Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Philippians 2:5
As the American army was making preparations for a battle in the Revolutionary War, a corporal arrogantly ordered the privates who were under his charge to lift a heavy beam that needed to be moved. A man in civilian clothes who was walking by noticed the heavy task that the soldiers were working on and asked the corporal, ‘Why don’t you help them?’ ‘Sir,’ the corporal replied indignantly, ‘I am a corporal!’ The man in civilian clothes apologized for his misperception, stripped of his coat and helped the soldiers himself. When the job was finished, he said, ‘Corporal, the next time your men need help, call on your commander-in-chief. I’ll be glad to help.’ With that, George Washington put on his coat and left. If the commander-in-chief of the US Revolutionary army was not above getting his hands dirty alongside the buck privates in his outfit, what attitude ought you and I take to work that the Lord has laid out for His people? We know what the Lord Jesus would do.
In our text today, we have the introduction to the humble approach of the Lord Jesus to the mission to which His Father had sent Him. He is the One Who chose to be born in a stable, be raised in a carpenter’s family in a backwater town, be despised and rejected throughout His life, and to be dragged outside Jerusalem’s walls to be crucified. It was necessary that He be despised and rejected of men, that He endure contradiction of sinners against Himself, all in order that He might fulfill His Father’s will. And all that we might be provided with salvation. He was willing to do what was required to purchase our redemption, and pride was not going to get in the way. His mind was occupied with doing His Father’s will and with rescuing us. Our minds should be so inclined.
Because He became a human, the Lord Jesus knows all about our physical weaknesses. He knows how we feel when we are tired, when we are lonely, when we are hated and hurting. He knows the crushing weight of temptation. So He understands our limitations when it comes to our devotion to our Heavenly Father. But He was without sin, and never faltered, nor could he have ever done so. We come from a sinful background, and were once the children of disobedience. There is much we need to leave behind of pride and rebellion, of the lusts of the flesh, of the things of the world that we once served. So we need to focus on the mind of the Lord Jesus, to learn from His Word what He is like and how He responded to the people and events around Him. The more we learn, the more we strive to be like Him, the more we will submit our will to His and be faithful and profitable servants.
Our minds need much in the way of shaping into the mind of Christ. Every day, we should work to become a little more like Him. -Jim MacIntosh