EQUIP YOURSELF WITH THE
ATTITUDE OF CHRIST
Pastor Calvin Tan
July 9, 2006
During
the days of American slavery, teaching a slave to read or write was considered
a crime. The slave-code made learning difficult for the slave—if not
impossible. Why was this so? Seeking to keep the upper
hand, the cruel slave owners refused to allow the light of knowledge to enter
the minds of their slaves. Most probably, the slave owners feared
that if slaves could read and write, it would only be a matter of time before
their slaves would rise up and revolt. To prevent this possible
outbreak, the slave owners ruled with an intimidating hand. It was a
hand that attempted to squash any attempt for the slaves to gain an education. The
slave owners wanted to maintain their power by keeping their slaves
ignorant—uninformed of the vast amount of knowledge that was awaiting them.
In
the same way, Satan will do anything in his power to keep you ignorant of what
God thinks, of having the mind of Christ. The adversary has covered
the minds of many people in today's world. How can you keep your
focus upon Christ when the world teaches people...· to ignore God's will · to
always put self first · to compromise with sin · to fit in with unbelievers · to
water down the gospel, robbing the lost from hearing the truth
Living
for Jesus Christ is not easy. When we live for Christ, really live righteous
and godly lives, the unbelievers of the world reject us. They want little to do
with pure righteousness and pure godliness. A godly life convicts them and
demands that they live like God or else face His judgment. Therefore, the world
often ridicules, mocks, abuses, and sometimes kills the genuine believer. How
can the believer handle and conquer such persecution when he is so unjustly
treated? There is one way: he should equip himself with the attitude and mind
of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ suffered persecution to the ultimate degree. He
has shown us how to handle and conquer persecution. Therefore, equip yourself
with the attitude and mind of Christ.
1. IT IS DYING TO
SELF—DENYING YOURSELF—AND CEASING FROM
SIN (v. 1).
Equip
yourself with the attitude and mind of Christ. What does this mean? First, it
means to die to self; to deny yourself. Jesus Christ
denied Himself to the ultimate degree: He suffered for us in the flesh. Jesus
Christ lived a pure and righteous life and men persecuted Him for it. But He
bore the humiliation, ridicule, mockery, beatings, and even death in order to
please God and to save men. In the flesh He did not want to suffer. He had a
flesh just like ours, the flesh of humanity; therefore, His flesh wanted and
desired to escape the abuse of men (Hebrews 2:14-15).
But Jesus Christ denied Himself and went ahead and did the will of God. The
exhortation is strong:
"Now,
you do the same thing. Equip yourself with the attitude and mind of Christ. You
are in a warfare with the desires and lusts of the flesh
and they are going to destroy you unless you conquer them. Therefore, you must
arm yourself; you must put on the armor that will protect you." What is
that armor?
Þ The mind of Christ, the very same mind that delivered and saved Christ.
Christ kept His mind and thoughts upon righteousness and salvation. Therefore,
Christ gave Himself up—denied Himself—and suffered for us. We must do the same:
we must keep our minds upon righteousness and salvation. We must die to self
and suffer for Christ. We must become identified with Christ in His self-denial
and suffering of death. We must identify with Him by denying ourselves and
suffering for His name. Jesus Christ denied the desires of the flesh in order
to please God and to save us. We are to do the same; our minds and thoughts are
to be armed, that is, clothed, with the very armor of Christ's mind.
Note
one other significant fact: the person who suffers in the flesh has "ceased
from sin." What does this mean? When the world persecutes us, we do
not want to suffer and bear the judgment of ridicule, mockery, and abuse of
men. Now if we give in to the fleshly desires and go along with the world, we
sin and doom ourselves. But if we arm ourselves with the attitude and mind of
Christ, deny our fleshly desires, suffering for Christ and for the salvation of
men, then we deny sin. We do just what Christ did: we deny sin and live
righteously. Our suffering for Christ has delivered us from sin and it has
caused us to cease from sin. We have done the right thing, and in doing the
right thing, we are delivered from sin. We are living righteously—all for
Christ and His cause.
Note
this: the more a person suffers for Christ, the closer he becomes to Christ;
and the closer he becomes to Christ, the more the desires and lusts of the
flesh (sin) lose their appeal and power over the person."Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign
in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto
sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and
your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:11-13).
2. IT IS DOING GOD'S WILL FOR THE REST OF
YOUR DAYS (v. 2).
Equip
yourself with the attitude and mind of Christ. What does this mean? Second, it
means to do the will of God—do it for the rest of your days. Note that the
phrase "lusts of men" is plural. It is the picture of the believer
being pulled every which way by different persons or groups. The believer is
being pulled to live like the world lives, fulfilling the desires and lusts of
the flesh. Men lust after the pleasures and possessions of the world... houses,
lands, wealth, position, power, recognition, drink, stimulation, partying,
recreation, excitement…..
