Philippians 2
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus
I would like for you all to meet an interesting and controversial man. This is Neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero. Who is Sergio Canavero? Perhaps the headline of an article that appeared last year at IFLScience.com will help answer that: “Controversial Neurosurgeon Behind 2017’s ‘Head Transplant’ Now Working towards a Brain Transplant.” And then this charming subtitle: “The brain of an old person would be put into a body that is young.”
That is right. Sergio Canavero wants to do a full brain transplant.
Now, I am not great at matters of science. But, I must say, this is the kind of science I find fascinating. Listen to this:
Neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero hits headlines every now and then, usually due to claims about taking heads from one thing and placing them on the body of another. As well as several head transplants performed on animals, he has even claimed to have operated on humans—albeit dead ones—at Harbin Medical University in China in 2017.
“The first human transplant on human cadavers has been done,” Canavero said to The Telegraph after the dead human to dead human head transplant. “A full head swap between brain-dead organ donors is the next stage. And that is the final step for the formal head transplant for a medical condition which is imminent.”
Such claims have been met with skepticism by other neuroscientists and medical professionals. Author and neuroscientist Dean Burnett wrote in The Guardian that calling the head transplant a “success” as certain publications had, was a stretch.
“Call me a perfectionist if you must, but I genuinely think that any surgical procedure where the patients or subjects die before it even starts is really stretching the definition of ‘success’ to breaking point,” he wrote, adding that he may have “attached” major nerves and blood vessels between the two cadavers, but that’s a far cry from what you’d need to be able to achieve to conduct a head transplant.
“You can weld two halves of different cars together and call it a success if you like,” he added, “but if the moment you turn the key in the ignition the whole thing explodes, most would be hard pressed to back you up on your brilliance.”[1]
Canavero goes on to say that brain transplants are inevitable. The writer of the editorial scoffs at the idea.
I do not pretend to know if that is possible or not. As an ignorant outsider on such things, all I can say is I have questions! And, based on other articles, so do many others. But is a fascinating idea, even if it does sound like science fiction more than science: Putting a new brain in somebody and having it function.
Interestingly, the New Testament speaks of us getting a new mind, the mind of Christ. The mind is different than the brain, of course. The brain is an organ. We associate it with the mind and consider the two to be linked, but the mind involves the intangible aspects of thought and awareness.
The scriptures speak of our minds being renewed, being changed. This idea is so fundamental to the Christian life that we can say that one simply cannot walk The Jesus Way without having the mind of Christ. But what does this mean? How does this work? The key text for this is Philippians 2:5.
The Jesus Way cannot be walked without us having and exercising the mind of Christ.
The great text here is Philippians 2:5, a verse that marks the beginning of a section of scripture sometimes thought to be a hymn and referred to as “The Carmen Christi.”
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus
We are going to look very closely at this verse: its structure and its language and its meaning. But, at this point, let us simply make one very obvious observation: the mind of Christ is essential to us living out the life of Jesus.
Handley Moule, the Anglican Bishop of Durham in the early 1900s, wrote, “Nothing short of the ‘mind’ of the Head must be the ‘mind’ of the member…”[2]
Nothing short. We dare not profess Christ and seek any other mind than Christ’s mind. We dare not seek to manifest His character and His way outside of the exercise of His mind.
And what is this mind? Charles Erdman defined “the mind of Christ” as “his moral temper, his way of thinking, and specifically his humble and unselfish devotion.”[3] This is helpful.
So, we begin with a baseline conviction: We must have the mind of Christ. We must. There is no other way.
In Romans 8, Paul draws a radical distinction between the mind that kills and the mind that leads us to life. He writes:
5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. 6 For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
The mind out of which you are operating and the mind which controls and guides your life reveals the reality of your relationship with Jesus. Do you have His mind? Do you want His mind? Or is your mind set on the things of the flesh?
The mind of Christ is ours by virtue of our justification.
Take courage: The mind of Christ is available to you by virtue of your justification, of your being declared and reckoned righteous and saved in and through Jesus!
Here is how the English Standard Version renders Philippians 2:5:
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus
As it turns out, this is a challenging verse to translate, and there is a lot of discussion about how it should be best done. The challenge of translating our verse is that the second part of the verse actually does not have a verb. Gordon Fee gives the literal rendering of verse 5 as, “This mindset have ‘in you’ which also ‘in Christ Jesus.’”[4]
Do you see? The second half simply says, “which also in Christ Jesus.”
Some versions supply the word “was” to the second half. Others repeat the verb from the first half (“have this mind” or “think”) in the second half.
Richard Melick explains.
As the text stands, another verb is needed to make a complete statement, and some translators add “was.” The sense then is “have this mind in you which was in Christ Jesus.” Others repeated the main verb of the first part of the sentence for a translation like: “You think this in you which you think in Christ Jesus.” That means that the Philippians were exhorted to think properly as Christians, as those “in Christ Jesus.” This translation has much to commend it. Immediately, however, Paul appealed to the attitude of Christ, and the most natural reading is to understand Paul to say, “Think this in you which Christ thought in him.”[5]
Moisés Silva has pointed out that if the verb “(phroneite, you think)” from the first half of the verse is repeated in the second half then you end up with something like, “Think among you that which you also think in Christ Jesus.” Another rendering would be, “Think among yourselves as it is necessary to think in view of your corporate union with Christ.”
He points out that, in this reading, the phrase “‘which also in Christ Jesus’ is not a reference to the inner thoughts of Jesus but is rather to be taken in the usual sense of the Pauline formula…en Christo…” and so refers not to Jesus’s mindset within Himself that we imitate but to our positioning within Christ: We are in Christ and so have access to the mind of Christ.
