Advent 7a Tuning Up the Mind

 “We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God…(2Cor.10 The Message).”

 The principles that set our thought, the logic we use, the basis for thinking--- outside of God they are philosophies. Whether it is the complicated conclusions of the Greeks, the meandering thoughts of Hume, the pyramidal conclusions of Hegel or the rantings of a psychotic like Nietzsche, it is the mind that has to analyze, evaluate and build a system of thought to explain and justify who we are and what we do. Boiled down to its core, philosophy is just a system of thought about the ‘what’ and ‘why’ of existence, what it means to be human having an identity and a purpose.

 If we simplify it a bit everyone is a philosopher. Everyone has a system for the mind. You might hear it said that ‘what goes around comes around.’ That is a philosophy of uncontrollable unchangeability. Take another, pessimism, that says ‘while some things work out the odds are it won’t for me.”   Or another, cynicism, “everyone’s got an angle.” How about fatalism? “No matter how hard I try, it’ll never work. I’m finished before I start.” It might even sound spiritual like, “it’s your karma or your fate.” Then of course, in the words of the atheist poet William Ernest Henley, “I am the master of my fate and the captain of my soul (Invictus).”

In each of the above the mind makes conclusions alone, out of fear, out of desperation and because of sin, outside of God and His Word. The world is teeming with philosophies of all kinds because the world is a mass of self-centered egos clutching for some control over existence. The secular mind is all about finding a system of thought to explain self-existence. It is a self-centered non-personal thought system arrived at to justify being self-centered and fitting one’s self-experience into a superior self-comfort.

 In total contrast to the secular mind the mind of Jesus Christ is not a system of thought. It is spiritual, personal, relational, alive, logical, active and true. It is why He tells us He is the truth. When He says He is truth it means he is personal in the way His mind works. He structures His thought relationally, that is, to benefit others. His thoughts are based on the thoughts of His Father. He doesn’t seek to justify Himself, put Himself first or come up with a system of thought that gives one a sense of self-comfort.

 Here’s what Paul says about the mind of Christ, “You should think in the same way Christ Jesus does. In his very nature he was God. But he did not think that being equal with God was something he should hold on to. Instead, he made himself nothing. He took on the very nature of a servant. He was made in human form. He appeared as a man. He came down to the lowest level. He obeyed God completely, even though it led to his death. In fact, he died on a cross (Philippians 2:5-8.)” His mind, the words that proceed from it and the actions formed in it, all to please His Father and recover lost minds, hearts and souls. To give His life totally for His Father and others, ---that is the mind principle upon which He based His thinking.

 My daughter went to a Christian camp when she was a teenager. Its motto repeated daily that guided all the camp’s activities was this, “God first, others second, me third.” Of all the philosophers (yes, and include other religion founders as well) in studied history, none come close to the vibrant living ‘God-others-self’ mindset of Jesus who died in faithful obedience and was raised by God to prove He was the One above all who alone was in His right mind.

 Php.2: “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.”

 “Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us (2Tim.3:16-17).”

Show me a philosophy that does life better.

 

 

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