We must have the mind of Christ Jesus
[Philippians 2:5-11]
Are you healthy? I am sure all of us are interested in health. I also began to exercise for my health since I was in my late 30’s. However, the more I live my Christian life, the more I realize how important the heart health than the physical health. This is the Word of God that gave me that enlightenment: “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Prov. 4:23). How can we guard our hearts? How should we manage the health of our hearts? Before I wrote this short writing under the title "We should guard our hearts well": ‘When doubts about God begin to come into our hearts, that doubt turns into distrust, and the distrust to dissatisfaction, dissatisfaction to complaint and grumbling and finally disobedient to God’s command. Therefore, we must keep our hearts better than our physical health.’ Is your heart healthy now? When our hearts are healthy, the church can be healthy. And a healthy heart is a heat that believes God completely and a heart that loves God. It is also a healthy heart that loves brothers and sisters in Christ with the love of God. I think Apostle Paul had healthy heart. That why he wrote to the Philippian church saints “I have you in my heart” (1:7), “being of the same mind” (2:2) and “maintaining the same love” (v. 2).
In the meantime, Paul wrote to them in Philippians 2:5, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Based on this Word, I want to think about what kinds of Jesus’ mind that we should have in three ways under the title “We must have the mind of Christ Jesus”:
First, the mind of Christ Jesus which we all need to have is not regarding equality with others.
Look at Philippians 2:6 – “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.” On October 28, 2014, the World Economic Forum (WEF) announced that Korea ranked 117th out of 142 countries surveyed regarding the gender equality rankings. The Korea ranking has fallen six places from 111 last year. The gender equality rankings rank the gender gap by employment, school opportunities, health, and political advancement and Korea ranked one of the lowest. Iceland ranks first in gender equality rankings followed by Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and other Northern Europe countries. In Asia, the Philippines ranks the highest which is ninth, with China ranked 87th and Japan ranked 104th (Internet). Why is Korea so low in gender equality rankings? The main reason for the inequality is "stereotype of sex role" (47.8%). The next reasons are "physical differences between men and women" (22.5%), "differences in social and human relationships" (10.8%), and "gender differences in housework and in burden of raising kids" (9.3%) (Internet).
What does the Bible say about gender equality? If we read the Bible, we may think that the Bible seems like discriminating against women. For example, in 1 Corinthians 14:34, Paul wrote a letter to the Corinthian church and said, “women should remain silent in the churches. ….” This biblical statement can give the enough impression of the women in the church was being discriminated. But fact is not. According to Professor Lee Sang-won of the Chongshin Theological Seminary in Korea, we should not miss here is that Paul's command to "remain silent" is not given to women alone. It is the command given to all the saints of the church. We can know this from the previous verse 33 that says “As in all the congregations of the saints.” Why then did Paul tell the Corinthian church saints to "remain silent" to all the saints? The reason was that there were many people who received the gift of tongues in the Corinthian church. So they spoke in tongue in public worship where many people gathered and the church was so disordered. So Paul told all the saints to remain silent. However, among the people who received the gift of tongues, since most of them were especially the female saints, so Paul told the women saints to remain silent. In other words, what Paul meant was if they wanted to speak in tongues, they should do so quietly in a place that was not disturbed by others. But it wasn’t a command that never let a woman speak in the church or teach fellow believers (Internet). The Scripture Genesis 1:27 says that God created “man” in his image, that is He created "male and female." This means that God created man and woman equally. But God has given man and woman different personalities, characteristics and functions for each sex. That is why God created man and women so that they might work together to full God's calling. As an example, God has given them a calling to be fruitful and increase in number (v. 28), which could never be achieved by man or woman alone. The sperm supplied by the man and the egg supplied by the woman must meet to give birth to the baby. They must have a baby in order to be fruitful and multiply according to the command of God (Internet).
