1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

The Apostle is making two statements here, two statements that seem to contradict one another. In his first statement he asks:

who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him?

Let’s look at this statement first.

The Mind Of God Is Infinitely Unknowable

God is infinite in knowledge and wisdom. This is what makes God, God. The Apostle writes:

Romans 11:33-36 O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out! (34) For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been his counselor? (35) Or who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again? (36) For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen.

God, by definition, is unknowable. We know portions of Him as He has revealed in His Word. But if God were knowable, then God would cease being God. We can learn humans.

I have been married 42 years now (I think I got the number right) to a beautiful woman named Sherry. When we were first married we knew little of one another. We had a few fights in our early years as we got to know one another. But today she and I can almost read one another’s minds. It’s eerie at times. If you men would turn off the television and get to know your wives, you would learn and grow with them!

You cannot know God the same way you can learn to know your spouse. God is infinite. God knows all things. He knows EVERYTHING. Of Him, and to Him, and through Him are all things. God knows everything – and we can’t be God’s counselor. We often try to be His counselor, but it’s like a 2 year old trying to tell a parent something. Our God is infinite. Consider the immensity of God:

Isaiah 40:12-15 Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the hills in a balance? (13) Who hath directed the Spirit of the LORD, or being his counselor hath taught him? (14) With whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and shewed to him the way of understanding? (15) Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of the balance: behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing.

As humans, we often question, foolishly question, God. If you played chess with God He would always win, for He would know the move you were going to make before you ever set up the board. If you went fishing with God you would always catch a boatload, for He knows where the fish are and what they’re biting on. Remember this Bible story?

John 21:3-7 Simon Peter saith unto {the other disciples}, I go a fishing. They say unto him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into a ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing. 4 But when the morning was now come, Jesus stood on the shore: but the disciples knew not that it was Jesus. 5 Then Jesus saith unto them, Children, have ye any meat? They answered him, No. 6 And he said unto them, Cast the net on the right side of the ship, and ye shall find. They cast therefore, and now they were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. 7 Therefore that disciple whom Jesus loved saith unto Peter, It is the Lord. ..

The fish cannot hide from Jesus, the Son of God. Our God knows. No matter what happens to us in our lives, our God knows. Our God controls all things. Our God is, well, GOD! We cannot hide anything from God, for God knows both what you are thinking and who you are.

As humans we often wear masks – not coronavirus masks but masks to hide ourselves. We are hypocrites.

We hide our weaknesses, and smile through the pain, hoping to fool those around us.

But you can’t fool God!

1 Samuel 16:7 …. man looketh on the outward, appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

God knows what you’re thinking, and knows what you’re going to have for lunch today – or a thousand days from now. There is no mystery with God – He knows all! So when Paul asks “Who has known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him?” the answer to this question is “No one! No one can tell God anything, nor counsel Him, for He knows all things from the beginning to the end, and from the end to the beginning. God alone is God.”

God knows how everything fits together. As we go this life, we have highs and lows. We get surprised, and often hurt, by life. Yet nothing is a surprise to God. God says:

Isaiah 55:8-9 For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. 9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

We are not gods in thoughts nor in abilities. We often cannot control the things that happen around us. The trials, the catastrophes, the deaths, the diseases that have come on America, I believe much of it is a punishment from Almighty God. Read Psalm 2:1-7, and think of what God has said in light of what is happening in America today. If you applied Psalm 2:1-7 to America today, you could read …

“The Mainstream Media outlets rage, and Hollywood proposes vain and foolish things. The wealthy politicians sit together plotting against the Lord God and His Children, saying, “Let us throw away the truths of that old Bible, and cast off every law that God has established.” The Lord God Who sits in the Heavens laughs. The Lord God views them as nothing. Then shall He speak to them in His wrath, pouring out wild fires, and the Coronavirus, and Hurricanes, and floods. Our God shall vex them in His sore displeasure. Our God reigns! God has set His King upon the Holy Hill of Zion, Jesus Christ our Lord. Our God reigns!”

Beloved, I do not mean to add to or take away from God’s Scripture (Revelation 22:18-19), and I would not. I love my Lord too much to do so. But if you believe America is in a good place with the social justice warriors trying to take over the courts, and riots being justified by elected politicians as “just political protests”, then you are not in the Spirit. Just the other day I heard a woman chastise a CVS Pharmacy employee for calling the police on two black shoplifters. That is insanity – but insanity has gripped our nation. Why? Because we have gotten away from God.

The children are driving the bus, and can’t see over the dashboard!

We must, as God’s Church, and God’s nation, return to God and His Scripture. God knows best. His ways are best. Progressivism but another form of idolatry that is destroying our nation!

