The Christian Mind

Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed; for before certain men came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision. And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy. Galatians 2.11-13

The Christian Mind
Harry Blamires (1916-)
“We have behaved christianly, some of us; in cases even heroically and self-sacrificingly. We have prayed and worshiped christianly. Then we have gone back to talk politics with the politician, social welfare with the social worker, labour relations with the trade unionist, and we have emptied our brains of Christian vocabulary, Christian concepts, in advance, just to make sure that we should get fully in touch. Thus we have stepped mentally into secularism.”

The world has persuaded us that Christian faith is a personal matter. We can believe whatever we want, so long as we keep it to ourselves. And how gracious of our secular neighbors, that they allow us to travel among them, do business with them, educate our children in their schools, even participate in their elections. So long, that is, as, like Peter in Antioch, we don’t muddy their water with our radical ideas about Christ and His sovereignty over all of life. As Peter adopted the posture of the Judaizers, to maintain their friendship and support, so we assume the garb and language of secular materialism when it comes to life beyond the pale of our religious activities. We check the mind of Christ at the door whenever we must have conversation with unbelievers, thus betraying our true convictions, and confirming our secularist neighbors in theirs. This is not the way a Christian mind should function.

Choose a topic of contemporary interest in the world – the economy, the environment, politics, whatever. How many different ways can you think about this topic from the vantage point of the sovereign rule of King Jesus? What insights, thoughts, terms, or passages of Scripture come to mind? Do this exercise with a Christian friend.

Kingdom Vision
Two books can help you begin to strengthen your vision of Christ and His Kingdom. Order a copy of The Kingship of Jesus (click here) to grow in your understanding of what in the world Jesus is doing as He sits at the Father’s right hand. And what He’s doing is bringing His Kingdom to earth as it is in heaven, which is the subject of The Kingdom Turn (click here). Let these two books challenge your vision of what Christ can do as He makes disciples and builds His Church.

Renewing the Mind
We are currently running a multi-part series on Renewing the Mind in our daily ReVision series. The second installment is entitled, The Mature Mind, and is available as a free PDF download by clicking here. I urge you to follow this entire series. If you are not subscribed to ReVision, you can do so at the website. Or you can download each week’s PDF study in a format suitable for group or personal use.

Does the Lord want to use you to help support The Fellowship of Ailbe? Please look to Him in prayer over this question. You can contribute to The Fellowship of Ailbe by using the Contribute button at our website, or by sending your gift to The Fellowship of Ailbe, 19 Tyler Drive, Essex Junction, VT 05452. Thank you.

Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from The Christian Mind are from Harry Blamires, The Christian Mind (Ann Arbor: Servant Books, 1963, 1978).