The God we believe is the Holy Triune God. That is, God Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit is one in essence (same three persons). The answer to the Westminster Shorter Catechism Question 6 “How many persons are there in the Godhead?” is “There are three persons in the Godhead; the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost; and these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory” (Internet). God the Father, God the Son Jesus, and God the Holy Spirit, who are equal and one being but three persons of different roles (the Unity of the Godhead). So how does the Trinity God's role differ? A good example is the plan and work of the salvation of the Triune God. In saving us, the Father God has made a plan of salvation, God the Son Jesus has fulfilled the plan of salvation, and God the Holy Spirit applies the salvation (cf. Romans 8:1-17; 2 Cor. 13:14; Eph. 1:3-14; 2 Thess. 2:13-14, 1 Peter 1:2) (Packer). The God of the Bible we believe in is God, the Holy Trinity, who achieves the cooperative work of the trinity in order to save us. We believe in God the Father, in God the Son Jesus, and in God the Holy Spirit (Cf. Apostle Creed). However, in Philippians 2:6, the Bible says that Jesus Christ “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God.” Here, Jesus “did not consider equality with God” means that even though Jesus was equal in glory to the Father God, He didn’t consider that glory equal with the Father God (Park Yun-sun). Then why did Paul exhort the saints of the Philippian church to have the mind of Jesus Christ in verse 5 and then told them in verse 6 that Jesus didn’t consider himself equality with the Father God in glory? I looked for the reason in verse 3: “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.” When Paul told the saints of the Philippian church to “consider others better than yourselves”, he meant to have the mind of Christ Jesus and to consider equal with others (vv. 5-6). In other words, Paul told them to have the humble heart of Christ Jesus, who did not consider equality with the Father God even though He is being in very nature God, and consider others better than themselves even though all of them were equal.
In Galatians 3:28, Paul said: “There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In Christ Jesus, we are all sons and daughters of God. And we, the sons and daughters of God, are one in Christ Jesus. Whether we are a man, a woman, a South Korean, an American, a South American, a boss, an employee, a rich man, or a poor man, we are all one in Christ Jesus. There is no discrimination in Jesus Christ (Rom. 10:12, Col. 3:11). We must not discriminate against each other. We must not show favoritism (Jam. 2:1). If we show favoritism, then we are sinning against God (v. 9). But we have to discern. What should we discern? We must discern between the holy and the common, between the unclean and the clean (Lev. 10:10). And with this kind of discernment, we have to live a life separated from the world. We must not be divided with our own brothers and sisters in Christ within the church and be united with this world. We must stop sinning against God and we must do our best to keep the unity of the church in Christ. In order to do so, we should not consider equal with our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in our humble heart of Christ Jesus. We should consider them better than ourselves.
Second, the mind of Christ Jesus which we all need to have is to serve others by emptying ourselves.
Do you know the fairy tale "The Prince and the Pauper"? The prince and the pauper met each other and changed their clothes. Later the prince tried to return to the prince while living the beggar. But the beggar became a prince and was leaning about politics little by little. The prince who wasn’t accustomed to beggars at the beginning told many people that "I am a prince". But they considered him crazy. At that time, the pauper gradually became accustomed to the life of the prince and did his work in the country little by little. He also said to the people "I am only a pauper", but the people say, "The prince is mad!" and they tried to serve him better. Then, at the end of the story, the prince and the pauper met each other and the prince became king. The prince became king in the end because he didn’t lose himself in any difficulties (Internet). The reason why I thought of this fairy tale story was that in Philippians 2:7, Apostle Paul said that Jesus “being in very nature God” emptied Himself, “taking the very nature of a servant.” Of course, the prince had a life of pauper and Jesus taking the very nature of the servant cannot be compared and the difference is like between heaven and earth. But I thought that it would help us to understand at least little bit about Jesus' incarnation.
