THE MIND
A. L. Forrest
Romans 8: 5–9; 1 Corinthians 2: 14–16; Philippians 2: 1–11
These scriptures refer to the mind. In the
first we have a reference to the mind of the flesh and, over against that, the mind of the Spirit.
In the second scripture we have a reference to the mind of Christ, and in the third the kind of mind that was in Him; Paul exhorts that it might be in us. The mind is a very important faculty, as being the way things enter into our hearts. It is the way that God has ordered that the truth should come to us. It comes firstly to our minds, and then, as we answer to that, by the Spirit’s power it becomes spiritual substance in our souls. That is what is normal as to the truth, that it comes into our minds and, if the Spirit has control there, as we assimilate the truth and work it out, it becomes spiritual substance in our souls. But it is a solemn fact that our minds also can be controlled by the flesh.
The flesh is that, with all of us, that the devil can work on, and that can affect our minds. So the apostle speaks here of the mind of the flesh, or a mind that is governed by that element in us that Satan can operate on. And then he speaks of the mind of the Spirit, that is, a mind controlled by a divine Person. And it is very important, dear brethren, that we should understand these two thoughts as to the mind, because there is a very great danger of our giving place to the mind of the flesh and neglecting the mind of the Spirit.
So that what Paul says is that the mind of the flesh is not according to God. It is enmity against God! It is a very solemn thing, that my mind can be exercised in the truth, but be exercised in a fleshly way, and if that is the case it is against God. I might speak of the truth, I might be able to quote the Scriptures and the ministry, and I might be able to put things out amongst the saints and be accepted, but it might be the mind of the flesh, and that would be against God. It will introduce an element of enmity against God, and that is a very solemn thing. We can see the terrible damage that has come in amongst the saints because the mind of the flesh has been allowed to operate, and the mind of the Spirit has been neglected. I am sure that all of us, dear brethren, would take that home to ourselves. Why were we so easily turned aside as to the practical working out of the truth?—claiming to have it, and indeed having it in some way in mental terms, but the power and the effect of it not operating with us. I think we would have to say that we have tended to give room to the fleshly mind which it says “is not subject to the law of God, for neither indeed can it be”.
You see, it is so subtle. I can speak of divine things; I can speak of the truth; I can even put the truth out, maybe in a way that is attractive to the brethren, and yet it may be the mind of the flesh. And it is a solemn thing that the truth, put out that way, will do damage amongst the saints. Or it may be that it is a question of the way I receive the truth. I allow the fleshly mind—my ability, what stems from me naturally to lay hold of the truth, and it becomes in me a mental power, not a spiritual power. And therefore there is no divine formation in my soul.
Now, as I said, I think we would all have to take the ground of having allowed that kind of mind. Discernment is by the Spirit, and if we have not a spiritual mind, if we have not allowed the Spirit to work with us in that area, we shall not discern what is the truth and what is error. So it is a question of what room I make for the Spirit, the way I allow the Spirit to operate in my mind. It is a question of taking what I hear, and what comes into my mind, to that divine Person. I learn to measure up what comes to me in the presence of a divine Person who will operate in my mind, so that I receive the truth in a spiritual way, as appreciating what comes from Christ, and not what comes from the mere human intellect. The Spirit will always glorify Christ, that is His service. If the ministry that is coming does not glorify Christ, dear brethren, it is not coming by way of the Spirit. It will be coming by the fleshly mind. But the mind of the Spirit is that the mind is controlled by the Spirit and is able to discern. Some of us were speaking as to what John says as to the Spirit—“Ye have the unction from the holy one, and ye know all things”, 1 John 2: 20. You see, the spiritual mind is able to discern what is coming from Christ, able to discern in the ministry that which will elevate Christ in our affections. The Spirit will always do that. The Lord says, “He shall glorify me, for he shall receive of mine and shall announce it to you”, John 16: 14.
