The Christian's Mind; Submissive, Convinced

In Paul’s letter to the Philippians, the word sin is not used, but there were problems in the Philippian church. Now, Philippians was not like Corinth—my, when you read 1 Corinthians and 2 Corinthians, it takes the roof right off of the church and shows all the problems that were down inside. Well, the Philippian church brought joy to Paul’s heart, but there were some problems.

In particular, there was the beginning of division. Philippians 4:2: I implore Euodia and I implore Syntyche to be of the same mind in the Lord. And I urge you also, true companion—this was probably the pastor of the church, some folks think it may have been Luke—help these women who labored with me in the gospel, with Clement also, and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the Book of Life. Here were two women in the church, they weren’t troublemakers, they were hard workers; they’d labored with Paul in building the church, but they disagreed on something. I don’t know what it was, we aren’t told, but there was the beginning of division in the church. 

And as a consequence, Paul was concerned about this, and in Philippians 2 he writes about the submissive mind. You see, the person with the submissive mind is a peacemaker. The person with the proud mind is a troublemaker. And Jesus said, blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the children of God. Therefore, says Philippians 2:1, therefore, if there is any consolation or encouragement in Christ—get your encouragement from Jesus Christ—if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy—now here’s the motivation for the Christian life. In other words, in verse one Paul is saying, just stop and realize what God’s done for you. Here you are creating problems in your home, in your church. Well, stop doing it. Just stop and realize what God has done for you. Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love—a love for one another and for Jesus—being of one accord and of one mind. 

Now, being like-minded doesn’t mean uniformity. We’re all different. We have different backgrounds, different genes and chromosomes, different gifts, different opportunities. We’re all different, but we have much in common. We have the mind of Christ, if we’ll only use it. We have the same love, the love of God. We are of one accord in the family of God because we’re the children of God. To have one mind means we want to glorify God. He says, let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind—ah, there’s the submissive mind.

And here’s the first mark of the submissive mind: let each esteem others better than himself, more important than himself. That word "better" carries the idea of more important. Let each of you look not only for his own interests. Now, if you don’t do that, you’ll die; you have to feed yourself and you have to clothe yourself and you’ve got to look both ways when you cross the street. He’s not saying we shouldn’t care for ourselves; what he’s saying is don’t stop there. Let each of you look not only on his own interests, but also for the interests of others. 

Now in verse three, he uses the word "others." In verse four, he uses the word "others." Philippians 2 tells us that the person with the submissive mind is thinking about others. Now, of course, this is like the Lord Jesus Christ, isn’t it? Let this mind be in you, this attitude, this outlook, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God—now that doesn’t mean that God has a shape, God is Spirit—it means He is God. Colossians 1:15 tells us that, doesn’t it? He is the image of the invisible God. Hebrews 1:3 tells us the same thing: who being the brightness of His glory and the express image of His person. So here is Jesus Christ, who is God, did not consider it robbery—and that word means something selfishly to hold on to—did not consider it something selfishly to hold on to, to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, emptied Himself. Let’s stop right there. The Lord Jesus Christ did that because He thinks of others. He is God. He made a decision not to hold on to something for Himself, but rather to come for the sake of others. 

You know, it’s a dangerous thing to think that all circumstances and people and events have to please us. Now, we live that way. We’re the center of the world. The traffic has to go in our direction, the lights have to change for our timing, the elevators have to be there when we walk into the building, the waitress cannot be late or or careless in her service and slow, the weather has to be the way we want it. Always amazes me when people talk so much about the weather—what can you do about it? 

Secondly, He is a servant. She is a servant. Philippians 2:7: He made Himself of no reputation, which means He emptied Himself, taking the form of a servant, not a sovereign, and came in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Jesus came as a servant, from heaven to earth, took upon Himself a body. He was the Master, He became the servant. He came to serve others. He came to serve people who didn’t deserve it. In the Greek world, servants were not held in very high esteem. Slaves did everything in Greece; people sat around and talked philosophy while the slaves did the hard work. But Jesus came as a slave. He came as a servant. Matthew 20:28: just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and how far did He go in this service? And to give His life a ransom for many. 

