It’s All in Your Mind

soul. He tells them to think the same way. How can you get Christians to act this way, especially in a local church? Well as they present themselves as living sacrifices to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit works through their minds. What you have in verse two is a union of heart, of feeling, of planning, of purpose. It sounds impossible except in Heaven! How are you going to come close to this on earth?, Verse three continues, u J2a nodti.ng , k dJ,.,u lhMag1t, Ahlµ o,. ~-•. " Here is action-work, conduct. purpose, planning. What is your reason for doing these things? What do you hope to accomplish? Paul says our actions and conduct must not be because of strife. That is contention or the spirit of competition. You see the importance of love, and one soul and one mind. Love gives. There is no spirit of competition in the fellowship of believers. The Corinthian church was rampant with competition-Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ. Our work is not to be done through vain9lory. Here is the word of pride and of attraetin9 attention and winnin9 personal praise. These are opposite to the mind of Christ. Christ did not walk in His earthly life in order to compete with someone else or to win personal praise. His mind was controlled by the Holy Spirit How should our lives be conducted if they are according to the mind of Christ? For the third time in this paragraph, Paul brings up the believer's mind: do things in "~ o/ mind." Here is humility and modesty. Such an attitude and action will produce something. ";;J.n IJJ.lD!iJttu oJ mind kl UILh uhun odu,. hdJu. IJw.n l.lu.nuJ»u." Self is not foremost. We are to have the right estimate of ourselves. We are back again to Romans 12:3. We still have not arrived at Paul's supreme illustration of our actions and conduct based on our minds. He continues on our conduct and actions with, "J!.N,k, mJt OJUfJ, Wll1.ll an /tu tJ.UJ.n /Jwuµ, Ind woq, num. td.w. NL fJu lltintµ. oJ olluu.." One paraphrase says that this reads, "Do not be concerned about yourself and your family." With what is the spiritually minded believer to be concerned? Here is one of the most drfficult areas of God's Word. Look at the second phrase of the verse. "(]Jul OJUfJ, nw.n a.Lu,. tJ.n /Ju, lltintµ. o/, odun." The spiritually minded believer is concerned about others, but even more so he is concerned about Christ. The carnal believer will not be concerned with others. When was the last time you laid aside your plans for someone else? Many Christians are caught up in the world 1 s thinking and planning. They finish one vacation and start to plan the next one. Or they reach one financial plateau and are concerned about getting to the next. What a seemingly impossible challenge Paul lays before these Philippian Christians and us! We justify our concerns and actions and literally say, ' ' we have to or otherwise the Lord will not bless." Really, He will bless. We are now to the ultimate illustration. Paul asks that we look at the mental attitude of Christ, a fearless attitude, a self-denying attitude, a sympathetic attitude, a laborious attitude, a hopeful attitude, a sure attitude. He does not pressure. He does not command. He just says, "Let." You relax and "let,, Many think that God will tak.e advantage of them, but that will never happen. The paragraph beginning at Philippians 2:5 is usually entitled, "The humiliation of Jesus Christ." Basically this paragraph is just the illustration of what Paul, by the Holy Spirit, 54 L l r r