So it is a simple test as to any ministry that comes to us, or anything that comes into our minds—Does it exalt Christ in my affections? That will be on the line of the Spirit. There is something mysterious about the spiritual mind, what is of the Spirit. I think, more than ever before, we need the Spirit. The day that we live in is a very wonderful one, possibly there has never been a day like it, not in the sense of the teaching or doctrine which we have had over the last 150 years, but more in the sense of divine formation in the hearts of the saints. I think there is a spiritual element beginning to be formed in the hearts of the saints that maybe we have not known before. And it must be by way of the mind of the Spirit, a mind that is controlled by spiritual impulses.
There will be something mysterious about persons who develop this way, something that even the enemy will not be able to understand, and that is why I referred to the scripture in Corinthians.
Paul says that he had not been able to speak to them as to spiritual persons but as to fleshly (1
Corinthians 3: 1). They had been moving on the line of the mind of the flesh and things had got into a terrible state in Corinth.
Now, dear brethren, we cannot shut our eyes to the state that is amongst us. The Lord in His grace and in His sovereign mercy has wrought a wonderful deliverance so that we have been brought to enjoy the truth in its purity. But we cannot ignore our present state. Nor could Paul ignore the state that was in Corinth. What he had to meet was the result of what came from the fleshly line. Great learning, great ability in teaching, ten thousand instructors in Christ, but no moral power, no power to meet things. What power have we to meet things? What power have we to meet the moral state? So Paul says that when he came to them, he “came not in excellency of word, or wisdom, announcing to you the testimony of God. For I did not judge it well to know anything among you save Jesus Christ, and him crucified”, 1
Corinthians 2: 1, 2. You can see the terrible exposure of the flesh in the crucifixion of Jesus.
And that is the way Paul came to Corinth. That was a spiritual way to come. Paul was a man who was spiritually formed, and so he approaches the state at Corinth as one who knows nothing. Who was more intelligent than Paul in the truth? Who could set the truth out more ably than Paul? But when he came to Corinth he came as knowing nothing save Jesus Christ and Him crucified.
You see, there is a certain mystery about the mind of the Spirit, and that is what is coming out in Paul in the way he approaches the state that was in Corinth. And we cannot shut our eyes to the present condition that is coming to light amongst the saints and just hope that it will go away.
It will not go away. It needs to be met, and it needs to be met morally, not intellectually. The state in Corinth had to be met morally. It had to be met in the power of the Spirit by a mind that was in the control of the Spirit. It could never be met by a fleshly mind. So the damage that had been done, the division that had been brought in amongst the saints, was caused by a fleshly mind. A fleshly mind will always divide the saints. The mind of the Spirit will bring them together. Paul loved the saints at Corinth. He loved them, and he respected them. When he starts his epistle he addresses it to “the assembly of God which is in Corinth”. That is how the mind of the Spirit, a spiritual mind, would regard the saints. How many dear brethren have been lost because we have moved in a way that is apart from the Spirit. It is not spiritual to lose the brethren. We were saying somewhere as to Corinth that, so far as we know, Paul did not lose anyone in Corinth. There was one man that had to come under discipline. But the discipline was effective because it was spiritually applied.
Where we read in Romans it says that if we have not the Spirit of Christ we are not of Him.
Think of a person trying to do something in the assembly of God who is not of Christ because he has not the Spirit of Christ. Christ is in glory. There is nothing impossible with Him. God has committed into His hand the whole range of administration as to the universe and He will administrate it in perfection. Christ is able for the administration. God has made Him the centre of the universe, and He is able for any matter. Do you think there is any matter that could arise in any locality for which Christ is not able? Do you think He would be baffled by any problem that comes in amongst the saints? Well, the Spirit, who is amongst us, is the Spirit of that Man, who is in glory. So Paul
says, “We have the mind of Christ”. Oh for the ability to bring in the mind of Christ in any matter that is troubling the saints!