Thirdly, the person with the submissive mind sacrifices. He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Sacrifice. Throughout the Bible, you find that sacrifice and service go together. There’s no substitute. If you’re going to serve, you have to sacrifice. Just stop to think of what it means to be a servant, a slave. Paul and Timothy, servants of Jesus Christ. A slave has no will of his own. A slave is absolutely obligated; in fact, the Greek word for slave means to be bound. A slave cannot say no. Well, you and I are the servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He wills for us is the best thing for us, and we dare not say no. The slave of Jesus Christ sacrifices. Now Jesus was a sacrifice. Sacrifice and service go together. And if we expect other people to sacrifice for us, should we not in turn sacrifice for others? He became obedient to death, even the death of the cross. 

There’s a fourth characteristic of the submissive mind: the submissive mind glorifies God. Philippians 2:9-10: Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth; and then he goes on to say in Philippians 2:11: and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. You see, when we have the submissive mind that thinks of others, that sacrifices and serves, God gets the glory. 

Paul’s great concern was not that Paul be glorified, but that Jesus Christ be glorified. Just go through your Bible and pick out the people who had the submissive mind; they glorified God, and yet God in His time exalted them. I think of Joseph, who glorified God; Moses, Joshua, David—David who was a humble shepherd and God exalted him, and he glorified God. I think of the apostles, who were ordinary people called by God to do an extraordinary work, and we wouldn’t even have known about Peter or Andrew or John had it not been for Jesus. They sought to glorify God. 

Now let’s get right down to reality. One of the reasons we have trouble in our homes, in our Sunday school classes, in our churches, in fact throughout the whole world, is that everybody wants to be served. We all want to be on the throne, we all want to pick up the scepter—nobody wants to pick up the towel. And the happy mind, the joyful mind, is the one that is submissive to the Lord.

Now a submissive mind does not mean subjugation. It doesn’t mean that God makes a non-entity, a robot out of you. No, if you really want to have the fulfillment of your life, submit yourself completely to the Lord, and He will bring out of you all He put into you. Jesus Christ is the most wonderful Master in all the world. The submissive mind thinks of others. The submissive mind serves others and sacrifices for others, but not for the sake of others. No, the submissive mind does all of this to the glory of God.

Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. Paul writes that in Romans 14:5. He’s writing to a group of believers in Rome, in fact several assemblies of God’s people in Rome. And in these assemblies there was disagreement and division. They did not agree about diets, and they did not agree about days, and there was the possibility of problems. Let’s read Romans 14 beginning at Romans 14:1: Receive one who is weak in the faith, but not to disputes over doubtful things. For one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat, and let not him who does not eat judge him who eats, for God has received him. Who are you to judge another’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls. Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand. One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike. Let each be fully convinced in his own mind. 

As you can see, there were two groups of people in these assemblies, the weak and the strong. Now he’s not talking about mental or physical weakness, he’s talking about spiritual weakness and strength. There were those who had a strong conscience, they understood their liberty in Jesus Christ; there were those whose consciences were still weak, who were very, very fearful of stepping out into freedom. Now the weak lived by the Old Testament dietary law, they would not eat meat. Now, of course, the Old Testament Jews were permitted to eat certain kinds of meat, but just to be on the safe side, these people ate only vegetables. The strong ate all things. Now the weak were judging the strong and saying, you aren’t spiritual people, and the strong were despising the weak, saying, well you’re a bunch of babies, why don’t you grow up? 

When it comes to the fundamental doctrines of the faith, all Christians agreed. The weak Christians accepted the deity of Jesus Christ as did the strong Christians, the inspiration of the Bible, the atonement. All of the fundamental doctrines were accepted by both groups. He’s talking here about people who were using the word of God in a sinful way to accomplish their own selfish purposes. The problem here is not doctrine, the problem here is the matter of questionable practices. And of course we have this in the church today: the matter of fashions, what kind of clothing should people wear? Some people are divided over music, over Bible translations, over what days ought we to celebrate in the church year. And all of these things cause abrasiveness among the people of God. And we don’t want that, we want God’s people to be happy. 

Now Paul is not saying that we shouldn’t have standards for conduct. He’s not talking about that; he’s already discussed those things. He’s talking about divisions over questionable things where even the most spiritual Christians may not agree. Paul said now don’t dispute over these things. What are we going to do? Well, we have to develop what I call the convinced mind. What Paul talks about in Romans 14:5: let each be fully convinced in his own mind. Let’s answer three questions about the convinced mind. First, what is the convinced mind? Secondly, why is it important? And thirdly, how can we get it? 

