Characteristics of the Mind of Christ — Dennis Kinlaw

Will you pray with me for a moment? Our Father, we turn to your word. What a gift it is. We want you to know our gratitude for giving it to us. And we want not only to possess it in a book, but we want to know its truth within our hearts.

And we want to understand and live according to the word which you've given us. We thank you for the way you can take a written text and bring it alive in our hearts and minds and in our personal beings.

Somehow let this text come alive in us tonight. And we will give you praise in Christ's name. Amen. Our scripture tonight is in the book of Philippians, chapter 2. I think you knew we would get here, so here we are.

Hear the word of God as we read a good portion of this chapter. If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded.

Having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest, but also to the interests of others.

My text says your attitude should be the same as that of Jesus Christ. Do you remember the more traditional translation that says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus? A literal translation would be to be minded the way Christ Jesus is minded.

And it is the same verb as was used in the text we used last night from Mark 8, where he says to Peter, Jesus said to Peter, Peter, you don't think the way God thinks, you think the way man thinks. Now he says, let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross.

Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.

Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life, in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing.

But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you, too, should be glad and rejoice with me. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.

I have no one else like him who takes a genuine interest in your welfare, for everyone looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know that Timothy has proved himself, because as a son with his father, he has served with me in the work of the gospel.

I hope, therefore, to send him as soon as I see how things go with me, and I am confident in the Lord that I myself will come soon. One of the things that I've noticed about me in my study of Scripture across the years is that I have found that there are certain passages that come alive for me, and they become very precious to me.

Over a period of time, I learned that as I would reread Scripture and find myself moving toward those special passages, my mind would sort of run over the stuff that was in front of me in anticipation of what was coming, sort of like you forget about the foothills when you see the mountains in the distance.

And as the years passed, I began to find that some of those what I thought were foothills were pretty good mountains in themselves, and I remember when I was in a pastorate, I decided to preach a series of sermons on great texts before great texts.

And then I decided to preach a second series on great texts after great texts, because you will remember that John 3 .15 is a great text, also John 3 .17, and Galatians 2 .19, and Galatians 2 .21. Now, because of that, for a long time, the book of Philippians never quite opened up to me, because when I would get through the early part of it, I knew what was coming in Philippians 2 .5 -11, this incredible passage on the Incarnation, this incredible passage on Christ, His emptying Himself and becoming one of us.

And so, I didn't pay too much attention to what Paul said before that. Then one day as I was working my way through it, it dawned on me that Paul didn't write Philippians in order to give us 2 .5 -11, because that hymn to Christ is in a sense an illustration.

It is not the sermon. And you know, on occasion, I've had people come to me when I preached what I hoped was a worthwhile sermon, and they'd say, that was interesting. Will you tell me again that story you told?

And I knew that was all they remembered was the illustration. And I had one guy come to me, a professor at Asbury Seminary, and say, what did you tell that story for? What was the purpose? So, I knew I had missed it.

But in Philippians, that hymn is the illustration, and there is a sermon connected with it. Now, I want to talk about why he put that in there, what goes before it and what goes after it, because it is in what goes before it and what goes after it that I find out what it means for me to have the mind of Christ, while in 5 -11, I find out what it meant for Christ to have the mind of Christ.

And those are two different things. Now, you know that the Philippian letter is a very tender letter. It was written by Paul to the church that he probably loved the most of any of the churches that he ever served.

You will remember the story in Acts how he was turning eastward and the Spirit checked him and said, no, I don't want you to go east. And because of that, you and I have received the gospel, and much of the east only now is having the gospel opened up to them.

But in that moment when God had stopped him from going east, you will remember he had a vision. And in that vision, there was a man from Macedonia who stood and pled with him saying, come over and help us.

And so he turned his steps west and came into Macedonia and he came to Philippi. And when he got there, he looked around for someone with whom to worship. You know enough to know that Paul looked when he did that for people who used the Old Testament as their frame of reference.

