SERVING WITH “THE MIND OF CHRIST”
“Truly he was the servant of all,” said a friend of J. Hudson Taylor’s as he concluded a narration of some incidents in the life of the great missionary in China. Hudson Taylor was like his Master. Only in so far as the service of any of us Christians is after the example of our Lord is it real service.
In the study of “How Jesus Lived the Victorious Life,” it was seen that Christ emptied himself in order that he might live as a man and open the way for his brethren to win the victory in the same way that he won it. Jesus lived down here as God intended a man should live—in utter, moment by moment, dependence upon Another, and in the last study it was pointed out that our Victory motto must be the motto that Jesus lived by: “I will put my trust in Him.” It is our purpose now to view this truth in particular relation to the service of a Christian, and to examine more closely the meaning of Christ’s “emptying” that we may know wherein he was our example in service.
It is not primarily the acts in the life of Jesus that furnish us our example in service. Many of the recorded activities of Christ, the things he did and the things he said, are by their very nature,—their uniqueness,—deeds and words that we cannot imitate. It is the mind of Christ we are to have. Then shall we have the secret of the spirit and the power of his service.
The great passage in the second chapter of Philippians on the humiliation of our Lord deals with profound mysteries of the eternal world, yet it touches in the most vital way the everyday life and service of the Christian. It concerns the sending of Christ Jesus out of Glory with the Father into the world of men and sin. How startling, then, that our Lord should take such a sublime event, which goes too deep for utterance, and bring it to our very doorsteps, when he says: “As the Father hath sent me into the world even so send I you into the world.”
“Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” the Apostle enjoins. What is “this mind”? How are we to have it? Paul goes on to describe it: “Who, existing in the form of God, counted not the being on an equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross” (Phil. 2:5-8).
The Mind of Satan
Something of the significance of this sublime passage and the verses that immediately follow, will be seen if we place beside it another picture which also concerns the mysteries of the eternal world and the throne of God. It is found in the fourteenth chapter of Isaiah: “How art thou fallen from heaven, O day star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations! And thou saidst in thy heart, I WILL ascend into heaven, I WILL exalt my throne above the stars of God; and I WILL sit upon the mount of congregation, in the uttermost parts of the north: I WILL ascend above the heights of the clouds; I WILL make myself like the Most High” (Isa. 14:12-14).
This is a portion of “a parable against the king of Babylon.” In it we have undoubtedly the picture of the great Adversary of the Lord Jesus Christ, Satan, the highest of created beings; here is a glimpse of his fall and the secret of it. So striking is the contrast that it is hard to escape the conviction that the Spirit intended this to be related to the passage in Philippians that tells of our Lord’s emptying. This contrast is one that runs from beginning to end through the Scriptures, which are, indeed, the record of the conflict between these two beings, the Son of God who became also the Son of man, and the “son of the morning,” who became the son of uttermost darkness.
Pride Incarnate and Humility Incarnate.
The Son of God was the Word, who was in the beginning with God, and was God. But though he possessed that equality he did not esteem it a thing to be grasped after, but he emptied himself of the glory that was his own. The other glorious being, exalted though he was among the hosts of God, was not in the form of God; he was but a creature of the Most High. But he essayed to grasp the equality that was not his: “I will make myself like the Most High.” Mark now the terrific climax in each of these descriptions. The Son of God in becoming the Son of man took step after step in his humiliation, lower and lower, until he touched the bottom in the cursed death of the cross: “becoming obedient unto death, yea, the death of the cross.” Then immediately follows this word: “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” Satan sought to climb higher and higher until his ambition reached after the Godhead: “I will make myself like the Most High.” Immediately follows this word: “Thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the uttermost parts of the pit.”
There is more in the passages, however, than these two tremendous contrasts of humiliation and attempted exaltation, and then of exaltation and uttermost destruction. Jesus told his followers that he was sending them into the world as the Father sent him. His great Adversary likewise sends men into the world to carry out the spirit of his ambition. So he came to our first parents in the garden, and the temptation was that they should imitate him in seeking to be like God. They fell before the temptation and the sin was, essentially, a declaration of independence of God. From that day on every sin, whether the sin of an unbeliever or the sin of a born-again Christian, has resulted because of this independence of God. The conflict of that eternal world has thus been projected into the world of men. The Son of God and the Prince of demons are contending for this world, and the principles underlying the conflict are clearly set forth in these passages that have been before us.