So, as I said, Paul did not lose anyone in Corinth, and it was a terrible state there. I do not know that there would be anything quite like the state of Corinth today, though it may tend that way. Paul brought in the mind of Christ. He brought in discipline, and that may be necessary, but the discipline was effective. How much discipline there has been amongst us, dear brethren, that has never been effective, and the person has been lost. Discipline is never in view of a person being lost, but discipline applied in the power of the Spirit, by spiritual persons, has recovery in view. The Lord says, in speaking to the Father, that of those that He had given Him He had lost none, save the son of perdition. He loved those men, you know.
They were the men that the Father gave Him.
O, dear brethren, we need to learn to love the saints. We need to learn to love all of them, no matter what their state. And, if you love a person, you probably will not lose him. It is not that Paul would weaken the truth in any way. Paul maintained the truth, but he knew how to apply the truth in a spiritual way so that it became effective. If you try to apply the truth in a fleshly way it will never be effective. It will divide the brethren, it will lose the saints. There will be nothing effected. It has been said that divine principles in the hand of an unspiritual man are like a sword in the hand of a drunkard. If you try to apply divine principles in a fleshly way, you will do damage. You need the Spirit. We cannot do without the Spirit. The Spirit will never turn away from the truth. He will never deviate from the truth. He is the Spirit of truth. And yet there will be a certain way, a certain
flexibility, in the way the truth is applied.
It is a bit like the living creatures and the wheels that Ezekiel saw. He says they had straight feet and they went straight forward. That is like cutting in a straight line the word of truth, and we need to do that, not to deviate from the truth. But then it says that when they went, they went according to the Spirit. Where the Spirit was to go, they went. You see, there is a certain way the Spirit goes. It is not a fleshly way; it is not according to the reasoning of the human mind. It is not according to human wisdom. It is a spiritual way. The Lord says as to those born of the Spirit that it is like the wind. You can hear its voice, but whence it comes, and whither it goes, you know not. That is a spiritual man, you see. The human reasoning cannot follow him, but what he does is effective because it is the mind of Christ.
Well, Paul speaks here of the way he came to Corinth. The Spirit will never build you up in pride or in a fleshly way. What will come to light will be what is humble. And that is the way the great apostle approached the Corinthians. A humble man, knowing nothing amongst them but Jesus Christ, and Him crucified. He did not come, as he says, in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit. O, dear brethren, let us demonstrate the Spirit in the way we approach things. Now, as I have said, we have problems, and they will not go away by ignoring them. The way they will be met will be by spiritual persons who have the mind of Christ. Not persons who, in fleshly force and power, try to force their opinions on the saints. That is one of the works of the flesh in Galatians, schools of opinion. And that is what was happening in Corinth, persons lining themselves up with such a one and such a one, getting behind such an act, or such an act. That is not spiritual, that is not
the spiritual mind. The truth is the truth. It has its own power. You do not need to force the truth. Ecclesiastes tells us that if you are using a blunt axe, you have to apply more force. If you are working without the Spirit, beloved brethren, you will have to apply more force. That will be fleshly force, human force, human wisdom. But it says, “but wisdom is profitable to give success”, Ecclesiastes 10: 10.
So what Paul brings out here is that wisdom is in the Spirit. As we were saying, all that is needed is in Christ, and the Spirit has come from His presence and is continually bringing the things of Christ to us. Oh there is a wonderful spiritual supply of all that we need to meet every problem. It is a terrible thing to think that the enemy sometimes holds the saints at bay.
We reach what we think is an impasse, and we do not know what to do. We are impotent to meet the thing because, dear brethren, we are not spiritually formed. We have not learned what it is to bring the power of the Spirit to bear on matters. So we need to avoid, I think, this matter of lining up behind things—saying, I am behind this opinion, or I am behind that opinion. That is not spiritual. The Spirit will always follow the truth. He will be like the straight feet, going straight forward, and we are not to be turning one way or the other, but going where the Spirit goes. You can see the power of a spiritual man in a locality to meet the problems that come up.
