So many people today live their lives without ever learning one of the most important aspects of a living relationship with Christ. A relationship with God is always strained when we try to live this Christian life without the mind of Christ Think with me this morning. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:” (Philippians 2:5) It is amazing to me that so many try to live the Christian life without a living relationship with Him, from a distance, or by substitution of a priest or pastor. Yes, Pastors are given by God, but they are not a substitute for God. In verse 6-8 these powerful words are written, speaking of Christ Jesus. “Who, being in the form of a man, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of a man. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.”
What power words this morning, that take us far beyond just being a believer, but reveals the characteristic that made God in the flesh, such a glorious testimony of the nature and character of God. Listen this morning by the mercy of God, and I beg of you that you study these portions this day as you get time. Who was Christ thinking about and who was empowering his thinking. In verse 13 of Chapter 2 we read these powerful words. “For it is God which works in you both to will and do of his good pleasure.” So many would like the power side of God, but not the humble side of the life of Christ. God gives us a few steps in this portion of scripture.
Do all things without murmurings and disputings.
That ye be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the
midst of a crooked and perverse world, among whom ye shine forth as lights in
world.
We have been called to be crucified with Christ, and yet we are to live, and the life we now live we live by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave his life for us. If we are not thinking with God in our mind and spirit, how in the world can we walk as Christ walked. We are not called to mimic Him, but to have His mind and walk by the Spirit that he sent into our hearts. Thinking with God is living in the doctrine he left us. So often we are double minded, wanting what God gave us, but walking in the flesh. Listen this morning: It is God that quickens us, by the same Holy Spirit, to a life such as Christ had. After all is said and done, living this lift Christ gives us in Him, produces the light of life found in Christ Jesus. God is Spirit, and we must worship Him in Spirit and in Truth!