Silva concludes that it is best to read the verse in this way: “Be so disposed toward one another as is proper for those who are united in Christ Jesus.” But he then adds something critically important:
Does this conclusion lead us to abandon the ethical interpretation of verses 6–11? By no means…Those who are united with Christ live as he did…and so the notion of Jesus as an ethical example is implicit in Phil. 2:5 by the very nature of the subject matter.[6]
In other words, if you supply the verb “was” in the second half it sounds like we are being asked to study how Jesus thought and acted and then do the same. This is the ethical imitation view. But this is perhaps not the best translation. The best translation is likely something like the ESV has: “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.” Meaning, the verse is not emphasizing imitation. It is emphasizing possession. We are in Christ, so we have His mind by virtue of being in Him. N.T. Wright’s translation of this verse captures this idea:
5 This is how you should think among yourselves—with the mind that you have because you belong to the Messiah, Jesus[7]
But, as Silva pointed out, the fact that the verse is emphasizing our possession of the mind of Christ does not remove the call for ethical imitation. Rather, it is calling for us to live the life of Jesus out of the mind that we have by virtue of being in Christ.
It is emphasizing, then, what Paul emphasized in Colossians 3, when he wrote:
1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Do you see? Our “setting our minds on things that are above” is linked to our “having been raised by Christ.” Verse 3 is key: “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ.”
Hear, again, our verse:
5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus
“Which is yours in Christ Jesus.”
By grace through faith, we have been saved, justified, born again, and are therefore and thereby “in Christ Jesus.” So, His mind is “yours.” We can think His thoughts and live His life.
But our minds are renewed and brought into conformity with the mind of Christ through our journey of sanctification.
Even so, it is important that our minds be brought into subjection to Jesus day by day.
Here again, the distinction between justification (when you are saved) and sanctification (your daily walk with Jesus) comes into play.
One way to think through and understand what is happening here and elsewhere in the New Testament is to understand the distinction between “the positional” and “the progressive.” This might help:
- Justification: a positional reality of completion before God
- Sanctification: a progressive journey that is incremental in the world
Because Jesus has saved us, it can be said that we are declared righteous before the Father because of the merits of Jesus the Son. Yet, Christians are called to confess our sins and repent of our sins when we fall. Positionally, we are righteous. Progressively, we are becoming righteous.
Positionally, because of Jesus, we can say we “are saved.” Progressively, the scriptures can say that we “are being saved” (1 Corinthians 1:18).
And take the mind of Christ. Positionally, in our justification, the mind of Christ is ours. Yet, to Christians, Paul writes in Romans 12 that we need to reject conformity to the world by being “transformed by the renewal of your mind.” And, here, Paul mentions “testing” as part of this.
2 Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
In other words, while the mind of Christ is “ours” we are still called to reject the world and be renewed in our minds. Now this is a work of Christ, to be sure, but it is a work that we submit to and it is a work that, apparently, we can fight against if we immerse ourselves in “this world.”
This becomes even clearer in 1 Peter 1, when Peter writes:
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Notice that Peter repeats Paul’s language of not being “conformed” to that which is wicked. And we are to “prepare” our minds for action. We are to “be holy in all [our] conduct.”
Positionally, in your justification, you have the mind of Christ. Progressively, in your sanctification, you are growing into the mind of Christ, preparing your mind, rejecting sin, and being holy. This is a work of God, but it is not a work in which you are utterly passive.
Again, sanctification is not a magical act performed upon an unwilling, passive victim. It is a work of God to which we assent and in which we walk!
In Philippians 4, Paul calls upon us to judge the possible options for our thinking and choose the good and righteous!
8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.
“Think on these things.” We are to walk The Jesus Way. We are to have the mind of Christ. That mind is available to us, because Christ has made it available. But we can thwart our realization of this great gift by giving ourselves to the world instead of to the way of Jesus and by setting our minds on that which corrupts.
Saturate your mind in the ways and words and actions of Jesus, not as one standing outside and trying in your own efforts, but as one who has the mind of Christ operative in your life!
Wolfgang Musculus, a 16th–century reformer, summarized the meaning of our text like this:
If we are Christ’s and the Spirit of Christ lives in us, we ought not to think among ourselves the thoughts which characterize the children of this age, but we ought to imitate and portray that mind which was displayed in our head, Jesus Christ.[8]
Ask Jesus to help you embrace His mind. It is yours in Christ! Embrace it and reject that which frustrates or stymies your growth in it!
[1] https://www.iflscience.com/controversial-neurosurgeon-behind-2017-s-head-transplant-now-working-towards-a-brain-transplant-67058
[2] Quoted in Boice, James Montgomery. Philippians. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2000), p.112.
[3] Erdman, Charles R. The Epistle of Paul to the Philippians. (Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster Press, 1932), p.72.
[4] Fee, Gordon D. Philippians. The IVP New Testament Commentary Series. Series Editor Grant R. Osborne. Volume 11. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), p.91.
[5] Melick, Richard R., Jr. Philippians, Colossians, Philemon. The New American Commentary. Gen. Ed. David S. Dockery. Volume 32. (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1991), p.100.
[6] Silve, Moisés. Philippians. Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2005), 95–97.
[7] Wright, N. T. The New Testament for Everyone. Third Edition: A Fresh Translation (p. 378). Zondervan. Kindle Edition.
[8] Tomlin, Graham, ed. Philippians, Colossians. Reformation Commentary on Scripture. Gen. Ed. Timothy George. New Testament XI. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2013), p.44.