Developing the Mind of Christ (#1)

Philippians 2:5

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus

I recently went to breakfast at IHOP to celebrate my father-in-law’s birthday, and I was once again reminded that I am a product of the 80s. All the songs on the speakers were from the 80s and 90s, and, against my will, I habitually found myself singing right along with the songs. Of course, my son thought I was strange and didn't hesitate to let me know it.

Coupled with this experience, I was on my phone, and an old 80s commercial popped up for the fast-food chain Wendy's. We youth of the 80s will instantly remember this one by the simple phrase, “Where’s the beef?” Oh man, did that bring back memories of my high school days.

Once the mind gets going, you know it can’t stop, and soon I was remembering the Wendy’s commercial about the lack of choices regarding clothing within the Soviet Union (Fashion Show), the MTV Sports video game where the kid is driving his grandma to an appointment but doesn’t want to slow down, so rather than stopping the car, he tells his grandma, “Tuck and roll, Grandma.” (Okay, to be honest, that was from the 2000s, but I had to include it). Finally the United Negro College Fund commercial that said, “A mind is a terrible thing to waste.”

I have thought a lot about how true this last commercial was - a mind truly is a terrible thing to waste! When I think of our lives as Christians and observe some of the statements and actions I have heard by believers (even pastors), I wonder about the church's impact and witness. I wonder what has happened to our mind and why we have stopped thinking.

Jesus said that we are to love God with our heart, soul, and mind (Matthew 22:37). Paul said “to have this mind in you which was also in Christ” (Philippians 2:5). He also said that we are to “set our mind on things above” (Colossians 3:2), and that we are to be “transformed by the renewing of our mind” (Romans 12:1-2).

I wonder why, then, we have so often neglected our mind? Why have we worked so diligently to craft our bodies and be physically healthy, yet have let our minds become flabby and fat? Why do we uncritically think as the world thinks and follow the philosophies of the world, instead of developing our life around the mind of Christ?

There is an old proverbial saying which I think most people can remember, which states “you are what you eat.” The 1980s Christian band Petra sang a song called “Computer Brains” which reflected this idea when they sang “put garbage in, get garbage out.” With the new government emphasis on dealing with obesity and processed foods, there has been a renewed interest in food labeling and critically analyzing what we take into our bodies. I wonder if perhaps we shouldn’t do the same with our minds? Certainly, bodily discipline and exercise are beneficial for a person, but those benefits are limited and temporal, whereas godliness and developing spiritual disciplines are of significantly greater and eternal value.

Dallas Willard says in his book The Scandal of the Kingdom: How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life with God that “the primary function of the will is to trust God. The set of a person’s will is key for how the Word of God affects the mind because the will and mind are deeply integrated… An essential investment of our life with God is to take care of our minds by cultivating our thoughts” (43). If we are to have the mind of Christ, we must not only desire to do so, but we must set our will to the matter.

Os Guinness in his book Fit Bodies Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to do About It says, “Failing to think Christianly, evangelicals have been forced into the role of cultural imitators and adapters rather than originators. In biblical terms, it is to be worldly and conformist, not decisively Christian” (14).

I think another way to state the matter is to say that we have lost our prophetic voice in society and have ceased to be salt and light. All we end up doing is subtly reflecting the world. Like Os Guinness, J. P. Moreland sounds the clarion call regarding the surrender of the Christian mind and points out the devastating effects it has had on the church. Because we have failed to think critically and to develop the mind of Christ, the church has: 1) A misunderstanding of faith’s relationship to reason, 2) seen a separation of the secular and the sacred, 3) been weakened in world missions, 4) has spawned an irrelevant gospel because an anti-intellectualism, and 5) the church has lost a boldness in confronting the idea structures in our culture with effective Christian witness (25-31).

Am I saying that every believer needs to become a philosopher, theologian, or ethicist? Of course not. The best way to identify a falsehood or counterfeit is to be so acquainted with the real thing that the counterfeit becomes obvious. Let us develop a clear mind set on the teachings of Christ. As Paul says, "I want to know Him" (Philippians 3:10).

I want to encourage us to start to think, to ask ourselves questions, to challenge our assumptions. This is already a long post, so I am going to bring it to a close, but in the future, I am going to lay out some disciplines and practices that may help us start to think consistently through the day on God’s thoughts and critically evaluate if the philosophies of the world have entered our thinking. Know this, any spiritual discipline requires an act of will in order to engage the mind. Apart from the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and the enlightening work of the Scriptures, our will and our mind can be highly overrated, but if we fail to cultivate our thoughts and leave our minds unkempt, we, the church, will not only be frenzied imitators of the world and its philosophies, but we will also be highly ineffective voices for God in this world.

Remember "A Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Waste!"

Here are a couple of intermediate but very good books for developing the mind and reason. The book by Dallas Willard is a wonderful summation of his life teachings about the Kingdom of God, having the mind of Christ, and a revolutionized life with God.

Guinness, Os. 1994. Fit Bodies, Fat Minds : Why Evangelicals Don’t Think and What to Do About It. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Hourglass Books.

Moreland, J. P., and Dallas Willard. 1997. Love Your God with All Your Mind : The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul. Colorado Springs, Colo.: NavPress.

Willard, Dallas. 2024. The Scandal of the Kingdom : How the Parables of Jesus Revolutionize Life with God. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Books.