In his letter to the church at Philippi the Apostle Paul wrote that he was still growing in the Lord Jesus, striving to become more like Him by becoming more mature (perfect)–3:13-19.  In verse 14 he wrote that he pressed on toward the prize–the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.  God had called him (and all believers) to emulate the walk (life) of the man Jesus of Nazareth.  This is the “mark” (goal) of all who would join God and Christ in the future Kingdom of God.

In Ephesus 4:11-16 Paul lays out plainly what is God’s expectation for those who would join Them in the next life.  Here he states that God has placed in the church various ministries for “the perfecting (maturing) of the saints” until “we all come to the unity of the (only) faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, until we individually become THE MEASURE OF STATURE OF THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST,” until “we all speak the same Truth (Word) in live”–until we are all like Him.

In Philippians 3:15,16 Paul provides the key to the maturing process we must all be involved in–EMBRACING THE MIND OF CHRIST.  In verses 18,19 he laments that there are those in the church who are not of the right mind, of which there were “many.”  Nothing has changed.  These church members are the “enemies of the cross of Christ” who “mind worldly things.”  Read The Message of the Cross.  Key word–Message.

In Philippians 1:6 Paul reminds us that it is God Who begins a good work in us and Who will continue that work until the day of Christ’s return which, having brought this era of mankind’s history to an end, will mark the beginning of eternity.  The key to everything man thinks, says and does is man’s mind.

In Philippians 2:5-8 Paul proclaims: “Let (man’s choice) the mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”  What a powerful and meaningful statement.  Paul is telling us that we can have the same mental faculties as had Jesus of Nazareth.  Very few people know this.  Only a minutely few will embrace it when shown it because it erases all excuses for sin.  Ignorance, we have always been told, is bliss.  We can’t be held responsibility for what we do not know, right?  Wrong.  God said: “My people PERISH for LACK OF KNOWLEDGE” (Hos. 4:6).  His people have the Holy Bible–the only source of Christ-level knowledge.  They have Christ-level knowledge at their fingertips but refuse to embrace it, believing that what they don’t know won’t hurt them.  God, as we just learned, declares the opposite.  Recall that Jesus said that He did, thought and said only what He saw His Father do and heard Him speak (through the Holy Spirit)–Jn. 5:30; 12:49.

Jesus was a man like all other men.  He had no advantage over His peers in terms of knowledge or power.  He had to have the correct mind-set in order to know what the Father was “saying” to Him or “showing” Him through the Spirit.  It was the Spirit that provided the knowledge and power He needed in order to know what He knew and do what He did while on earth in the form of a man.  Jesus was God-minded, as we must also be God-minded in order to “walk as He (Jesus) walked” (1 Jn. 2:6) and be as “pure” as He was pure (1 Jn. 3:3).  He said in John 14:12 that he who believed in Him would do everything He did and even greater things.  This is possible only if one has the same mental faculties and His will to use them for the glory of God.

In Philippians 2:5-8 Paul tells us to allow God to replace our human minds with the same mind that He placed in Jesus of Nazareth.  Jesus, formerly known as the Word (Jn. 1:1-4,14), being a God Who was equal to the other God, humbled himself and allowed God to make Him in the likeness of mortal man.  He then lived on earth as a man and then died as do all other men.  In verse 12 Paul tells us that, having the mind of Christ, we can now, “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.”  Just as Jesus worked out His program of obedience to God in order to fulfill His commission, man must align his life with the Word (will) of God in order to do what God wants him to do–OBEY THAT WORD.  We must know, believe and obey His Word.  Salvation lies at the end of a life which was lived in accordance to the Word.

In Philippians 2:2 Paul asks the church to fulfill his joy by everyone in the church being on the “same page,” having the same love, being of one accord and having ONE MIND.

In Philippians 4:8,9 Paul writes: “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, THINK ON THESE THINGS (man’s choice).  Those things which you have both learned and received and heard and seen in me, do, and the God of peace will be with you.”

In Matthew 6:33 Jesus commands us to “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God,” then everything we need will be made available to us.  In Colossians 3:1-4,9-10 Paul is writing to the church then and now: “If you are then risen with Christ, (mentally) seek those things that are above where Christ sits at the right hand of the Father.  Set (man’s choice) your affections on things that are above, not on things of the earth.  For you are dead (to worldly things) and your lives are hidden in with Christ in God.  When Christ, Who is our life, appears, then you will also appear with Him in glory.”

In verses 9,10 Paul tells us to put off the old man with his worldly mind and put on the new man which has the mind of Christ.  We are to be renewed in knowledge, the same knowledge as that of Christ Who created us (Jn. 1:14).

All things, both good and evil, begin in the mind.  Man’s mind absorbs both good and evil things.  Man must determine what things remain “on call”–ready to up-load at will and what things are to be repressed and kept out of one’s conscious thoughts.  Man becomes what he thinks about–his “treasure.”  If we treasure what God treasures we then become His “particular treasures” (Exo. 19:5).  L.J.