himself is discerned by no one.  For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he will instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:14-16 (NASB)

The first two sentences of this short passage speak of individuals. A natural person, an individual who does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, also cannot understand them, because they are only perceived spiritually. Natural people, who reject as foolish (or even completely fictional, the modern position) anything they cannot grasp intellectually and manipulate to their own advantage, cannot understand the the things of the Spirit. And here is really the key–natural people have blinded themselves to the Spirit of God, who must lead us rather than the other way around, or he will remain invisible to us.

On the other hand, the individual–and the language of the passage is clear that it is still speaking of an individual, “the one” (Greek  ho, masculine singular, used as a demonstrative pronoun)–who is spiritual, pneumatikos, driven by the Spirit, discerns or judges all things. Such a person knows what comes to them from the Spirit, because they are accustomed to being led by the Spirit. Such a person is also judged by no one, not even God. There is a deliberate play on words here, anakrínō connoting to discern, to put on trial, or to pass judgment against someone or something, depending on the context, and this verb is used in both halves of verse 15.

Verse 16 then returns to the collective aspect of hearing God’s voice. Because each of us who are led by the Spirit are able to discern his voice, collectively “we” have the mind of Christ. Each of us has Christ–all of Christ, not just part of him, living within us through his Spirit (who is also indivisible). But, because we are being made into one Body, all dependent on each other under Christ, who is the Head of the Body, none of us is given conscious knowledge of the whole “mind of Christ” at any given time. Instead, I am given directly only part of Christ’s mind, while you are given another part, and those who have gone before us were given other parts. While God speaks to each of us who believe individually, we must be dependent on each other to discern all he has for us. 1 Corinthians 12:12-27. “We” have the mind of Christ, in an important sense in which I, alone, do not. And this is exactly the way it should be.

Finally, I will quote three Old Testament passages that illustrate both the possibility of hardening our hearts toward God, so we no longer hear though he continues to speak to us, and the reasons most people do so.

When we are prosperous, when things are going well for us and we feel we are the cause of our own prosperity, we tend to tune God out so that we can have our own way, as Israel did “from [their] youth:”

I spoke to you in your prosperity;

But you said, ‘I will not listen!’

This has been your way from your youth,

That you have not obeyed My voice.

Jeremiah 22:21 (NASB)

Israel’s persistent refusal to hear God led to his determination–though this was something he always had in mind–to let himself be found by a people, the Gentiles, who did not even claim to be looking for him:

“I permitted Myself to be sought by those who did not ask for Me;

I permitted Myself to be found by those who did not seek Me.

I said, ‘Here am I, here am I,’

To a nation which did not call on My name.

I have spread out My hands all day long to a rebellious people,

Who walk in the way which is not good, following their own thoughts

Isaiah 65:1-2 (NASB), quoted in Romans 10:20-21.

But he kept on “spreading out his hands”–very graphic language, making a spectacle of himself–before Israel, his chosen people, who should have been listening to him, but had closed their ears. (Jesus’ hands were “spread out” for a day before all Israel–by Roman soldiers who nailed them wide open to a Cross!) And, at the same time, he let the Gentiles find him.

The only right response to this is to “hear his voice” right now, “today:”

Come, let’s worship and bow down,

Let’s kneel before the Lord our Maker.

For He is our God,

And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.

Today, if you will hear His voice,

Do not harden your hearts as at Meribah,

As on the day of Massah in the wilderness,

When your fathers put Me to the test,

They tested Me, though they had seen My work.

Psalm 95:6-9 (NASB)

I can only hear God’s voice and follow it “today,” while he is still speaking. If I harden my heart “today,” as Israel did repeatedly in the wilderness, trusting my own way and my own fears instead of believing God will make his way prosper, I may lose the chance to believe by tomorrow.

Next (for now): Unity and Answers to Prayer

The Voice of God (God Speaking to Us) Outline

---

“Greater Works than These” was a Promise to the Apostles Together and Victory is Promised to the Church Together

The Ephesians 4 “Offices” are Jesus’ Gifts to the Church, not Fixed “Offices” of Authority

Mutual Submission is the Key