And he found, interestingly enough, a group of ladies, a ladies' prayer meeting. And they met down on the riverbank. And when he got there, the leader among them was a woman named Lydia. And as he began to preach Christ to those ladies, they knew enough to know that what they were hearing was the fulfillment of the Old Testament which they believed.

And so Lydia said, will you baptize me and my house? And when he baptized them, she said, now I want you to go home with me. And she opened her home and he was the guest in Lydia's home. You will remember before it was over with, they had a riot.

Paul and Silas ended up in jail. They were mercilessly flogged and put into stocks. And you will remember in the middle of the night, an angel came. And you remember the Philippian jailer, an earthquake, and the Philippian jailer was converted.

But then before it was over with, you will remember the authorities were pleading with them to leave the city. Now, there's no way that could be wiped out of Paul's mind. Now, many years later, Paul's in prison again, except this time he's in prison in Rome.

And he's in chains. And he's thinking about when this happened to him before. And he has very tender thoughts about the Christians in Philippi who had loved him and over the years since had regularly been his supporters, sending contributions to him to help him.

And so he writes, and you sense the tenderness. He says, every memory that I have of you brings me joy and I thank God on every remembrance for you. But then he says, I've got something I want to say to you.

And so he begins in the second chapter to give the heart of what he wants to say to these Philippian Christians. He has said, where I am, God has been very good and I can rejoice in my chains and in my imprisonment because through this, the word of God is being given even to the palace guard.

And you'll find Paul rejoicing in the privilege of being in chains and a Roman prison. And now he says, well, what about you? He says, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if there's any encouragement comes to you because you know Christ, if there is any comfort that comes to you from his love, if there is any fellowship with his spirit, if there is any tenderness and compassion, then I want to tell you what will make my joy totally complete.

And now he deals with what his concern is. He says, if you want to make my joy totally complete, I want you to have the same mind. Now, this translation says like-minded. Now, immediately you know that what he's dealing with is the fact that he's heard there's division among these dear friends of his in Corinth.

And the body of Christ is not supposed to be divided. So he says, let me tell you what my prayer for you is, that you will have the same mind. And the word which is used there is the word that is the same Greek root as is used in let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.

Now, let me say at this point, the word phoneo either singly or in combination occurs only 30 times in the New Testament. And it occurs 10 times in the book of Philippians, which lets you know that what Paul is thinking about is the mind and the mind of Christ.

And he wants these dear brother believers, sister believers to know the mind of Christ to have it. So he says, I want you to have the same mind and I want you to have the same love. And the word love is the Greek word agape.

He says, I want you to be one in spirit. And there Paul makes a word. He creates a Greek word. He takes the preposition sum, which means together with and adds the word psuche, soul, psyche to it. And he says, I want you to be the translation which is given here, one in spirit.

And he says, goes again and he says, this time, I'm not interested just in your having the same mind. He uses the word for mind again. And he says, I want you to have one mind. Now, the will of Paul for he, these believer friends of his beloved ones is that they have one mind.

So now he says, I've told you the positive and that's always nice, but you know, it's the negative that lets you know where the trouble is, doesn't it? So now he goes negative and he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Now, obviously he is putting his finger to a problem in Philippi that he feels needs to be addressed. And whatever he means by selfish ambition, he doesn't want them doing it. And I would assume he's heard something to make him think that somebody is.

And whatever he means by vain conceit, he's heard there are some who might be moving in that direction and he doesn't want it there. But he says, instead of that in humility, consider others better than yourselves.

In fact, he says, each of you should look not to your own interests, but even to the interests of others. You should be other oriented. Now, let me illustrate what I mean. You should think the way Christ does, who was sitting in the glories of heaven at the right hand of the Father with all that goes with that.

And he saw us down here and cared enough about us that he cared more about our well-being than he did his own. And he gave up everything heaven had to offer to come to our world with all its limitations, become one of us so that we could have the advantages that he left.

