Knowing The Mind Of Christ

Knowing the Mind of Christ TLC 6/01/03 1 Cor. 2:12

The Apostle Paul wrote to a Church at Corinth to correct some serious problems that existed in that church. The church was full of envy, strife, divisions, immorality, false teaching, and inconsistency.

Some were saying that they followed Paul, some were saying that they followed Appolos, some were saying that they followed Cepahs, and then there were others that said that they followed Christ. There were cliques in the church. There were big I’s and Little U’s. They were going to court against each other, and One man was having relations with his father’s wife. In other words that church was in a mess.

They were depending upon attendance rather than atonement.

They were depending on faithfulness rather than forgiveness.

They were depending upon denomination rather than regeneration.

They were depending upon membership rather than discipleship.

But inspite of their envy, their strife, their divisions, their immorality, their false teaching and inconsistiencies, they prided themselves in being super-spiritual. But Paul said, not only were they not super-spiritual, they were babes in Christ.

(Watch me now,) some of them were putting on a show, acting like they were holier than thou. They tried to mimic lifting up Holy hands. They tried to fake speaking in tongues. They tried to act like they were pure, Holy and undefiled.

They pretended that they were sanctified and filled with the Holy Ghost. And even though the members of the Corinthian church were gifted, they were carnal, immature and unspiritual.

Some of us today are still putting on a show. We are trying to appear spiritual, when in fact we are walking according to the flesh.

Isn’t it ironic that even today that there are many folk who act like they are so spiritual are actually still babes in Christ. Folk who have been in the church 20, 30 and 40 years, you would be surprised about the things that they don’t know about Christ.

Our relationship with Christ is spiritual. Our new nature receives from the Spirit of God a new position in Christ. We are no longer under the law of sin but we are new creatures in Christ Jesus.

Man is a triune being, “body, soul, and spirit.” The natural man, which is the flesh, is under the dominion of the soul, I call that the animal life. The spirit must be born again before we can comprehend the things of the spirit. The things of the spirit is foolishness to a person who is under the animal life.

Those under the animal life thinks that its foolish for us to get up early on a hot Sunday morning and put on a suit and necktie and to put on stockings and a dress to come out here to this place to worship the Lord.

Those under the animal life thinks it’s foolish for you to give your money to the church in tithes and offerings. Those under the animal life thinks its foolish to pray to a God that you cannot see. Those under the animal life thinks it’s foolish to follow the man of God who is no more than a man just like yourself. Those under the animal life thinks it’s foolish to give God some praise.

The word spiritual means “pertaining to the spirit”. In order for a person to be spiritual, they must be indwelt, filled, taught, and lead by the Spirit of God. Paul says in Galatians 5:25, “If we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the spirit.” The word “walk” in the Greek means to march with, to keep step with. It is a military term which implies following a leader or commander. For us to be truly spiritual we must march in step with the Holy Spirit and let him control our lives.

The goal of this message is to challenge us at Truth and Light to be for real in Christ and not only to be for real in Christ but to be for real with Christ.

There are three things I want to point out this morning to let us know what true spirituality really is.

I. True Spirituality means living for the Savior. Notice I didn’t say living for me, Pastor Johnson, nor living for Elder xxxxxx, but I’m talking about living for the saviour. For Paul, Christ was the reason for living. The man or woman who lives for Christ has everything to live for. Life is worth living only when we live for Christ. He can bring meaning and purpose to life. We ought to get to a point where we say for God I’ll live and for God I’ll surely die.

Some folk maybe living for money and possessions? But when death comes what will they have. The bible says what does it profit a man to gain this whole world and loose his soul.