Lusting
after these things is not the will of God. God's will is for believers to live
pure and righteous lives and to focus upon proclaiming the gospel of eternal
life to a lost and dying world. Genuine believers do this. They do not make the
lusts and desires of men the rule of their lives. The rule of their lives is
God. And note the Scripture: they have committed the rest of their days
to the will of God. This is what the attitude and mind of Christ means: just as
Christ was totally committed to the will of God, so we are to be totally
committed to the will of God. Just as His thoughts were consumed with God's
will, so our thoughts are to be consumed with God's will.
We are to arm ourselves with the very mind of Christ: we are to become consumed
in mind and thought with the will of God, not with the lusts of men. We are to
focus and concentrate upon living righteous lives and upon carrying the gospel
to every person in the world (1 Pet 4:6)."But
put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof" (Romans 13:14)."Teach
me to do thy will; for thou art my God: thy spirit is good; lead me into the
land of uprightness" (Psalm 143:10).
Doing
the will of God keeps us from going our own way. Have you reached a
place in your Christian walk where you can do God's business while trusting
that He will take care of yours? This story echoes
that thought.
"Queen
Elizabeth asked a rich English merchant to go on a mission for the
crown. The merchant [protested]....saying that such a long absence
would be fatal to his business. 'You take care of my business,'
replied the Queen, 'and I will take care of yours.'
"When
he returned, he found that through the patronage and care of the Queen, his
business had increased in volume and he was richer than when he
left. So every business can afford to place Christ's interests
first, for the promise is clear and unmistakable. Do Christ's will,
and He will look after your welfare." "But seek ye first
the
3. IT IS BEING FED UP
WITH SIN, KNOWING THAT YOU HAVE SINNED ENOUGH (v. 3).
Equip yourself with the
attitude and mind of Christ. What does this mean? Third, it means being fed up
with sin, knowing that you have sinned enough. The believer's life is divided
into two parts: his old life and his new life. Note the force of this
verse: in his old life, he sinned enough. He has already followed the
desires and lusts of the ungodly (Gentiles) enough. He has already worked the
will of the ungodly. He has walked after them, walked just as they walk, and
enough is enough. The believer is no longer to fulfill the desires of the
flesh. Note that six sins in particular are mentioned.
1. Lasciviousness:
filthiness, indecency, shamelessness, license, without restraint. A chief characteristic
of the behavior is open and shameless indecency. It means unrestrained evil
thoughts and behavior. It is giving in to brutish and lustful desires, a
readiness for any pleasure. It is a man who knows no restraint, a man who has
sinned so much that he no longer cares what people say or think. It is
something far more distasteful than just doing wrong. The man who misbehaves
usually tries to hide his wrong, but a lascivious man does not care who knows
about his exploits or shame. He wants; therefore he seeks to take and gratify.
Decency and opinion do not matter. Initially when he began to sin, he did as
all men do: he misbehaved in secret. But eventually, the sin got the best of
him—to the point that he no longer cared who saw or knew. He became the subject
of a master—the master of habit, of the thing itself. Men become the slaves of
such things as unbridled lust, wantonness, licentiousness, outrageousness,
shamelessness, insolence (Mark 7:22); wanton
manners, filthy words, indecent body movements, immoral handling of males and
females (Romans
13:13); public display of affection, carnality, gluttony, sexual immorality
"And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman,
burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is
unseemly [homosexuality], and receiving in themselves that recompence
of their error which was meet" (Romans 1:27).
2. Lusts:
the word means strong desire or craving and passion; it means that the pull of
sin is sometimes very, very strong. All men know what it is to lust after
things, after more and more, and never to be satisfied even after the things
are secured. "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts
thereof" (Romans
13:14).
3. Excess
of wine or drunkenness: it would include taking drink or drugs to affect
one's senses for lust or pleasure; becoming tipsy or intoxicated; partaking of
drugs; seeking to loosen moral restraint for bodily pleasure.
Drinking
and taking drugs have been around for thousands of years—they are nothing new
to this generation. The products themselves may change; the names
may be new; the methods of ingestion may vary. But one thing is
constant: they all affect your mind. Whether to a minor degree or completely
mind-altering, anything that diverts your attention from the mind or attitude
of Christ must be strictly guarded against. "And take heed to
yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and
drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you
unawares" (Luke
21:34).
4. Revellings: carousing; uncontrolled license,
indulgence, and pleasure; taking part in wild parties or in drinking parties or
in orgies; lying around indulging in feeding the lusts of the flesh. "For
the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the
Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and
abominable idolatries" (1 Peter 4:3).