Now, he says, if you will look at verse 14, he continues it. Do everything without complaining. Now, I think he has found that there were some believers in Philippi that were like some of us, that they knew what it meant to grumble on occasion.

I heard somebody say that that's our favorite indoor sport, except when we're out of doors. And you will find there's a great deal in Scripture about it. But he says, I don't want you grumbling or complaining, and I don't want you arguing.

Now, we don't have, I'm going to have to, we don't have time to go in great detail through it, but let me tell you what I have become convinced. I'm convinced now that Paul says there are four characteristics of the person who has the mind of Christ.

And two of them are given before the hymn, and two of them are given afterwards. And the first two are, I don't want you doing anything out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. And he said, I don't want you doing anything, I don't want you complaining, and I don't want you arguing.

I got that far in my dealing with this. I thought, well, that lets me off the hook, because I was using this translation. And do you know when he says, do nothing out of selfish ambition, when you're as old as I, that doesn't have anything to do with you.

Because you see, when you get to my stage of the game, you're in this part of the arc of life. You're not in this part of the arc. And you and I think of ambition when you're in this part of the arc and you still are moving, you see.

So I thought, good, I'm clean on that. But unfortunately, I picked up a Greek New Testament and read it. And do you know the word has nothing to do with ambition? But do you know what it does have to do with?

It has to do with self-interest. In fact, it's a very interesting word. It's a word originally that had no negative connotation about it. It had to do with a laborer working for wages. That's a legitimate thing, biblically.

Nothing wrong with that. But then in Greek literature, it developed the connotation of getting more interested in the wages than you were in the work. So you were doing it for what you could get out of it.

One of the next steps, which you find in Aristotle's politics, is where a politician bribes or is willing to accept a bribe. Then it is used for a harlot who wants to seduce a man for what she can get.

So slowly, it developed the connotation of what's in self-interest, what can I get out of this? And as I thought of that, you know, age doesn't have anything to do with self-interest because you can be as old as Methuselah and be selfish.

And that's what we're talking about in the passage, not just ambition for the people on the rise. So I thought, now, how can I boil that down to where I understand what it really means and should mean to me?

And I think of it this way. So let me put it this way. What he is saying is, I do not want the mental attitude that says, looks at any situation and says, what's in it for me, to be the thing that determines your attitude or your conduct.

And, you know, age doesn't deliver you from that. So that's the first mark of the mind of Christ, as far as I can see in this Philippians passage. If you're going to have the mind of Christ, you're not going to look at a new situation or even an old situation with the attitude of, what can I get out of it?

What's in it for me? Now, that was certainly true of Christ. What motivated him was not what he could get for himself out of it. What motivated him was our need. Now, you will notice that that fits the context here because Paul says, I don't want you to do anything out of that except interest.

I want you to, in humility, to consider others better than yourselves. And each of you should look not to your own interest, but you should look to the interest of others. So what we're talking about is other-orientedness, isn't it?

Where the need of the other determines how you are going to respond, not your need. Now, that's the first mark. That brought it a little closer to home. Now, the second thing, which in this translation says, do nothing out of vain conceit.

And my first reaction was, that's no problem for me because when you're as old as I am and you've been beaten down as many times as I have, the conceit's fairly well knocked out of you a bit. So I, unfortunately, read the Greek text.

And do you know what you have in the Greek? It is the word kenodoxia, which is made up of two elements. The kenos part has to do with emptiness. You know, just nothing there. And the doxia part has to do with appearances or shows.

So he says, don't do anything because of empty appearances. And as I wrestled with that, I began finding myself saying, what does that mean? I think that means that you don't do anything with the motivation or with the attitude in you that moves you, where what the thing that determines what you do is when you raise that inner question, how am I going to look if I do this?

Now, I noticed that age doesn't take you away, doesn't solve that problem. Because appearances mean as much to old people as it does to young people. And Paul is saying, I don't want you under the tyranny.

