1“I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. 2Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 4Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. 5I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 6If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 7If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.
8“In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples. 9Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. 10If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. 11I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.
12“This is my commandment, that you love one another, even as I have loved you. 13Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. 14You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. 15No longer do I call you servants, for the servant doesn’t know what his lord does. But I have called you friends, for everything that I heard from my Father, I have made known to you. 16You didn’t choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatever you will ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
17“I command these things to you, that you may love one another. 18If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you. 19If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. 20Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. 21But they will do all these things to you for my name’s sake, because they don’t know him who sent me. 22If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have had sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23He who hates me, hates my Father also. 24If I hadn’t done among them the works which no one else did, they wouldn’t have had sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. 25But this happened so that the word may be fulfilled which was written in their law, ‘They hated me without a cause.’
26“When the Counselor has come, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will testify about me. 27You will also testify, because you have been with me from the beginning.
Having the Mind of Christ
Kneeling in Humility Before Christ
Paul tells us to have “this in your mind which was also in Christ Jesus.” And then, he begins to explain just exactly what kind of mind Jesus had. We must remember that scripture teaches us that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. This doesn’t mean Jesus stopped being God for a time period or anything like that. I have heard Dr. H. Wayne House (creator of the House Visual Study Bible) say something like, “It is amazing to contemplate that while Jesus was lying in the cradle, looking up into Mary’s eyes, He was a human baby in every way. He would grow up and need to learn how to feed Himself, clothe Himself, etc., and yet, as He lay there, as God, He was holding the entire universe together.” So the human Jesus chose for a time period to lay aside all the benefits of being a deity. In doing so, He adopted the role of a servant. He adopted the form of a human being. And as a human, he submitted Himself to the cruelties of mankind, allowing Himself to be put to death on a cross.
Paul says we are to have that kind of mind as believers. This means that we, too, must be willing to give up ourselves for others. Jesus Himself stated it when He said, “13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.” (John 15:13 WEB) Paul is challenging each of us to do something that is not natural. We are interested in self above all else, but Paul tells us that to have the mind of Christ, we must get our eyes off of self and put them on Christ. In doing so, we will be able to “esteem others above self.” He says this in the verses right before the challenge of having the mind of Christ. “3 doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself; 4 each of you not just looking to his own things, but each of you also to the things of others.”(v.3-4 WEB) Reader, at this point, you might be thinking, “well, all of this sounds very ideal, but how can I really do this in my life.”
The key to it all is humility. James tells us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. (James 4:6). Ask the Lord today to help you get your eyes off of yourself. It begins with not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. That’s not a complete definition of humility, but it is a good start. We are born ego-centric. That means our minds default to a position that puts us in the middle of things, focusing on “me and mine.” Part of taking up our cross daily and following Jesus is asking Him, through the transformation of our minds, to give us true humility that looks out for the benefit of others. With a transformed mind, we can shift our focus away from every thought, concern, and effort about ourselves. When we put our own agenda on hold, even for a few minutes in our day, we are laying down our life for a friend. That’s a wonderful thing to do. In doing so, you are having the “mind of Christ.”