The spiritual person makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?”  But we have the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:15-16).

It’s never a good idea to take an idea out of context.

“We have the mind of Christ.”  Influenced as thoroughly by Western individualism as all of us are, we could understand this verse to mean “I know everything about everything!”  Or, picking out Paul’s words about “the spiritual person” not being subject to anyone’s judgment, we could, wrongly, conclude that, because I’m a Christian, I never need pay any attention to what my unspiritual, nonChristian neighbors have to say about me.

Bad handling of Scripture always leads to bad Christian living.

“We have the mind of Christ” is Paul’s concluding statement to a long argument he has been building since 1 Corinthians 1:18. Take a few minutes to read 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16 to get a sense for where Paul wants to go.

“We have the mind of Christ” does not mean that we Christians know everything about everything.  What we do know, what we are to know, understand and live out, is that God’s wisdom is the wisdom of the cross.  

What it means that “we have the mind of Christ” is that we learn to live in the wisdom and power of a cross-shaped life.  What are some of the characteristics of such a life?

It’s a life that confesses “Jesus is Lord!”  Not me, my group, our culture, or whichever “Caesars” currently hold political power or power in my own heart.  A life that understands that, if you want to be great, learn to be the servant of all.  A life that seeks not to save itself, but to give itself to and for Christ and his kingdom.  A life that steps away from whatever privileges and powers it may have, and instead gives and spends itself that others might be enriched.  A life that will suffer violence rather than do violence.  A life that is willing to be misunderstood and suspect by all, so long as it enjoys the smile of heaven.  A life that is impossible apart from the transforming work and presence of the Holy Spirit!

We only have the mind of Christ as we, in community, learn how to take up the cross and live according to its wisdom.  If our life together doesn’t look distinctively different from Corinth or Chatham County, isn’t recognizably “cross-shaped, we have some learning yet to do.

And we have been given One whose work it is to lead and guide us into all the truth!

What do you see as two or three characteristics of “a cross-shaped life?”  How about “a cross-shaped community”?  How could you pray, for yourself and for us all in Chatham Community Church?