Having the Mind of Christ
1 Corinthians 2:16-3:9
Paul had quite a challenge with the Corinthian church which he had founded. He had gone off to evangelize elsewhere, planting new churches. He had hoped that during his stay, he had instilled enough of the ABC’s of the faith for the church to mature. They had had an excellent teacher in Apollos. Yet they showed by their behavior that not enough of it had been caught. They in many respects were more like they were before becoming Christians than after. They were treating Christianity as a philosophy rather than a way of life. They really did not know what being a Christian meant. So when Paul received word of the problems there, he took time from his busy schedule to address them. After greeting them and reminding them of who they were, he went on to describe and diagnose the problem, In chapter three, he begins to offer a remedy.
When we look at the 3rd chapter of 1 Corinthians, we need first look back at the end of the 2nd. Verse 16 emphatically states that we have the mind of Christ. The extra “we” with the indicative mood in Greek makes this clear. It says “We have the mind of Christ” rather than “We should have the mind of Christ.” Considering what was going on at Corinth with all their divisions, it would seem that Paul should have used the subjunctive “should” to show a desirable result that has yet to come into reality. But we are forced to deal with what Paul says here. He knew how to use the subjunctive mood in Greek.
Paul does at the beginning of chapter 3 affirm that even though they have the mind of Christ, they Corinthians were thinking carnally. He wished he could share the spiritual things of Christ, but their thinking was still infantile. They still had not been weaned. When we look at an infant, we realize that it is notoriously selfish. This is not a bad thing for an infant as it is totally dependent upon others for care. It needs to be able to express and act out in an attempt to communicate. Learning is a miraculous process, but it takes time. The infant brain has enormous capacity to learn. If you want to teach a child something, the earlier one starts the better. The child also has a digestive system which has to develop. It has no teeth. It cannot chew. Its’ stomach cannot digest complex food. God has provided mothers with the ability to fee their infants milk, which is easily digested and is perfectly nutritious.
However, the expectation is that the infant will develop. It should come to the point that it is weaned from milk and goes on to eat solid food. This was a time of great joy in Israel, as important to them as potty training is to us. Abraham and Sarah had a great feast when Isaac was weaned, for example. It would be wrong at this point to continue nursing. The need for relatively bland milk is over, and the baby is ready to move on to the joys of solid food.
In the ancient world, the metaphor of mile and solid food relating to the development of the child as a whole is well-known. It is used frequently in the New Testament. In particular, it was used to describe intellectual development. The infant does not at first understand. He or she hears sounds. The infant then associates certain sounds to a certain person. Then it begins to associate single words to objects. It is always a day to celebrate when the infant utters the first simple word like “da-da” or “ma-ma.” Then the child learns the difference between objects and actions. Then comes simple sentences. And so on. Soon the child learns ABC’s and then more complex orders of thought. It is such a miraculous process. But is takes time, and parents have to be patient. The same is true with new Christians who have been born again. The new Christian probably has little content for their faith. It is good to recognize God as Father and Jesus as Savior. Development takes time. Augustin did not become a great theologian overnight.
At the same time, there is reason for concern if a child’s progress seems abnormally slow. We don’t expect a newborn to talk, but if he or she is not talking after one year, it becomes an increasing cause for concern. Intervention is required in an attempt to move progress forward. This is what Paul was facing in Corinth. He had spent 18 months in founding the church. Then the learned Apollos taught them. But after this time, the Corinthians were still infantile in their understanding of the Christian faith. By this time Paul expected a degree of Christian maturity. But he found them acting as babies instead. He needed to intervene. He shows them that their party spirit proved that they still did not have the mind of Christ. Instead they were still drinking milk. The difference between the first birth and the new birth is that in the former, the infant learns from nothing. It has a wired set of behaviors but does not think. The new Christian, on the other hand, has a past. We had all learned a way of thinking, a way patterned after the world. This way of thinking becomes a wired behavior. But this behavior has to be unlearned before the new and spiritual way of thinking is established. This was not happening fast enough at Corinth. The new way of thinking had yet to replace the old.
Paul deals with this by showing the proper relationship between God, Paul and Apollos. The old way of thinking separated them into separate compartments. They thought they had to choose between Paul or Apollos. Paul goes to pains to show that Paul and Apollos were on the same team, preaching the same message and were both servants of God. Paul tells them that neither Paul nor Apollos were ultimately important. It would seem normal to have a special affinity for someone who was his or her spiritual father. And most of us can remember a special teacher who made a bigger difference in our life than others. But all teachers have the task of preparing their students for success in life. They all share in the same task. The same is true for teachers in the church.
Paul shows this by saying that his teaching task from God was to plant. He was an evangelist. He had a special gift for this. Apollos had the gift of watering, that is nurture. This is the twofold purpose of the church, to evangelize and to nurture, to give birth and to help the new babes in Christ mature. Both tasks are equally necessary. This is Paul’s description of the Great Commission in Matthew. Jesus taught His disciples to make disciples from all the Nations (Gentiles). They were to baptize in the name (singular) of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Baptism is the sign of entrance into a covenant community, a birth of sorts. He also commanded them to teach them everything that He had taught them, in other words, nurture. The workers in the church need to be engaged in either evangelism or nurture.
There is a very important word in the Greek sentence, the word translated “but.” “But God causes the increase.” “Alla” in Greek tells the Greek reader to replace the thought on the left side with the right. This emphasis then is not on the evangelism of Paul or the nurture of Apollos, but on God who gives the increase. It is all about Him! Here is the mind of Christ realized in the believers of the church. It is when we see that we all work together to glorify God that we come to maturity. We are no longer selfish. We are no longer seeking our own glory. This is teamwork in action.
Now let us go back to the original question of why Paul says “We have the mind of Christ as compared to “We should have the mind of Christ.” This is because the infant has already been gifted will all the means to attain maturity. The child already has a capable mind. It just needs to be developed properly. The believers at Corinth had already received all they needed at conversion to develop into mature Christians. They have this in very real potentiality. Now it is our responsibility to nurture and mature the faith, to turn it into actuality. And this for the glory of God.
We need to be patient with new Christians. I shuddered when I hear a song by Amy Grant named “You’re Just a Big, Fat Baby.” This has a very mocking tone about it. When is it good to mock children? And to disparage the King James Bible is to disparage what God has spoken. We might realize that the old English is hard to read today, but it is still God’s Word. In my opinion, it is still superior to many modern English translations. Paul tells Timothy that the man of God must be gentle and patient with the flock. They need to be encouraged rather than mocked. I have noticed in my long career the behavior of new Christians, including myself. They can be found reading the Bible. They might not understand it as they ought, but the Spirit has wired them for the true milk. How wonderful it is when a mature Christian has the same love for this Bible and will take the time to come aside the new Christian and guide them like Phillip did with the Ethiopian Eunuch. We are guilty of a grievous sin when we neglect Christian education. Yes, we must win them. But we do not stop there. It is hard to win them but harder to disciple them. There may be many soiled diapers. But if we don’t make Christians out of them, why are we even trying to win them at all. They are both necessary and part of the same Great Commission. But this task of nurture has been replaced by entertaining children who will also expect to be entertained in church when they become adults. “Evangelicals” used to know more about the Bible than anyone, but today, most “Atheists” know more of the Bible than our children. So do Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, and Episcopalians. It is shameful that we have become so ignorant. We need to encourage one another to pick up the Bible and read.
We have our division also. Would it not be wonderful if we could actualize the mind of Christ. Amen.