How am I going to look if I take this stand or if I do this? Because do you know, if that tyrannizes you, you'll never stand with Christ. I think that's the reason, one of the reasons Peter and the disciples forsook him on Good Friday, who wants to be identified with a criminal like this.

And you can count on it that there will always be a bit of the crucifixion of pride within us in public identification with the ultimate will of God. Paul knew that. Paul, you know, he had university training.

He was a sophisticated Jew. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews. He was arrogant and proud. And then God said to him, but if you're going to follow the truth, you're going to have to go the way of the lowly Nazarene, and it will make you an object of contempt and scorn in the minds of all of the people whose favor you have sought.

And Paul says, I don't want you under the tyranny of appearances. I want you free on that score. I thank God that Jesus was free on that score. How do you think he felt when he was being led naked through the streets and pinned naked on a cross?

But how he looked didn't determine what he did. And so we find redemption in him. Now, the third one comes after the hymn. And that's where he says, don't do anything through grumbling, complaining. Now, I didn't have to read the Greek text to understand what that meant, because it's very clear.

But you know, one of the things that as I looked at it, I thought, it's interesting that you score people for complaining a bit. What's wrong with grousing? But I dare you to go through the Old Testament and study grumbling in the Old Testament.

If you will go through the Old Testament and study grumbling in the Old Testament, you will find that God takes it very seriously. Do you remember when they found themselves in the wilderness and there was nothing to eat except manna?

And quail? And they said, we'd like some of that food we had back in Egypt. And God said, I take that personally. I dare you to read the passages in Exodus and Numbers, and you will find that on occasion it was a deadly insult to God, because God says, I'm leading you into redemption.

You're exactly where I want you, and I'm doing with you exactly what I want to do to get you to where you're supposed to be, and you're sitting around grumbling and complaining about it. And as a result, not one of that generation got into the promised land.

Grumbling will keep you out of the blessing of God. And the one thing you never got on the lips of Jesus was grumbling or complaining. In fact, we're told, for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross.

It was not a delight to him, he endured it. But for the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross and despised the shame. Now, the fourth characteristic of the mind of Christ is, the Greek word there is an interesting word.

It is the word from which we get the word dialogue, dialogismos, and it has to do with reasoning. Now, I know that God is not opposed to our reasoning because he put a reasoner in our heads. He gave us the gift to reason.

Now, I tried to figure my, I think what you've got there is one of those words again that originally in Greek had no negative connotation whatsoever. You see a new situation, you see a problem, you take your reason, you try to think your way through it, and you try to solve that problem in the most intelligent way.

But over a period of time, it began to be used in a different connotation, with a different connotation. And it meant you saw a certain situation and you say, wait a minute, this could make me look bad.

Now, how shall I react to it to protect my reputation? And the truth is not the central thing, but my appearances. Or you look at a situation and you say, what am I going to get out of this? And something inside you says, you're not going to get much.

And so you begin to say, reuse your reason to say, do I want to get into this or don't I want to get into this? So one of the translations uses the word arguing. Now, let me tell you the way it comes home to me.

Have you ever noticed how you can talk with somebody and you want the other person to go along with you, and the person wants your approval, and so the person will say, why yes, but. And when the yes is said, your hope, have hope, and then when the guy says, but, you sense the resistance that's within him.

Now, I think that's exactly what he's talking about with God, where God says, Kenlaw, here's my will for you. And I say, who am I to oppose you, Lord? Sure, but. And there's a minority vote inside me that says, let's see if there's a way to get out of this one.

So it is that yes, but mentality. Now, that is a very interesting thing when you speak about Christ in relation to it, isn't it? That he embraced the cross, despising the shame. Now, with those four characteristics, I found myself saying, is it really possible for anybody to be like that, to get to the place where you look at something and you don't say what's in it for me?

No self-interest. I am a self. And as a self, any situation that develops, I respond to it as a self because there ain't nobody else in me except the self to respond to. And so I have to look at it, and that question is going to arise.

