Do you have the mind of Christ? It has nothing to do with your brain!

by David Leach
(Temecula,Ca USA)

Do you have the mind of Christ? It has nothing to do with your brain!

Phil 2:5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (a physical mind?)

Does the mind of Christ have anything to do with our natural human mind or brain?

All of us have a natural human or carnal mind. Our brain or intellect is part of our body, that is, it is part of our flesh. And like every other part of our bodies, upon death, it returns to dust. Since the brain is not spirit it cannot inherit eternal life. For being part of the flesh it has been permanently corrupted by sin and therefore is an enemy of God.

Rom 8:6-7 Now the mind of the flesh, which is sense and reason without the Holy Spirit, is death (is cut off from the life of God)...A person becomes an enemy of God when he is controlled by his human mind; for he does not obey God's rule, and in fact he cannot obey it. AMP/TEV

Eph 4:17-18 ...You should no longer walk as the unconverted walk in the futility (useless concerning God) of their (natural) mind. Whose minds are in the dark, they have no part in the life that God gives due to the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; NKJV/TEV/NASU

When our hearts are hard our will is controlled by our natural mind, making us God’s enemies. Do you want that or do you want the mind of Christ? Did Christ have a natural mind too as part of His sinful flesh? Yes, otherwise He couldn’t have been tempted in all ways just like we are. But He wasn’t controlled by that mind, He was led by the Spirit.

Rom 8:3 ...God sent His own Son in the form of sinful flesh just like ours...

Luke 4:1 Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit...was led by the Spirit...

If the mind of Christ has nothing to do with His or our brain, then what exactly is it?

1 Cor 2:16 For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
The above New Testament scripture quotes directly from this Old Testament scripture:

Isa 40:13 Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has taught Him? (the Spirit of the Lord is referred to as the mind of the Lord).

So the mind of Christ is the Spirit of Christ, that is, the mind of Christ is the Holy Spirit: Only the Spirit knows the thoughts of God – as do all those who receive God’s thoughts by being led by the Spirit, as Jesus was. Who let this mind be in them, as was in Christ.

1 Cor 2:11 ...No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. AMP

1 Cor 2:10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit...

1 Cor 2:14 But the natural man (living by sense and reason) does not receive the thoughts of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned (by his own spirit):

Rom 8:16 For His Holy Spirit (mind of Christ) speaks to us deep in our hearts...TLB
For us to let this mind that was in Christ be also in us means to have received the Holy Spirit, by faith, and to be currently walking in obedience to the Spirit’s leading. Are you?

Acts 5:32 ...The Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who (will to) obey Him.

Why do I need the mind of Christ? So that I can know, think, pray and do God’s thoughts, so that by them He can make me like Christ, so that I can share His thoughts with others.

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of good (Strong’s: safety, wellness, happiness, health, provision) and not of evil...

Ps 1:2-3 ...They think about His word (His thoughts)...and in all they do they prosper.

We Christians have two minds, natural and spiritual, we must live in our spiritual minds

Eph 4:23 And be renewed (daily) in the spirit of your mind,

2 Tim 1:7 God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a spirit of...a sound mind.

If I’m a carnal Christian I’m controlled by my natural mind and cut off from God. If I’m semi-spiritual I’m partially ruled by my head with its doubt, and partially ruled by my heart, where I believe God and where the mind of Christ is. I am double-minded, unstable, for I won’t stay in the mind where I can keep receiving God’s thoughts by faith. So I get nothing.

James 1:6-8 ...Ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea tossed, driven by the wind. For let not that person suppose that he will receive
anything from the Lord, he is a double-minded person, unstable in all his ways.

Are we Christians to abandon the use of our brains? No, we just subordinate them to God.

Our brains were designed by God to process information from our five physical senses, but not to receive God’s thoughts that reveal His will for us and impart His nature to us. Nor were our brains made to control our will. We were designed to be led by God’s Spirit or mind, working in our re-born spirit. When we do this, our brains still function very well, but our decisions are not based on how things appear, but on what God’s will for us is.

Isa 11:3 ...He shall not decide by the sight of His eyes (nor reasoning of His brain):

John 7:24 Do not judge according to appearance but with righteous judgment.

John 5:30 My judgment is righteous, for I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me (this is how we too are to make all of our decisions)

2 Cor 5:7 For we walk by faith (led by the Spirit) not by sight (and ruled by our brain).

Only when we let this mind be in us, and submit to it, can we do the things God requires.

Our brain is God’s enemy, its part of our corrupt flesh. We need the mind of Christ, the Holy Spirit, to be able to humble ourselves and obey God. God’s priority for us is that we believe we died, in Christ, to the rule of our human nature with its mind, that is, to God’s enemy. If, out of pride, we won’t die to self we will always disappoint ourselves and God:

Phil 2:5-8 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus (why?) He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.