1 Corinthians 2:16 ESV
“For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” BUT WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST.
This verse doesn’t say that we are to put on the mind of Christ or to try to have the mind of Christ in various situations. It says explicitly that we already HAVE the mind of Christ. What does that mean? It sounds like a pretty big deal to me, so what is the Holy Spirit saying through the apostle Paul?
What if I were to say to you that you now, as a free gift, have the mind of Elon Musk. It would mean that you would now think and process reality the way Elon musk thinks and processes reality. You would have his worldview and his self-consciousness in light of who he is, where he has come from, what he has, and where he is going in life. You might say, “Well, Chuck, that’s great, but Elon Musk thinks the way he thinks in light of all that’s true about him and his history, and in light of all he possesses and in light of what is dreams and plans are. Therefore, it would not do me any good to have the mind Elon Musk without the history and the resources of Elon Musk.” All that is true, but what if I were to say to you that you and Elon Musk have become one, and therefore you have the mind of Elon Musk in light of the fact that everything he is and has is yours.
Now apply what I just said to the fact that you are in union with Christ and are therefore one with Him. He is your life, and therefore everything He has, and everything He is, you have. Every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places is yours in Christ because you are in Christ. You have been made full with His fullness – Colossians 2:9 – 10. His history is your history, and His future plans and dreams are your plans and dreams. In light of all that, what is it mean to have the mind of Christ? It means that our self-consciousness is filtered through a Christ consciousness, and we think about ourselves in light of our union with who He is. Our self-awareness is His self-awareness. We have, because of our union with Him, the way He processes situations, in light of His resources to meet every need. We have in Him the way He thinks about temptation and about people, world events, and the future. We think like he thinks when prioritizing the issues of life. Another example would be what does Jesus think about the sick and the broken among us. How he thinks about such things is how we are to think about such things because we have His mind. We can apply this to every reality that makes up life. We have the mind of Christ; therefore, we get to see ourselves in light of how He sees himself. This is our redeemed identity. We get to see everything in life in light of the way He thinks. Jesus is the truth, and the way He thinks about any and everything is the truth, and the truth sets us free. Being transformed by the renewing of our mind to come into agreement with the mind of Christ from which we are now to operate in every arena of life.