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“LET THIS MIND be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: BUT MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, and took upon Him the form of a SERVANT, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and became OBEDIENT unto death, even the death of the cross.” How often have we read through this portion of scripture? So many discussions have been had around these passages, which I also have felt blessed to take part in. Yet, recently, it has been hitting me as a most sobering challenge. The mind the Lord is speaking of here is no doubt the mind of Christ. Verse 5 begins this statement with, LET this mind… which ought to inform us, of a surety, that this mind will not work unless we LET it. The mind of Christ as described here is totally foreign to the natural mind of man. The truth is that they are vehemently opposed to one another. Every believer has a hard time coming to grips with this truth as they grow in the Lord. We often end up fighting against the mind of Christ without even knowing it. The reason for this is seen in that our soul often lives in the realm of human reasoning. There is no greater opponent to faith in Christ. I have heard it said that the opposite of faith is sight. I believe that this is so, because it is what we see that causes us to reason, and wars against what is not seen. So, then, our reasoning is often at war with the Word of the Lord. Oftentimes when I listen to other believers speak, I can hear them arguing with the mind of Christ. We all have walked in this realm of unbelief from time to time. I have recently seen that this denial of the faith which we proclaim needs to be repented of. Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. How many times have we heard people judge the degree of one’s faith in Christ by whether they get healed or not, or whether one is wealthy or poor? Such judgments are not the plumbline with which the Lord measures one’s faith. I’ve known many believers who are wealthy and prosper in the natural, as well as many who are poor in this world’s standards, yet I’ve seen both with a very similar problem. SELFISH PRIDE! A man’s life does not consist of the abundance of the things which he possesses, or of the lack of them, for that matter. All such judgments and comparisons are of the flesh, and war in the carnal mind against the mind of Christ. The problem we all have in common is one that we would like to ignore. It is one that causes one man to fall in love with one thing in life, and another to fall in love with something completely different. One man may like to build up a bigger construction company, and another may like to build a larger church. The only difference, perhaps, being that the one justifies his efforts by saying that He is working for the Lord, and the other may use the excuse of provision for his family’s future. Down either (of these), or for that matter, any other road, there is the desire of self-satisfaction.