Hello, my “Walking with Jesus” friends.
Are you fascinated by the ability God gives to all babies to learn? One of the first things babies learn is to express themselves, usually with screams, informing adults that they are unhappy. They are hungry or cold or wet or feeling ignored. Soon parents start teaching their babies words and expecting that these little people, not yet able to walk, will somehow understand the words adults are using and learn to communicate with those adults using the same language.
Having grown up in a country outside America, as a young boy, I often spent time outside my home with people of that country, both adults and children, none of whom spoke English, so I quickly learned their language. But when I was at home with my family, of course we spoke English. How can a child’s brain learn two or three or several languages all at the same time, and then slide easily from one language to the other, depending on the person with whom they are conversing? That seems miraculous to me!
We’re with the apostle Paul as he’s writing to his friends in Corinth and Paul is calling them to understand that God wants to help them learn and use a new language as Christians! Paul is dictating and I presume Timothy is scribing the letter:
Paul said: “This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught us by the Holy Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.“ Do you see Paul declares that we learn and use a new vocabulary as Christians, we speak a new language? Every day you and I, who have trusted Jesus to save us, have the privilege of speaking with our words, our attitudes, our actions so the world can see and understand the difference Jesus makes in our lives. Do you see Paul is saying the Holy Spirit will teach us and guide us in our communication, how to act, how to explain this new life in Christ! (2 Cor. 5:17)
Now, here’s an important question: If babies learn to speak the language of their parents by listening to them, how does a Christian learn the new language the Holy Spirit wants to teach us? Would you agree it is in part as they listen to other Christians speak and as they read God’s Word?
The reason that’s important is because people without the Spirit of God guiding their minds and hearts simply do not comprehend, they do not understand the transforming work of God and our new life in Christ. They don’t understand God’s forgiveness of our sin because of Jesus’ atonement death, and without our paying anything. They don’t understand the unconditional love of God the Father, because the only love they know is conditional love. They don’t understand a new spiritual nature birthed in us by God’s Holy Spirit. They don’t understand what purity of heart and mind is or how it is possible. They don’t understand communication between a human being and Almighty God?
Paul said it clearly: “The person without the Holy Spirit does not accept the things which come from the Holy Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Holy Spirit.“ (1 Cor. 2:14)
The things of God, spiritual truth, the transforming work of the Holy Spirit of God…all this and so much more, is only understood, only discernible, through the work of the Holy Spirit in the soul and spirit of a person! The minds of unbelievers are blinded by the evil kingdom, they simply cannot comprehend spiritual things only understood through the work of the Holy Spirit.
In Paul’s 2nd letter to these Christians in Corinth Paul wrote: “The god of this age [the devil] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Jesus Christ, who is the image of God.” (2 Cor. 4:4) That my friend describes the battle for control of your mind and your heart. Satan and the dark kingdom want very much to blind you to understanding any truth about God or the hope found in the Gospel of Jesus. At the same time the Holy Spirit is working to illuminate your mind and heart, your soul and spirit, to be able to understand how much God loves you, and what God is ready to accomplish in your life!
So Paul concludes this powerful chapter with these summary words: “The person with the Holy Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for ‘Who has known the mind of the LORD so as to instruct Him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Cor. 2:15) Did you notice Paul, once more, weaves in a statement from one of the most powerful chapters in the Old Testament, Isaiah 40:13? That entire chapter challenges the reader, of any generation, over and over, with this profound statement from God ‘To whom will you compare ME, who is My equal, declares the LORD?’
Oh, how true it is that in every generation, in every society, there are people who consider themselves smarter than God. Having no need for God they reject anything having to do with God. They consider God totally obsolete, and they have a long list of evidences they believe prove God does not exist, or if there is a God, He certainly is not in any way involved in life on planet earth. And yet, the very breath with which they make such statements is a breath gift of God who has put that breath in their lungs, give them life and the ability to think and communicate, even if they are choosing to think irrationally.
So, Paul concludes this powerful chapter with this remarkable statement: “We [redeemed, born again, Holy Spirit filled people] have the mind of Christ.” It means that with the Holy Spirit of God living within us, teaching us, guiding us, counseling us, (John 14:26; 16:13) and with the Holy Spirit baptizing us, immersing us, into irreversible relationship with Jesus Christ, (1 Cor. 12:13) and with the Holy Spirit birthing a new holy, spiritual nature in us, (John 3:3-7) we, normal human beings, regenerated by the Holy Spirit of God, can actually THINK and REASON with our mind under such influence of the Holy Spirit that we actually think like Jesus!
Now, that is so radical, so beyond human logic, that we need to pause and ponder that for the rest of this day. How is it possible? How will thinking with the mind of Christ differ from normal human thinking? Where will such thinking lead you or me? How will such thinking elevate us far above the normal chatter, confusion and delusions of our world? Now ponder those questions, friends and here’s a song to help us think like Jesus!
Today’s Scripture is 1 Cor. 2:13-15.
Choose below to read or listen.
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Bible images provided with attribution to www.LumoProject.com.
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Pastor Doug Anderson
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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