Scripture Reading: Phil. 3:15-16; Gal. 5:25; 6:15-16
In Philippians 3 we have a revelation of a unique Person — the excellent, all-inclusive Christ. In this message we shall see that, as Christians, we should have the unique mind inwardly and the unique walk outwardly.
In verse 15 Paul says, as a word of conclusion to 3:1-14, “Let us therefore, as many as are full-grown, have this mind; and if in anything you are otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to you.” What does Paul mean by “this mind”? To answer this question we need to consider Paul’s word in verses 13 and 14: “Brothers, I do not yet reckon myself to have laid hold, but one thing — forgetting the things which are behind and stretching forward to the things which are before, I pursue toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” What Paul means by “this mind” is to have a mind to forget the things behind and to stretch forward to the things before in order to pursue toward the goal for the prize.
We have pointed out that the goal is to live, walk, and have our being absolutely out of the old creation and in God. This is the goal of the out-resurrection (v. 11). To pursue toward the goal of the out-resurrection is to pursue a life which is out of the old creation and wholly in God. This out-resurrection is actually Christ Himself in resurrection. We may also say that in His Person Christ portrays the out-resurrection. Before the incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection of Christ, there was no such portrait, for there was not yet such a thing as the out-resurrection. Before Christ’s incarnation, God had not been joined to His creation. But one day the Son of God came into the old creation. When He was crucified, He brought the entire old creation to the cross and nailed it there. Hence, through crucifixion, Christ terminated the old creation. Furthermore, when He was buried, He brought the old creation, which was symbolized by the graveclothes, with Him into the tomb. When He was resurrected, He left the graveclothes behind (John 20:6-7). This indicates that the old creation was left in the tomb. When Christ came forth in resurrection, He was a Person absolutely out of the old creation and in God. This is the meaning of the expression “the out-resurrection.” Christ attained to this out-resurrection through crucifixion and resurrection.
According to the New Testament, we should not separate the out-resurrection from the Person of Christ, for Christ Himself is actually the out-resurrection. This means that when we received the Lord Jesus, we also received the out-resurrection. However, throughout the centuries, from the first century until the present, this matter has not been proclaimed adequately. How we thank the Lord that, in His mercy, He has opened our eyes to see what is the out-resurrection from among the dead!
Having “this mind” is related to pursuing the out-resurrection. To have this mind is to have the understanding and realization that, as those who have been chosen, redeemed, and regenerated by God, we must pursue one thing — to have our living out of the old creation and in God. This means that our whole life should be in the out-resurrection. We have seen that this out-resurrection is actually the dear, precious, excellent Person of Christ, the very One who, through crucifixion and resurrection, has passed out of the old creation and has entered into God. This wonderful One is far more excellent than the angels. Angels still belong to the old creation. They have not experienced crucifixion or resurrection. But after Christ was crucified and buried, He was resurrected out of the old creation and into God. Have you ever heard such a description of the Lord Jesus? Hallelujah, Christ Himself is the reality of the out-resurrection! Now we must pursue a life which is this wonderful Person of Christ. With Paul we should be able to say, “To me to live is Christ” (1:21). Paul could also testify that he had been crucified with Christ and that Christ lived in him (Gal. 2:20). The very Christ who lived in Paul is the One who, in His own Person, is the out-resurrection.
As long as we have our living in the old creation, we do not live Christ, even if the things we do are very good. Suppose someone lives according to an ethical standard higher than that of Confucius. Nevertheless, such a living is not Christ; it is merely an ethical living, the living of ethics in the old creation. We must seek not only to overcome sins, but also to overcome the best aspects of the old creation, including the ethics of the old creation. We need to pursue toward the goal — the goal of the out-resurrection, which is our dear and excellent Christ Himself. What a blessing it is to see this! How blessed we would be in our family life if we pursued a life which is out of the old creation and in God.
We all need to have “this mind,” a mind to pursue Christ as the out-resurrection. For a young person to pursue this goal is not merely to improve his behavior or character or to become a better student. It is to live a life which is actually Christ Himself in resurrection. This is a life which is fully out of the old creation and in God. May we all have this unique mind.
In verse 15 Paul says that if in anything we are otherwise minded, this also God shall reveal to us. Being “otherwise minded” is common among Christians today. Christians have hundreds of different ways of thinking, understanding, and realizing matters. Oh, how many minds there are among believers! But Paul encourages us to have one mind, “this mind.”
Sometimes when I was preaching the gospel in China, others accused me of narrow-mindedness. They advised me not to say that Christ alone is the Savior. They claimed that it is too narrow-minded to preach that Jesus Christ is the unique Savior of mankind. I told them that, concerning Christ, I was not yet narrow-minded enough, that I needed to be narrowed down to nothing other than Christ Himself. Christians also have exhorted me not to be narrow-minded. In particular, they urged me not to say that the way we follow in the Lord’s recovery is the right way. I replied, “If this way is not right, I cannot follow it. But if it is the right way, I must both take it myself and encourage others to do so. Otherwise, I shall first cheat myself and then cheat other believers. You consider yourselves to be broad-minded. But actually you are cheating yourselves and others. You do not know the right way and you are not on it.” Concerning spiritual matters, God condemns man’s broad-mindedness. The Lord Jesus said that the gate is narrow and the way is constricted which leads unto life (Matt. 7:14).
According to the Bible, we have one God, one Lord, one Spirit, and one church. The emphasis in the Word is on oneness. There is one Creator and one Savior, and it is utterly devilish to teach otherwise.
The fact that Paul says that if we are otherwise minded, “this also God shall reveal” indicates that to be otherwise minded is to be lacking in revelation. If we are otherwise minded, we need revelation. For this reason, Paul does not say in verse 15 that God will teach us; instead, he says that God will reveal this to us.
