Pride: A Postscript

The Mind of Christ for the Christian Mind

As Yogi Berra has observed, “It ain’t over till it’s over.” And that explains (or should I say, “helps to explain”) today’s post.

Since my last post, I’ve asked myself if I was too hasty to call an end to the series of posts on Pride. And, as Yoda exclaimed when he saw himself on 4K,

The reason for rethinking this is really pretty simple. Pride is a story whose ending will be witnessed by those who shall inherit the earth - “the meek.'“ Pride is an interloper in God’s order of life, and it will be weeded out of his new creation. Those who inherit the new heavens and the new earth will know the harmony resulting from created beings, human or otherwise, who know who they are and find joy in their station, esteeming themselves neither greater or lesser than they in fact are.

The one quality of life which fits these demands of the new creation is that which is offered to us now in this life. “The Mind of Christ.” Paul uses this phrase twice in his letters, and these references provide a fitting capstone to our story of Pride.

The first instance appears in 1 Corinthians 2.

The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him; and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself judged by no one. “For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.

In this chapter, Paul is making the case for preaching the gospel as he has, “without lofty words or wisdom” (2:1). What passed for wisdom in Corinth (both the city and the church) was antithetical to the gospel, which was scandalously weak for a Jewish audience, and scandalously foolish for a Gentile audience.

But, Paul argues, there is a wisdom in God’s ways which is discoverable by those indwelled by the Spirit of God. It is a wisdom decreed by God to flower and flourish in the glory of the redeemed; and the believer is enabled to discover this wisdom and rightly apply it in this present age.

This, or something like it, is the content of “the mind of Christ.” It entails a way of seeing life both ironically and redemptively. Ironically, because those with the mind of Christ see the foolishness of those who declare the gospel “foolish.” They recognize the truth expressed by Jesus in Mark 8:36

Whoever wants to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel will save it…

This person discovers that “the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men” (1 Corinthians 1:25)

But what does one actually do with this mind and this knowledge? Paul’s other reference to “the mind of Christ” appears in Philippians. “Have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus”, he says,

who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. (Philippians 2:6-8)

This description of “the mind of Christ” applies the discernment presupposed in 1 Corinthians 2, and puts it to work in the community of faith. In the context of Philippians, that mind is one which furthers the unity of the church in the defense of the gospel. This unity is both achieved and demonstrated by honoring the interests of others before one’s own (2:3-4). Far from being an intellectual property, the mind of Christ is one of humility. Indeed, the Greek word used by Paul in 2:3 (tapeinosophrune) combines two related qualities, “Lowly” and “Mind”.

The mind of Christ, then, represents life conducted from a position of the least privileged, and the most villified. This was the position of the cross-bearer, Jesus, and it is enjoined upon all members of his body. The model for life as a Christian in communion with others is Christ’s humility, and it is revealed by counting others’ interests greater than our own.

It is those who are thus “meek” who shall inherit the earth. Pride will end. And as C.S. Lewis observed in The Great Divorce, if we desire to enter heaven, we cannot bring with us even one souvenir of hell. For that is where Pride does end, once and for all.