The Christ Follower Is Called To The Mind Of Christ

1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But WE have the mind of Christ.

The Bible says “WE have the mind of Christ”. Who has the mind of Christ? The Bible says WE. Well, who is WE?

The Mind Of Christ Is Not Found In Worldly Wisdom

First of all, the WE does not refer to THE WORLD’S WISDOM. It is NOT found in Progressive rhetoric, nor in Social Justice Concepts, or in the philosophies taught by colleges and universities.

1 Corinthians 2:4-7 And my speech and my preaching was NOT with enticing words of man’s wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: 5 that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. 6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught: 7 but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

The Apostle says the mind of Christ is NOT WITH ENTICING WORDS OF MAN’S WISDOM. In many Churches today the Pastor pushes a self help program or a power of positive thinking program as the solution to what ails you. That is not what will fix you. That is not what will fix America. The Apostle said:

1 Corinthians 1:17-20 Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. 18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. 19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. 20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?

The mind of Christ is not mud slinging, which is all we hear today on television. The mind of Christ is not lawlessness. The mind of Christ is not feelings. Beloved, God doesn’t care what you feel. I’m going to say this again – God doesn’t care what you FEEL! The world says:

Follow Your Heart
Do What Makes You Happy
Find Your Best Life
Just Do You

The mind of Christ is the opposite of what the world says. The mind of Christ is the Cross. The mind of Christ is not the flesh, but the Cross. When Jesus knew it was time to go to Calvary, the Scripture says:

Luke 9:51-53 And it came to pass, when the time was come that {Jesus} should be received up {that is, die on Calvary}, he steadfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, 52 and sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. 53 And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

The Bible says that Jesus “set His Face” (Greek στηρίζω stērízō, {pronounced stay-rid’-zo}) or better “turned resolutely to go to Jerusalem”. Jesus did not feel like going to Jerusalem to die for our sins. But Jesus Christ knew that He had to go to Jerusalem to die for our sins. The Bible tells us that our flesh (our “feels” or feelings) wars against the Spirit (Galatians 5:16-17). The mind of Christ was to heed God’s Word, and to go to Calvary for your sins and mine.

And I am so thankful that he did so.

So it is also with the Christian. The world shirks pain, runs from pain, is willing to do anything – ANYTHING – to avoid pain. But this is not the mind of Christ. The mind of Christ is the Cross. This why Jesus said:

Luke 9:22-24 The Son of man {that’s Jesus Christ, our Messiah} must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be slain, and be raised the third day {that’s Calvary} 23 And {Jesus} said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.

The wisdom of this world is “do anything, make government however big it needs to be … just don’t let me suffer”. The mind of Christ is “go to Calvary. As I went to Calvary and died for YOU, YOU go to Calvary and die for ME”.

The world considers this to be foolishness, but this is the way of salvation. God surrendered to our needs, and we surrender to God’s desires. Like Jesus surrendered Himself for us, we surrender ourselves. This is the mind of Christ. The madness that the philosophies of the world has unleashed upon our nation like Antifa and the Marxist BLM groups, these bring destruction. The mind of Christ does the opposite. We read in verse 7:

we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory

The mind of Christ – the Cross of Calvary – was ordained by God for OUR GLORY. It blesses us. It saves us. It raises us from the status of sinner, and makes us into Sons of God. It makes us into Saints! Oh praise God for that Old Rugged Cross!

‘Twas a life filled with aimless desperation

Without hope walked the shell of a man;

Then a hand with a nail print stretched downward,

Just one touch then a new life began.

And the old rugged cross made the difference

In a life bound for heartache and defeat;

I will praise Him forever and ever

For the cross made the difference for me.

The Mind of Christ Is Not Found In Political Power

WE have the mind of Christ. Beloved, the WE does not refer to Republican, Democrat, Libertarian, Socialist, Communist, or Marxist. It does not even refer to Independent. What does the Apostolic text say?

1 Corinthians 2:8-9 {the wisdom of God} which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. 9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.

Who was it that had Jesus Christ crucified? It was the politicians. Politicians on thrones. Politician behind pulpits. Politicians who were religious people. The Scribes and Pharisees suggested the Cross of Calvary, but it was the Sadducees and Herodians who, along with the Romans, carried it out. It was the darkness that tried to kill the light.

The irony of it all is that the Cross was ordained by God from before the foundation of the world. The Apostolic text states:

1 Peter 1:18-20 …. ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: 20 who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you

Politicians crucified Jesus – but they did so not knowing that they were being used by God to accomplish His purpose. Before God created the earth, before the first family was made, before the first nation ever became a nation, God the Father ordained His Son to die for our sins. When we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, we recognize that the Jesus Who has been loved of God from before the foundation of the world (John 17:24), was sacrificed by sinful men at the will of God the Father.