I thought about how Jesus faced these four kinds of things. The what's in it for me, how do I look? The complaining, boil that down to this. You know, why do I complain? I meant to say this earlier and forgot it.

I noticed one thing about me. I never complain when I'm getting better than I think I deserve. As long as I figure I'm getting better than I deserve, I never complain. It's no problem whatsoever. But it's when I think I deserve better than that, that I get unhappy.

And begin to expostulate. That's interesting, isn't it? I deserve better than that. You notice the pronoun. Notice these first three, what's in it for me? Notice how will I look? I deserve better than that.

And implicit in the whole thing is that I in that yes but mentality. Now, with that in mind, I tried to look back and see how Jesus lived in our circumstances. And I noticed that he had some problems.

I read the passage in John 12 where the Greeks came and wanted to see him. And Jesus knows that if the Gentile world is to hear the gospel, there's no way except the cross. And you will remember Jesus lifted up his voice and said, what shall I say?

Father, save me from this hour. I don't know about you, but when I read that passage, I can find in him a recoiling from what's coming. But then he says, but Father, for this purpose came I to this hour.

And he looked at the negative because he was a human being recoiled from and said, but I won't let my feelings determine what I do. This is why I came. And though I don't want it and everything within me cries out against it, I will embrace the cross.

Now, I noticed I'm grateful for what the stories we have of Thursday night and Gethsemane. Now, Jesus is a few hours from the cross and he goes to talk to his father about it. And, you know, you remember he came back and he hadn't settled it.

So he went back and prayed again. And when he came back after the second time, he hadn't settled it. And so he went back and prayed the third time. But when he prayed the third time, it was settled when he came back.

Now, I appreciate that, that the eternal Son of God didn't want the Father's will for him. And he found within himself stuff that recoiled against it. But it wasn't the recoiling that determined what he did.

He faced all of the trauma of it, all the negative. And then in spite of the horror of it, put his arms around it and said, Father, not my will but yours be done. There is no mechanical, automaton kind of obedience here.

And I want to say, if Jesus didn't have grace to glibly and casually do all the will of God instantly and without thought, I don't believe there's grace for you to keep you from some Gethsemane. So Paul is not saying, I don't want you to be where you never have a Gethsemane.

I just don't want your Gethsemane to stop you from doing the will of the Father. Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, which can look at the worst that can come. And if it's the will of the Father, you can say, Lord, if it were left to me, this is one I'd never choose.

But if it's your will, I know there's something good to come through it and I will embrace it. Now, that's the way Jesus did. Now, I notice that Paul also did some things like this. I remember that in the first Corinthian letter, a passage that really I missed for many years.

It's so simple. And maybe I didn't want to see it. But it's in the 10th chapter of 1 Corinthians, where he is talking about how to live in a pagan society, an idolatrous society. And he says, everything is permissible, whether meat's been offered to an idol or not doesn't change the character of the meat.

That if somebody sees you eat meat that's been offered to an idol, they'll think you are worshiping that idol and you're party to that. And if that's a temptation for them, you may be the means of somebody else stumbling.

So he says very simply, one of the strongest words in the New Testament, verse 24, nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others. Now, what fascinates me on that is that there's no equivocation.

And there's no condition attached to it. He just simply bluntly says, nobody should seek, and the Greek says, nobody should seek the things of himself. The word good is not in there. It just simply says, nobody should seek the things of himself.

But every person should seek the things of another. Now, you say, who under the sun's ever going to live that way? Well, let me come down to the end of the chapter. Now, here is where one of my popular misunderstandings about Paul got exploded.

Because, you know, I'd read the literature where Paul says, calls himself the chief of sinners. That was very encouraging to me. I figured there was substantial hope for me if he was the chief of sinners.

But then I noticed this. Look at the tail end of this chapter. So he says in verse 31, so whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God. Don't cause anyone to stumble, whether it's a Jew, a Greek, or somebody in the church.