Number one: what is the convinced mind? The convinced mind is the mind of the Christian that enables him to fellowship with believers who disagree with him. I want to repeat that. The convinced mind is that attitude, that outlook of the Christian that enables him to fellowship with believers who disagree with him. It enables him to obey the word of God.

Now Paul gives us in Romans 14 and 15 three admonitions. He said now you weak Christians and you strong Christians, you all have the same three responsibilities: receive one another, Romans 14:1; edify one another, Romans 14:19; and please one another, Romans 15:1-2. So the convinced mind is that outlook on life, on the Christian life, that enables me to receive those I disagree with—we can be members of the same church fellowship—edify them, seek to build them up in the Lord, and please them, not live to please myself. It’s a tragedy when I become the center of the universe. The convinced mind is that outlook on the Christian life that enables us to receive one another, edify one another, and please one another. 

Why is the convinced mind important? Well, it’s important in three ways. First, it’s important to me personally. If I’m going to be a mature Christian, I have to have a convinced mind. Now if I want to be a baby Christian who doesn’t grow and doesn’t use his liberty creatively in the Lord, I don’t need a convinced mind; all I need is somebody to tell me what to do. Give me a book or a list of things that are right and wrong, belong to a fellowship that tells you exactly what to do 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and then I don’t need a convinced mind. But if I want to be a mature Christian, I’ve got to have a convinced mind. I can’t go through life expecting everybody to agree with me. I have worked with a number of different churches and organizations, and I find that this attitude toward the closed mind is what creates problems. People are not open to God’s truth, they aren’t open to the fact that Christians can disagree with each other without being disagreeable. 

It’s important to have a convinced mind personally if we’re going to be mature Christians. It’s also important with reference to our influence on other Christians. We don’t live to ourselves. Paul makes that very clear, doesn’t he, in Romans 14:7: For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. We belong to each other and we belong to the Lord. Now if I’m going to be of a good influence on other Christians, I’ve got to have a convinced mind. If I have a convinced mind about these things, if God has given me convictions concerning these things, then I know where I stand. And if I know where I stand, I know how I can relate to those who disagree with me. 

Romans 14:13: Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother’s way. Now what I do may not hurt me, but it may hurt him. We grieve the brother, we make him weak, we make him stumble, and then after stumbling, he falls and there’s the danger of destroying him. The last part of Romans 14:15: Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. Here you are building yourself up and tearing him down. Romans 14:20: Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. It’s not worth it. The places where we go, the things that we do, they may not hurt us, but if they hurt somebody else, it’s not worth it. The convinced mind is important to us personally if we’re going to grow and be strong Christians. It’s important to others, especially weaker believers that we don’t want to cause to stumble. It’s important to the unity of the church. It’s a sad thing when the church is divided by these unnecessary, unessential things. 

Now question number three: how do you cultivate a convinced mind? Well, to begin with, test everything by the word of God. Romans 14:14: Paul says, I know and am convinced by the Lord Jesus that there is nothing unclean of itself. Now where’d he get that? He got it from the Lord Jesus. Matthew 15, Mark 7, when Jesus plainly said it’s not what goes into your mouth that defiles you, it’s what comes out of your mouth. He declared all foods clean. Now he repeated that in Acts 10 when he revealed that sheet full of different animals to the apostle Peter who was on top of the house resting, up on the housetop waiting for lunch to be prepared. So Paul says I have biblical, doctrinal basis for my conviction that all foods are clean. There are no clean foods, unclean foods. Likewise he says we can talk about other matters. We have the word of God.

How do we cultivate a convinced mind? Number one: test all of your convictions by the word of God. Number two: fellowship with God’s people. Don’t be isolated. You say, well if I can’t have it my way, if they don’t believe the way I believe, I’ll just go off someplace. No, don’t do that. Receive one another, edify one another. You say, well those weak Christians can’t edify me. Well, don’t look down your nose at them. You’d be amazed at what some of these Christians can do for you. Some of the greatest blessings you can get may well come from these who are not as strong as you are. So don’t be proud. Don’t think that your convictions must run everybody’s life. Receive one another, edify one another, please one another. This is why we have to have a convinced mind, so we can help the weaker Christians become stronger Christians, and then they can help other Christians become stronger Christians. Well, Paul admonishes us: let each be fully convinced in his own mind. And I trust that today you have, because of your study of the word of God, you have a convinced mind.