Believers cannot have one mind simply by reading the Bible in letters. When the Lord Jesus came, the thirty-nine books of the Old Testament had already been written. But even though the religionists searched the Scriptures, they were not willing to come to Christ that they might have life. In John 5:39 and 40 the Lord Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life, and it is these that testify concerning Me; and you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life.” If we search the Scriptures without coming to the Lord, we shall have many different minds. Some may prefer Moses and others, Elijah or Jeremiah. Only when we come to Christ, the unique One, can we have one mind.
After His resurrection, the Lord said to His disciples, “These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me” (Luke 24:44). This indicates that in the Scriptures we need to see Christ.
The situation among Christians today is a repetition of that of the religionists when the Lord Jesus was on earth. In fact, today’s situation is worse. Now readers of the Bible have sixty-six books instead of thirty-nine. There are more “Pharisees,” “Sadducees,” and “scribes” today than in the first century, for there are many more readers of the Bible and more believers who are otherwise minded.
Although there are hundreds of different minds among Christians today, it is not our goal to unify the believers. However, when Christ, the unique Person, is revealed to us, we are unified in Him and by Him. In fact, He Himself is our unification.
Not only is it not our aim to try to unify the believers; actually we do not expect that a great number of believers will take the way of the Lord’s recovery. At the end of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus did not have a large following. According to Acts 1, only one hundred twenty were gathered together in that upper room in Jerusalem. It is not our goal to be warmly welcomed or to have a huge number. At this point, we need to be reminded that Paul did not write the book of Philippians at a time when he was welcomed by the multitudes. On the contrary, this Epistle was written when Paul was rejected, persecuted, and imprisoned.
Probably if millions of Christians took the way of the Lord’s recovery, the recovery would cease to exist. It would be terminated by the many different minds among the believers. The Lord’s recovery truly is a narrow way, a way difficult for most Christians to take. All those in the recovery must heed Paul’s word to have “this mind.”
We cannot deny that we have received revelation from the Lord concerning the all-inclusive Christ. Only God’s revelation can cause us to have “this mind,” the unique mind, the mind which was in Paul and in many who love the Lord Jesus and seek Him. This is a mind not to pursue a work or a movement, but to pursue a life which is absolutely out of the old creation and in God. This is the unique mind in Philippians 3.
“This mind” involves both a realization and a resolution to pursue toward the goal. The practice of religion and ethics is altogether different from the realization of God’s goal and the resolution to pursue it. To have this mind is to have a mind to pursue Christ in His resurrection that we may live Him as the out-resurrection. We all need such a mind, such a realization and resolution, that we may pursue toward this goal.
If we have the unique mind, we shall also have the unique walk. As human beings, we are under the control of our mind. It is the mind which directs the walk, not the walk that directs the mind. What we think governs what we say and do. Hence, our thinking directs and controls our entire life. This is the reason we need to be transformed by the renewing of the mind.
We have been falsely and slanderously accused of mind-bending. We by no means practice mind-bending, but we do promote the renewing of the mind. Our mind needs to be renewed in order to have a proper realization and resolution. Then our Christian walk will be directed by a mind which has been renewed by God.
The Greek word rendered walk in verse 16 is not the ordinary word for walk, but the word found also, for example, in Galatians 5:25. It is a very particular word, the verbal form of the noun element. At least one translation renders the Greek here as “to observe the elements.” The Greek word, stoicheo, derived from steicho, means to walk orderly, to march in military rank, to keep step. To walk in this way is to walk in a certain lane or path. This is a walk which is regulated like that of soldiers marching in cadence, who walk at the same time and in the same rhythm.
Some may wonder how it is possible for saints with different degrees of experience to walk in the same steps or in cadence. How, for example, can a brother with over fifty years’ experience in the Lord walk in the same steps as one who has recently been saved? Do not think that such a walk is impossible. The way of teaching in the Bible is different from that practiced in the worldly educational system. In schools there are different textbooks for students of different ages. As Christians, however, we have the Bible as our unique textbook. Both for those who, spiritually speaking, are in kindergarten and for those who are in graduate school, the Bible is our only textbook.
In verse 15 Paul refers to “as many as are full-grown.” This implies that some believers are more mature than others. But in verse 16 Paul goes on to say, “Only this, whereunto we have attained, by the same rule let us walk.” The words whereunto we have attained indicate that all the saints, regardless of their degree of maturity, are included. We all must walk by the same rule. Even the very youngest of the saints should walk the same path as those who are very mature. Concerning this, God’s mind is higher than ours. We all should have “this mind” and walk the same path.
Eventually we all shall be governed by the revelation of the unique mind and the unique walk. Then spontaneously we shall say, “Lord Jesus, I love You in a way I have never loved You before. Lord, in Your presence I resolve to pursue You as the out-resurrection. I want everything in my life to be out of the old creation and in God.” If we see this revelation and have this resolution, we shall have the unique walk controlled and directed by the unique mind.
Galatians 6:15 and 16 indicate that this unique walk is a walk by the rule of the new creation: “For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. And as many as shall walk by this rule, peace be upon them and mercy, even upon the Israel of God.” To walk by the rule of the new creation is to walk by the rule of the out-resurrection. If we walk by this rule, we shall be the true Israel of God.
The name Israel means “a prince of God.” We become a prince of God by having the unique mind which directs us to take the way of the unique walk, that is, to pursue toward the goal of the out-resurrection. Today the Lord desires to have a group of people pursuing this goal. May we all see the crucial importance of the unique mind directing the unique walk, and may we all pursue toward the unique goal — Christ as the out-resurrection.