5. Banquetings: drinking parties; partying and getting
drunk. "Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and
drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying"
(Romans 13:13).
6. Abominable
idolatries: the worship of idols, whether mental or made by man's hands;
the worship of some idea of what God is like, of an image of God within a
person's mind; the giving of one's primary devotion (time and energy) to
something other than God. "Mortify therefore your members which are
upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things'
sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience" (Col. 3:5-6).
4. IT IS BEARING THE
STRANGE LOOK BY THE WORLD (v. 4-5).
Equip
yourself with the attitude and mind of Christ. What does this mean? Fourth, it
means to bear the strange look of the world. This fact is easily understood and
it is often experienced by believers. The worldly just cannot understand...
Þ why a genuine believer separates himself from the world and does not
participate in its pleasures and in getting all of the possessions he can.
Þ why a genuine believer gives all he is and has to spreading the gospel
around the world and meeting the desperate needs of the world.
This
is particularly true if the believer participated in the pleasures and ways of
the world before his conversion. Once he has been converted and begins to
separate himself from his old life, his former associates begin to look at him
as a strange creature, and they often begin to speak evil of him. They
ridicule, mock, and withdraw from him because he no longer shares with them in
the drinking parties or in the crooked and covetous ways of the world.
Note:
the worldly and ungodly shall be judged. They shall give an account to Christ
for all their ridicule, abuse, and persecution of believers. And Scripture is
clear: Christ is ready to judge both the living and the dead."And before him shall be gathered all
nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats" (Matthew 25:32).
The
world does not understand a Christian believer's convictions. The
believer's drive is to please the Lord—as the world looks on and wonders what
to think.
Donald
Barnhouse gives us an example of a man who marched to
the beat of a different drum—Eric Liddell.
"In
the summer of 1924 the young Scot, Eric Liddell, faced two great moments of his
life: As a student of the ministry he was soon to be ordained; as an
aspiring sprinter he was favored to bring glory to England by winning the
100-meter dash at the Olympic games in Paris.
"When
Liddell discovered that this event was scheduled for a Sunday afternoon, it was
a crucial moment for him; he believed that it was not to the glory of God for
him to compete on Sunday. [Instead, Liddell changed his plans and entered a
different race, scheduled for a different day of the week.]
"The
young Scot made one major change in his daily round of study and athletic
practice; he dropped his customary nightly discussion with his
classmates. After the evening meal he left the dining hall,
disappeared, and returned to his room hours later, tired and spent. His
friends were perplexed, but he never told them where he went.
"The
whole world learned his secret, at the Olympics. Eric Liddell, received the Gold Medal as 400-meter champion.
"Eric
Liddell not only made a record for speed in the 400-meter class; he made a
record of God's work in a man's heart, and a testimony to
faithfulness. Eric Liddell was faithful in one thing,
and the Lord honored him in another."
The world looks and says,
"How strange!" God looks and says "How strong!"
5. IT IS FOLLOWING
THE EXAMPLE OF THOSE GONE BEFORE (v. 6).
Equip
yourself with the attitude and mind of Christ. What does this mean? Fifth, it
means to follow the example of believers who have gone before. God is going to
judge the world. This is the reason He has seen to it that the gospel be preached.
And note: the gospel was preached to believers who have already died.
Þ The gospel was preached in order to judge them while they were still men
in the flesh: preached to condemn them for living after the sinful and fleshly
ways of men; preached to convict them of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
Þ The gospel was preached in order to give them life, a
spiritual life just like God's life; a life that has the power to live in the
spirit forever and ever just like God; a life that is eternal just like God's
life.
The
point is this: believers who have gone on before you heard the gospel. They
heard the judgment and condemnation of the gospel while they were living on
earth, and they accepted the gospel. Therefore, they shall escape the judgment
to come (1 Peter 4:5).
They now live with God, possessing the very life of God Himself which is
eternal life. They shall live forever and ever with God. It is this that we are
to keep our minds upon. We are to arm ourselves with the example of those who
have gone on before. We must let the gospel judge and convict us of sin, and we
must repent. We must turn away from sin and turn to God. When we so respond to
the gospel, we receive the very life of God Himself. We shall live with God
forever and ever just like those who have gone on and now live in His presence."Verily, verily, I say unto you, He
that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent
me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life" (John 5:24).
There
are a host of things that seek to distract you from having the attitude and
mind of Christ. And there are many excuses why a Christian is not
properly equipped, but there are no good excuses. It is impossible
to live a victorious Christian life without equipping yourself with the
attitude and mind of Christ.