Developing the Mind of Christ for Lifelong Spiritual Transformation
- Jack Selcher
- Jan 21, 2025
- 3 min read
Updated: 6 hours ago
Summary
Early influences shape our thinking, but only Jesus provides a perfect model. Worldly values pull our minds toward pride and desire, yet Scripture calls us to renew our thinking through God’s Word and the Spirit. The mind of Christ aligns us with God’s priorities, shaping our attitudes, actions, and values. This lifelong transformation continues until we fully reflect Christ when we see Him face-to-face.
How Early Influences Shape Our Thinking
Our minds are like the Susquehanna River, where I usually fish. More than 200 tributaries feed it. Its water volume and quality are the sum of them all.
Despite hundreds of influences, a relatively few strong childhood forces shaped the channel of the river of our thoughts. Our parents or significant others in our young lives were most influential.
My father shaped how I think most by his teaching and modeling. For example, it is relatively easy for me to trust God because my father almost always kept his promises, and I expect my heavenly Father to do the same. My father didn’t turn molehill problems into mountains. Neither do I.
Why Jesus Must Be Our Ultimate Model
Nevertheless, neither my father nor his thinking was perfect. It is important to recognize the weaknesses of our human models because our thinking shapes our lives like a potter does a bowl. I need a better example than my father to think better. As a Christian, I have one—Jesus Himself. Christians have the mind of Christ. What does that mean?
The Pull of World-System Thinking
To complicate things, our sinful human nature pushes our thoughts predictably and repeatedly toward “a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions” (1 John 2:16). Jesus says none of these things will satisfy. He pursues none of them, and neither should we.
Achieving the Mind of Christ Through God’s Word
To be spiritually fruitful followers of Jesus, we must turn from the world-system-dominated thinking that 1 John 2:16 describes and think as He does. His values must be ours. That happens progressively as our minds absorb His word and reprogram how we think, feel, and act based on it. It is a life-long process.
Philippians 4:8 guides how we must think. “And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (NLT). That is how Jesus thinks.
Living With God’s Priorities in View
Because we have the mind of Christ, we understand what God is doing on planet Earth. He is bringing Himself glory, restoring creation to paradise, and saving sinners all along the way. With the mind of Christ, we join Him by giving God glory and seeking and saving lost people (Luke 19:10). We speak the truth in love. We believe God’s word is the final authority, and like Jesus, we say, “It is written” (Matthew 4). What matters to God matters to us more than world system values.
We adopt Jesus’ attitudes of humility, obedience to the Father (Philippians 2:5-8), compassion for the lost and hurting (Matthew 9:36), dependence on the Father (Luke 5:16), being full of grace and truth (John 1:14), and patiently loving others self-sacrificially.
In 1 Corinthians 2, The mind of Christ is not man’s wisdom (verses 5-6), but God-given divine discernment (v. 15) through the Holy Spirit (7, 10-12) and otherwise unknowable (v. 14). We must yield to the Holy Spirit’s leading (Ephesians 4:30) and permit Him to renew our thinking through the word of God (Romans 12:1-2) so we can evaluate all things (1 Corinthians 2:15).1
Growing Into Christlikeness Over Time
As Christ’s mind becomes ours, increasingly, we become more like Him until the day we see Him face-to-face and complete the transformation in the blink of an eye. “We will be like him, for we will see him as he really is” (1 John 3:2 NLT).
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