Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. (Php 2:5-8)Easy ... yet impossible. What Jesus did was to violate the basic nature of humans by being selfless. He "emptied Himself." The first part of the description gives us the scope of this emptying. He was "in the form of God." Not like a homeless guy offering to give up his cardboard box. He was God. And He set that aside ... all the way ... to death.
We're supposed to be like Christ. We're supposed to follow Him. It should be the greatest desire of every believer. So ... will we "have this mind"? Will we empty self? Or will we correct Him and suggest it's not reasonable? You can see how setting self aside would facilitate unity. Are we going to do that ... or just make stuff up as we go?
2 comments:
I don’t have any original thoughts in response to today’s post [probably only I see the humorous irony in that statement!], but it did bring to mind [again, only me!] a wonderful book I read over a decade ago on this very topic: The Mind of Christ: The Transforming Power of Thinking His Thoughts by T.W. Hunt. It might sound like one of those unbiblical “attractional” or “positive thinking” teachings, but it is, rather, an in-depth look at Phil. 2:5-8, examining each phrase of the passage you quoted in today’s post and how that will look for Christ’s followers.
This Sunday's sermon was on Matthew 19 on marriage and divorce. During the message, he extended it to all relationships, and that the thing that damages all relationships is sin. When we hold onto our wants and desires over others, we have conflict. Unity only comes when we think of each other as more valuable than we are.
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