This week we are going to jump to the other side of the cross and listen to the Apostle Paul encourage the Philippians to think like Jesus. It goes without saying that the early Church understood that their greatest goal was to follow Christ in the way he lived and sacrificed himself, out of love, that others might have eternal life. Here we see the heart of one of the apostles not just pleading or obligating believers, but directly commanding them to think like Jesus.
How did Jesus think? What kind of mind does God have? Obviously, the Father doesn't have a literal mind. But when the Word became flesh it did so in order to give us a glimpse into that which we cannot see. In Jesus the mind of God becomes not just visible, but displayed in all its glory through the choices that he made. Do I make choices like Jesus did? In particular, Paul seems to be concerned with how the Philippians treat one another. Where do fights and quarrels among you come from? When our hearts are transfixed by the desires of this world and when our minds follow in the paths of this world's reasonings and logic, it is then that we have trouble being the "body of Christ." Thus in Philippians chapter 2 and verse 5 we are commanded to lower our thinking so that we can serve like Jesus did.
The mind of Jesus is the mind of God. Wouldn't it be great to have the thought process of God? The truth is, it is not that great. At least in the sense of how we will "feel" about it. Jesus agonized over going to the cross to the point that he sweat great drops of blood and asked the Father if there was another way. So having the mind of Christ is no "great" thing in the eyes of this world. In fact Christ seemed a fool and an evil thing to remove to them. The first point the apostle points out is the lowliness of Christ's mind. He had used this term in verse 3 and so Jesus becomes the perfect example. To have a lowly mind is not a reference to our ability to think. Rather it is a term that refers to where we are on the scale of pride in regards to our thinking. Am I high-minded, i.e. full of myself with pride? Or, am I low-minded, i.e. humble and clear in my thinking about who I am, not far off the ground? But Jesus didn't JUST have a humble mind. He did so knowing he was God. Now just how humble would you be today if you found out you were God? In verse 6 Paul is not talking about Jesus' claims to be one with God during his ministry. He is pointing back to that point before he was conceived in Mary. When he was in heaven with the Father, where he had dwelt throughout eternity past as one with the Father, as God, it is here that he did not think it something to be held on to with white knuckles. But rather he emptied himself so that he could take on a very low form that of a man. Here is the irony. We who are bankrupt think more highly of ourselves than we ought. It should be easy to humble ourselves and be lowly of mind, but it is difficult. However, Jesus, who is higher than all creation and should have the greatest difficulty in imagining (much less realizing it) himself as the lowest of all mankind, empties himself of any pride that he would duly hold and takes on the form of a man. Not a superman, but a scapegoat who will carry off the sins of those who will believe on him.
God's mind is such that he is not so enamored with being God that he can't lower himself in order to save mankind from its destiny of destruction. We on the other hand are obsessed with being gods. We are so enamored with the thought of being gods that we will sacrifice everything in order to get it. But God sacrifices everything in order to save us. The mind of God is the opposite of ours and is why we killed him when he walked among us. His thinking shows ours for what it is, evil.
How do I appear before others? Too often we work hard at creating a high and sophisticated appearance to others. But Christ made himself lowly that he might serve. Isn't this what it means to be a Christian? What antichrist spirit pushes us to believe we can do else and still be his disciples? In the end we, like Judas, will reach a fork in the road. It will be the point in which it is revealed who really are the disciples of Jesus and who were merely pretenders. We must die to trying to be great and instead purposefully choose a lower place and serve others.
Even the plan of salvation is itself the very picture of humility. The mind that would concoct such a plan that in order to save man from the muck and mire of sin He would descend into the trenches and lift us up. He became one of us that he might save us. God became a man not because it is cool to be a man, but because it was the only way to save us from our own hubris.
It was humbling enough of God to take on the form of a man. But he did so. It was even further humbling to take on the form of an Israelite. Even further, he is born to the poor and lives in the rural areas. But even further yet, he allows himself to be executed as a criminal, which was "proof" in those days that God had cursed you. The mind of Jesus is a mind that never says, "This is too much!" The glorious Son of God tortured and executed by blasphemous, demonic, men who don't even deserve to lay eyes upon him, much less whips, this is the mind that says, "Yes, I will do this too." Not because he thinks he needs to suffer to be made better. But because it was only through his suffering that we could be healed. "Yes, I will even do this."
How often do I pull back from fully loving those who require me to go farther than I am willing to go? I am not saying they are perfect and deserve you to lower yourself. I saying that God lowered himself to the lowest place exactly when we didn't deserve it. We still don't deserve it. Why would I look at another and say they don't deserve me sacrificing "this much?" Precisely because I think too highly of myself.
Here is another thing. Paul points out that Jesus has been "highly exalted." This to our thinking is the reward. We are willing to lower ourselves if we can see some way of being exalted out of it. But woe to those who do not exalt us as highly and as quickly as we think they should. However, Jesus was already exalted before he became a man. His exaltation is not some grand starry-eyed rural kid making it big. He is returning home like a warrior who has been through hell and back, and yet... victorious. He is home that's all that matters. Even his exaltation is really a return to what he already had.
Let me challenge you. Don't you realize that we are merely returning ourselves? We had perfect communion as the sons of God on earth until we chose our own way. We have descended from an earlier glory into the depths and depravity of evil. Mankind is on a path of great evil. But God shows us that if we will lower ourselves we can help lift others back to the place we were always meant to be....Home...dwelling with God himself without pain, sorrow, hurt, sin, etc....
Let me ask you today, have you confessed with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord and Master of you? Have you believed in your heart that God has raised him from the dead and that he dwells in heaven today interceding on your behalf? Do you look forward in earnest expectation that he is going to judge the heavens and the earth and remove the curse off of creation? Then Learn to serve. Lower yourself and embrace a love of the truth that God does not think like this world. And, you will be hated and persecuted when you start thinking like him.