Look at Philippians 2:7 – “but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.” God the Son Jesus came into this earth with the body of man is called “incarnation.” The incarnation, based on John 1:14, means "The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” This Word is from before the creation of the world, and was with God and is God himself (Jn. 1:1). According to John's testimony, all the creatures that exist are created through this Word (v. 3). This Word is now in the flesh and dwelt among the people, which is a true light and the life of all (v. 4). This Word that was in the flesh came to us is Jesus Christ. And we call this Incarnation of Jesus Christ. The concept of incarnation means that God worn the human body, that is, He emptied Himself and became like man in all conditions. The incarnation is one who created all creatures became one of them (Internet). Here in Philippians 2:7, the word He "emptied Himself” means not that Jesus emptied God's "identity", such as God’s character or essence, but He had given up the glory of God. In other words, it means not that Jesus Christ didn’t give up His divinity but He left the heavenly glory (Park Yun-sun). Jesus, being in very nature God came to this earth, took the very nature of a servant (vv. 6-7) and it means even though Jesus is the Lord, He came down to the low place as the servant of all things (Park Yun-sun).
Isn’t this amazing that Jesus the Lord came down to the low place as the servant? Why did Jesus come down to the low position of servant? Look at Matthew 20:27-28: “and whoever wants to be first must be your slave--just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” In spite of Jesus being our Lord, Jesus became our servant to serve us and to give his life as a ransom for many. Here, the word “ransom” refers to “a sum of money or other payment demanded or paid for the release of a prisoner” (Internet). In other words, Jesus died in the cross on behalf of us who have sinned to death and of all our sins in order to free us from slavery of sins. Jesus, our Lord, has come to this world to serve us, even though He ought to be served by us. Jesus called His disciples and said: “… If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all” (Mk. 9:35). Now the Lord is also speaking this to us. The Lord is telling us to be a servant. How can we serve our neighbors?
In 2007, our church motto was ‘The Serving Church.’ We prayed that our church can be the serving church in which we serve the church humbly, serve our family with joy and serve our neighbor voluntarily. And in the first week of the year, I preached at the special Morning Prayer meeting with a focus on service. On the third day of the week, I preached with a focus on Ephesians 6:5-7. And after the Morning Prayer meeting, one of the deacons of our church wrote this e-mail and sent it to me: ‘In our own life --- our home, our society, our work or our church --- we have people to serve. How should we serve them? We have to serve them with obedience. The reason we don’t obey them is because our will and our claim are so clear and strong. The failure to obey our bosses, school teachers, parents, church pastors, and adults is because we don’t have or are lacking in slavery consciousness. It is also because we don’t serve the Lord as our Master in our lives and lack the obedience training for Him’ (Kim).
Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 3:5 that he and Apollo were "servants." Here the word "servant" in Greek is “diakonoi” and the English word “deacon” is derived from it. The meaning of this word is 'servants'. Then, in 1 Corinthians 4:1, Paul referred to himself and his co-workers as "servants of Christ". Here the word “servants” in Greek is “huperetes”, which literally means "under rowers" under the ship. According to Pastor John MacArthur, the slaves who plowed under the boat at that time were the ones who did the most dirty work, that no one was envious of them, and that they were the most despised. The word that had this meaning later came to point to someone who would submit completely to all authority (MacArthur). After all, Paul told the saints of the Corinthian church who were proud of Paul, Apollos and Peter, that he and his co-workers were the Lord's slaves who were submitting to the Lord completely (Park Yun-sun). We are the slaves of the Lord who must be obedient to the Lord's command. We must have this consciousness of slaver. But it seems that we have ‘master consciousness’ rather than ‘slave consciousness’. We can know this by seeing whether we are obeying God's Word and serve the Lord or we are disobeyed His Word and being served by others. We need a sense of service. We must have the consciousness of the servant. With that consciousness, we should not assume that we are equal to our brothers and sisters in Christ, but that we should humble ourselves and serve them as we consider them better than ourselves.