Satan’s Coming Man
This conflict is to have a climax. The sin of man will head up in the Man of Sin. This is he who shall come in the spirit and power of Satan, the false Messiah. Jesus forewarned of his coming, when he said: “I am come in my Father’s name, and ye receive me not: if another shall come in his own name, him ye will receive” (John 5:43). The Isaiah passage describes not only the scene in heaven when Satan reached after the throne of God, but it foreshadows the Man of Sin on earth, “the son of perdition, he that opposeth and exalteth himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped; so that he sitteth in the temple of God, setting himself forth as God ... even he, whose coming is according to the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, and with all deceit of unrighteousness for them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God sendeth them a working of error, that they should believe a lie” (2 Thess. 2:3, 4, 9-11).
Man’s Final Religion
The spirit of Satan, then, finds its climax in the worship of man, rather than the worship of God. Here is the heart of all sin. This is the central lie of Satan by which he deceives men. The final religion of man, before the coming of the Lord Jesus to earth again, will be the religion of humanity, the worship of man as the only deity. Paul brings all men who reject God’s revelation under this condemnation: “They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.”
We have been speaking of the great conflict of the ages between Jesus and his Adversary, the conflict that underlies the raging of the nations to-day, as Satan works out his plan to put the creature in the place of the Creator, to send that one, inspired of Satan, who will come in his own name and who will be received because he comes as man. But this same conflict goes on in each individual life.
Every man, because God has given him free will, must make his choice as to which of these he will follow, the Son of man, or the Man of Sin. Even the Christian, who has made his choice, will find constantly before him the possibility of serving in the spirit of his Lord or in the spirit of Satan.
When the Christian is not serving after the example of the Lord Jesus, let him ponder this well,—that he is serving after the spirit of Satan. How startled must Peter have been when the Lord not only told him he savored of the things of men (the spirit of Satan), but actually addressed him as Satan, knowing that it was the great Adversary he was meeting again in one of his loved disciples. Very often is it true of Christians that “ye know not what spirit ye are of.” Is it too much to say that much of the service that is being offered to-day in the name of Christ, by followers of His, is mixed with the spirit of the evil one?
Testing Our Service
What is that spirit of the evil one? It is written large in the two words that stand out in that Isaiah passage: “I WILL.” Set these words against those other words: “Not my will, but thine.” Now let us set these words against our own Christian service and answer the question as to whether it is after the example of the Son of man. What is it to have the mind of Christ?
In three respects is there danger that our Christian service shall lack the mind of Christ. We may work zealously in the energy of the flesh. The old self-life is not reckoned dead, crucified with Christ. If we have the mind of Christ we must become conformed to his death, even as he was obedient unto the death of the cross. There are thousands of Christians who are doing good things but doing them in the energy of the flesh, without the Spirit of God. If we would have the mind of Christ we must have that old self-life crucified, for Christian service done in the flesh cannot please God.
Consecrated Christians who have really surrendered the old self-life may work zealously in the energy of the soul. There is the danger of forcing results that look good but are really not the product of the Spirit of God. Service after the example of Christ is done wholly by the power of Another. He said “not my will, but thine,” and was ready to hold to this when the following of the will of God seemed to mean failure. There is the danger that Christian workers to-day, lured by the example of the success of the children of the world in their undertakings, will go after the same sort of great, showy results in the eyes of men, in their spiritual matters. This is not after the mind of Christ, but partakes of that other mind which says “I WILL.” The mind of Christ will care for no results except those that are the product of the Spirit. And in securing these the eyes will not be upon results but upon the Master, to seek his will in every matter of service, leaving with him the results and the rewards.
Defilement of the Spirit
The third danger, most subtle of all, and pervading all, is pride, the exaltation of the human. And this is the temptation that Satan often successfully uses upon the spiritual Christian who has gotten beyond serving in the energy of the flesh or in the energy of the soul. We must cleanse ourselves of all defilement of flesh and of spirit. Serving “in lowliness of mind, each counting other better than himself,”—this is to have the mind of Christ. Serving in love that envieth not, that vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, that seeketh not its own,—this is to have the mind of Christ. It is at the other pole from pride.
How are we to have the mind of Christ? Not by looking at him as an example and trying to imitate him. There is real hopelessness in singing
Trying to walk in the steps of the Saviour,
Trying to follow our Saviour and King,
Shaping our lives by his blessed example....
For that is just what we cannot do—shape our lives by his example. When we are ready to stop “trying” to do this, and will yield ourselves that we may be conformed to his death, then our trying may be changed to trusting, we can “leave the miracle to him,” and returning to the beautiful hymn whose first verse makes a bad start, we can sing with new meaning the opening lines of the third verse:
Walking by faith in the steps of our Saviour,
Upward, still upward, we’ll follow our Guide.