Beloved, the Christian saved by faith in Christ, the Christ Who died for sinners, that is the One Who has the mind of Christ. God gave His Son for us, so that we could be sons and daughters of God. God gave His Son for us “to bring many sons to glory”. Jesus Christ is:

Revelation 13:8 … the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

Hebrews 9:24-26 … Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 25 nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 26 for then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

Politicians cannot fix what ails our country. God can use politicians, just as He used Caiaphas the High Priest, Herod the King, and Pilate the Governor of Jerusalem to nail Christ to the Cross of Calvary. Oh yes, God can use the unbeliever to do His will, for God’s will is supreme. But the mind of Christ will not be found amongst politicians, unless that politician is a genuine Christian.

The Mind of Christ Comes To The
Spirit Indwelt Christian

1 Corinthians 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we {who believe} have the mind of Christ.

Word Study The word translated “HAVE” is the Present Active Indicative of the Greek ἔχω échō, {pronounced ekh’-o}, which means “to have and hold”. We who are Christians have and hold the mind of Christ. How do we have this? Read with me:

1 Corinthians 2:11-13 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. 13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

At the point of salvation – the day you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ – God imparted His Holy Spirit to you. The Calvary you claim as yours covers your sins. Because your sins are covered, God Himself is able to come to you, and indwell you.

Every Christian has received the Spirit of God. How do I know this? Because it is promised by Jesus. Jesus told His disciples (and us) that:

John 14:15-18 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17 even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.

When Christ went to the Cross of Calvary, He made a permanent covering for our sins. “Blessed is the one whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered” (Psalm 32:1). Jesus Christ is “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus Christ had no sin. But on Calvary, He took upon Himself our sins. We are told in

2 Corinthians 5:21:{God the Father} hath made {Jesus} to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

The vessel is cleansed by the Blood of Jesus Christ, and can now be indwelt by the Spirit.

The Spirit was not given to man while Christ walked the earth. He came but temporarily, and always left afterward. But when Christ – once and for all – paid the penalty of sin, this opened the door for the Spirit to come.

The Spirit is the promise of God unto you. The Spirit comes to teach us the mind of Christ. Jesus said:

John 15:26 … when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me:

The Spirit testifies of Christ. It is the Spirit of God Who gives us the mind of Christ. He does this through the precious Word of God, the Bible. The Spirit of Christ guides us into the truths of Scripture (John 16:13). Beloved,

Romans 8:8-11 they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10 And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

There are many who say “I am a Christian”, and yet are not, in truth, Christians. If you are a Christian the Spirit of God indwells you. If you are a Christian in name only, the Bible calls you a natural man. You are not supernatural, but natural. You are still Adam’s Child. Read the Apostolic Text:

1 Corinthians 2:14-15 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

Whether you are “natural” or “supernatural” is what will determine where your final destination is. If you belong to Jesus the bad times will come – but Jesus will see you through them.

I love the life story of Corrie Ten Boom. Corrie watched her entire family die in Ravensbrook concentration camp during World War II. In her book The Hiding Place, Corrie told about a conversation she had with her sister Betsy. Corrie asked Betsy, “How can we live in such a place?” Betsy replied, “{God has} given us the answer! Before we asked, as He always does! In the Bible this morning. Where was it? Read that part again!’ Rejoice always, pray constantly, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus. ‘That’s it, Corrie! That’s His answer. “Give thanks in all circumstances!” That’s what we can do. We can start right now to thank God for every single thing about this new barracks!’ I stared at her; then around me at the dark, foul-aired room. ‘Such as?’ I said.“The fleas, Corrie. Remember to thank God for the fleas”. Corrie though her sister was crazy, but she thanked God for the fleas anyway. Corrie and Betsy started a Bible study in their barracks, and the guards never disturbed them. This was strange, because the German guards often raped and molested pretty women. Yet they never came into Corrie’s barracks. Do you know why? Corrie later found out that it was because of the fleas – the guards were afraid of catching the fleas!

Our God is awesome! Do you know Him? Have you received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior? Does your life reflect your profession? If not, come to Jesus. Come into His open arms. He loves you, you know, and will bless you if you will give your lives to Him.

If you do know Him, Beloved, pick up the Book every day. Read it. Ask the Spirit within to guide you in applying it’s truths. And pray that God will make you more like Jesus every day. You are the hope of America. Be the light of Christ. In Jesus name I pray. Amen and Amen.