Finding the Mind of Christ

I am reading snatches of Dennis Kinlaw (The Mind of Christ, 1998, Francis Asbury Press) in my sitting times with Tommie.  Kinlaw was the protégé of Henry Clay Morrison, founder of Asbury College and Seminary. He was also a leading conservative Scholar and proponent of Wesleyan holiness. He makes a significant observation (64-65) that I find most interesting, one that it seems to me many current conservative Christian political pundits choose not to see or else naively overlook when they theologize/theorize about life on Main Street. Perhaps it is merely my political bias; I’d like to look at it.

“Dr K” diiscusses how the Gospel of Mark reveals 1) who Jesus really is, and  in the latter part of Mark 2) who we are in our human need.  “The next chapters,” he concludes, “detail Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. In chapter 14, Jesus predicts that all of the disciples will forsake him (v. 27). Two verses later, Peter denies that he ever will. Two verses after that, the other eleven deny that they will. And nineteen verses following that, the Bible says, ‘they all forsook him and fled.’ In the courtyard, Peter denies that he ever knew Jesus’ (14:66-72)

“This is no coincidence,” Kinlaw believes: “The first half of Mark reveals who Jesus is; the last half reveals who we are. It is a picture of human nature in its common form tainted with self-interest and lust for status” (emphasis mine). Take note he suggests: “that these problems of spiritual dissipation and the clamor for status nevertheless emerge in the intimate fellowship with Jesus and other disciples.

A person does not realize this self-centered bent so long as he lives in isolation. One needs to live in community to realize the problems in his own soul” (emphasis mine). Thus; Kinlaw defends Wesley’s motive for bands and classes as part of early Wesleyan worship: “a painful part of church life” (p. 66), which he describes as “necessary” as a way to teach holiness and go beyond being edified and on to experiencing examination and self-disclosure.

I well remember my seminary years when Professor/friend  Dr. John Drakeford borrowed my 14-volumes of Wesley when researching his  INTEGRITY THERAPY  (Small Group Therapy) Movement founded  in study with O. Hobart Mowrer, U of IL Research Professor.  I heard both Dr. Mowrer and his Professor-wife Mollie testify to the validity of this Wesleyan insight as related to examination and self-disclosure and their personal  experience.

One reason many find it so very difficult  to become a Christian today is that before one can truly find one’s self in Christ, one must process through that ugly insight that “all” (I) have sinned and fallen short of the glory  of God and deal with the issue of Confession. Mowrer acknowledged the importance of this concept that many evangelicals have thrown out with the bathwater (Mowrer’s language) because of their Protestant view of Confession as belonging to the Papal system.

Dr. Kinlaw proceeds biblically (p. 66) to show how theology is shaped in relationships (emphasis mine). He concludes chapter-4 with 3-laws of Christian discipleship: (1) Find out who Jesus is and learn his adequacy; (2) Find out who we are (I am) and realize our inadequacy; and (3) Find the Holy Spirit’s power to displace your human weakness. With the fullness of Christ (thus the book title: How Every Christian can have The Mind of Christ).

The signposts in Mark (8:33) point to Holy Spirit transformation found in Acts and Romans 8:1 where Paul confirms “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ  Jesus.”

At this point I ask: “Is it too big a stretch to acknowledge that God created us as social beings, and that as social beings we act and interact either socially or anti-socially? That seems totally rational to me and not over-simplified! Thus, I conclude that when I apply biblical theology to my life in the Market Place, I need to apply it in terms biblically acceptable rather than politically motivated; otherwise I go against all that Jesus taught, simply because Jesus definitely taught us to live relationally inside and outside the church doors. I perceive that for the Christian on the “far-right” to call social elements of our gospel relationships “Communist, pink, red, or other political terms only suggests to me at least that they are more politically guided rather than guided by the mind of the Christ who builds us up through our social relationships,

It is the ”mind of Christ” that I want! It is that choice that he has made me responsible for choosing. It is that choice he has given me the opportunity of selecting out of all the choices life offers. Kinlaw concludes his chapter with this summary of Mark: “The essence of Mark is summarized in Jesus’ statement of Mark 8:33, where he says in effect, ‘You do not think the way that God thinks.’ Not until the disciples received the baptism of the Holy Spirit would they be delivered from the enslavement of self-interest, the hallmark of the natural mind” (p. 68).

This is walkingwithwarner.blogspot.com

seeking the mind of Christ.