Even as I try to please everybody in every way, for I am not seeking my own good, but the good of many, so that they may be saved. Do you know what he's saying? That the law of this life is not self-interest.

And it is the well-being of somebody else that determines who Paul is. Then he says, did you notice this? Follow my example. So that when Paul says, nobody should seek his own good, but the good of others at the beginning of that passage, the conclusion is, Paul says, you do it because I'm doing, and do it like I'm doing.

Now that is an astounding testimony to me. But of course, Paul was a rather remarkable man, wasn't he? And maybe he knew something about grace, I don't know. But before I go to that, let me tell you that the very thought of what Paul is proposing is very difficult for Christians to accept.

Now let me give you an illustration of what I believe is a clear illustration of it. Look very carefully at your text there in Philippians 2. Now, I'm talking beyond my knowledge, let me say that. But I'll tell you why I came to my conclusion.

You will notice if you've got an NIV, look at verse 4. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. I told you that I was comfortable with this passage till I looked at the Greek.

And when I looked at the Greek, do you know what surprised me? I couldn't find the word only in there. I'd be interested, those of you who have Bibles in front of you, how many of you have the word only in verse 4?

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Isn't it interesting how different the presence of that word only makes? Because if you leave only in there, that gives me every right to look to some of my own interests.

So when I looked at the translation in English, and then looked at the Greek, what you've got in the second section is the word chi. And I began debating with that, because the only isn't there. So I thought, could it really mean each of you should look not to his own interests, but even to the interests of others?

Because chi can be translated both also and even. Now you've got a mess of a time knowing how to prove that it should be one or the other. So I thought, Ken Law, you don't know enough about this. So I went to our classical Greek professor at the college.

And I said, now I want you to translate, and I pulled that verse out just by itself. And made him translate it, and he translated it without the only in there. So then I went to Dr. Robert Mulholland, who's the provost here at the seminary.

And he's got a good Harvard PhD in New Testament. And I said, Bob, would you translate this verse for me out of the Greek? And he translated it without the only. Now you hear the difference. Each of you should look not to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

And so I said to him, Bob, that's not the way the translation's translated. So I showed him, he pulled out a translation and noticed the only. And then he went to his shelf and began pulling down his grammars and his lexicon, lexica.

He came back to me and said, you know, Dennis, I don't believe it belongs in there. Now I raised that with a friend of mine who's a better New Testament scholar than I am. He is a New Testament scholar, who was one of the translators of the NIV.

It was interesting, he got very upset with me. Do you know it's hard to translate the Bible honestly? It's hard for you to translate the Bible honestly, just the same way it's hard for me to translate the Bible honestly.

Because the standard just ain't reasonable, is it? Not for fallen creatures like you and me. So I thought, well now, Paul said that he was not under the tyranny of what's in it for me, or how will I look, or I deserve better than this, or yes, Lord, but.

Don't I have a little to say about this, you know? Then I read the rest of the chapter. You know an interesting thing? Look down with me at verse 19 following. I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, that I also may be cheered when I receive news about you.

I don't have anybody else like him who takes such an interest in your welfare, for everybody else looks out for his own interests, not those of Jesus Christ. But you know Timothy, he has proved himself as a son with his father, he served with me in the work of the gospel.

I thought, for heaven's sake, Paul got there, and Paul lived with Timothy, and Paul said Timothy had gotten there. Where the law of his life was not self-interest, but whatever was the will of Christ, and the well-being of others.

And I thought, well, I wonder how they got there? Timothy's not that exceptional. And then I read verses 12 and 13. Therefore, my dear friends, as you've always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.

For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. And I thought, you know, I don't believe Paul got there because he was exceptional. I think he got there because of grace.

And if Timothy got there, I don't think I've got an excuse for not getting there. Because if the grace of God can bring Timothy to where he's not under the tyranny of what's in it for me, or how will I look, or I deserve better than this, or yes, Lord, but, and we can put our arms around life and accept it as God gives it to us, it will be the grace of God that enables us to do it.