A few years ago, before my beloved daughter wanted to have the earrings, I told a story from Exodus 21:1-6. If we look at that passage, we see the God's law (v. 1) that if a Israelite bought a Hebrew servant and that servant served the master for 6 years, the servant should go free in the 7th year (v. 2). But if the servant declared, “I love my master and my wife and children and do not want to go free” (v. 5), “then his master must take him before the judges. He shall take him to the door or the doorpost and pierce his ear with an awl. Then he will be his servant for life” (v. 6). I told this bible story to my daughter, and thankfully she knew this story already. So I told her, 'If you want to be have the earrings, make a commitment to be a slave to Jesus, our Lord, like the slave in the Bible. Then I will allow you to have your earrings.’ When I think of this Bible story, I think of the gospel song "Pierce My Ears": “Pierce my ear, O Lord, my God Take me to Your door this day. I will serve no other gods, Lord, I'm here to stay. For You have paid the price for me With Your blood You ransomed me. I will serve You eternally, A free man I'll never be.” One day when I was singing this gospel song in Morning Prayer meeting, I remembered the crucified Jesus. Jesus was crucified and died for such sinner like me who supposed to be destroyed forever and to be slave of sins forever. But because Jesus died on the cross for me, now I am saved and free from sin. Now I became a slave to the Lord. Like the slave in Exodus who refused to be free and wanted to be the master’s servant for life because he loved his master and his wife and children and thus pierced his ear, I wanted to pierce my ear and to serve the Lord forever because I love the Lord, my wife and my children. I confessed to the Lord that I would like to serve Him forever and ever. As I was making this confession in that Morning Prayer, the holy God revealed my sin that in my heart I had master consciousness rather than slave consciousness and enabled me to confess my sin to Him. And the Holy Spirit reminded me the Scripture Philippians 2:4 and helped me to ask God for Jesus’ humble heart. Let us get rid of our master consciousness but pursue slave consciousness. And let us serve the Lord humbly. May we be able to serve our neighbors with Jesus’ humility.
Third and last, the mind of Christ Jesus which we all need to have is to humble ourselves and become obedient to the Lord to death.
Look at Philippians 2:8 – “And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death-- even death on a cross!” Those who worship God in vain honor God with their lips but their hearts are far from Him (Mt. 15:8-9). They don’t practice what they preach (23:3). And they like to be praised and exalted (vv. 5-7). So when they give to the needy they announce it because they want to be honored by men (6:2). This is our sinful nature. Now in the church, there are people who seem to be serving the Lord outwardly like the Pharisees in order to be exalted among the men, but inwardly there are serving money (Lk 16:13). The reason they do so because they believe that money is power. And they are trying to be exalted among people by money. Just as Simon, the magician in the Bible, who thought that he could buy the gift of God with money (Acts 8:20), even in the church nowadays there is people who are trying to buy a church duty with money. But this is what the Scripture Luke 16:15 says, “You are the ones who justify yourselves in the eyes of men, but God knows your hearts. What is highly valued among men is detestable in God's sight.”
We should not be such proud people. The heart of a proud person that wants to be exalted can never be satisfied. The vanity of getting glory from people can never be satisfied. We must never seek vain glory. Pastor Park Yun-sun said: ‘Therefore, the principle of not seeking the vain glory but getting rid of it prevents pride from afar’ (Park Yun-sun). We must be humble. We must lower ourselves. To do so, we must have the humble heart of Christ Jesus (Phil. 2:5). Jesus, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God (v. 6). He 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 (vv. 7-8). What did God do to Jesus? Look at Philippians 2: 9-11: “Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at 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.” The result of Jesus' humility was that God exalted Jesus Christ very high. Jesus was resurrected, ascended and God made every knee to bow down to Him.
One of the lessons God has taught me in my difficult time of my life was ‘It is much better to be exalted by God than by people’. And in order to be exalted by God, we must humble ourselves before God and before people. In other words, when we humble ourselves before God and before people, God will exalt us in His perfect time (cf. Phil. 2:5-11). That’s why the crisis is an opportunity. Crisis is an opportunity for God to humble us. And the crisis is also a good opportunity for God to exalt us. We have to empty ourselves like Jesus and humble ourselves before people. We must be obedient until we die humbly, just like Jesus. When we do that, God will exalt in His time.
The heart that we all must bear is the mind of Jesus Christ. The mind of Christ Jesus does not regard oneself equality with others. And the mind of Jesus is to empty oneself and to serve others as servants. The mind of Christ Jesus, which we all must bear, is to submit to the Lord until we die.