So Paul says, “We speak wisdom among the perfect” (1 Corinthians 2: 6). Think of the wisdom that is needed in the assembly. But it is there, you see. It is there in spiritual persons, and available to the saints. “We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, that hidden wisdom which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory—which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory;) but according as it is written, Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man’s heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by his Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God” (1 Corinthians 2: 7–10).
You can see, beloved brethren, the tremendous power and resource that there is in the Spirit.
And it is the mind of Christ. That is how the mind of Christ operates in the assembly—by way of the Spirit. What a tremendous resource, even as it says, “the depths of God”. You can see that there is no problem that could arise in the assembly that could not be solved this way.
And if there are current matters that are unable to be solved it is because we are not spiritual. We are trying to approach things from a different direction—from the fleshly mind. But the Spirit will help us in all things. So Paul says he communicates spiritual things by spiritual means. You see how Paul is all the time bringing in the Spirit. This presses on my heart, dear brethren, that we need to learn to use the Spirit. We need to have the Spirit as a practical power in our lives—as a practical power as we do things in the assembly. We have had teaching as to the Spirit. We have had doctrine. But what do we know of that divine Person as a practical power working, as the power to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means? That is how Paul operated in Corinth. And then he says, “We have the mind of Christ”.
Now just to say a little as to that beautiful scripture in Philippians, because this is not exactly the power in which things are done. It is not exactly the wisdom, but it is the kind of mind, formed by the Spirit—it is the way things are
done. So Paul speaks of consolation of love, fellowship of the Spirit, bowels and compassions. Those are the features that the Spirit would bring to light amongst the saints. As the saints give themselves over to the Spirit what will come to light will be a beautiful humility; there will be quietness, there will be the consolation of love. What do we know of the consolation of love? This is what the Spirit will bring to light. Then the fellowship of the Spirit, to know that the Spirit is with you as amongst the saints; then bowels and compassions. You see, this is a question of divine formation. This is not human wisdom. It is not what comes from our minds. It is what is divinely formed in persons who have made way for the Spirit in every exercise, who have learned to take in the truth by the Spirit, learned to apply the truth to themselves, inwardly, learned what it is to work through moral questions, and learned to face up to things in their own lives and histories with the Spirit, so that the result becomes spiritual substance and formation in the soul.
That is what David did. It is the way he worked in Psalm 51. He says, “Take not the spirit of thy holiness from me” (Psalm 51: 11). And he says, “Thou wilt have truth in the inward parts”. You see how David allowed the searching of the Spirit in relation to his failure and his sin. Now that has happened with all of us. All of us have a moral history. We do not want to be afraid of our histories. Let us work them out with the Spirit and there will be something substantial formed from them. It is a wonderful thing that the Spirit is able to take our failures, our very breakdown, and as we face up to it He is able to bring in something that is formative, something substantial in our souls, something where love operates. He is able to produce with us a spirit of humility—not mock humility like you get in
Colossians 2: 18 where it speaks of persons doing their own will in humility. Not that; that is the flesh. The flesh is able to take on humble garb. It is so deceptive. Persons are able to do their own will in humility, and that is not of the Spirit. Real humility is like the mind of Christ. Paul says, “Let this mind be in you”, and he says, “Fulfil my joy, that ye may think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul”. If we are all governed by the Spirit, dear brethren, we shall all think the same thing. Divergence comes in because some of us are not governed by the Spirit, our minds are not held that way, so we are thinking different things.
“That ye may think the same thing, having the same love, joined in soul”; there is a beautiful oneness about the formation of the Spirit in the hearts of the saints. “Joined in soul”; not only joined in thought, but in the very soul of the saints there is a joining. Then, “thinking one thing”. Then Paul says, “Let nothing be in the spirit of strife or vain glory, but, in lowliness of mind, each esteeming the other as more excellent than themselves; regarding not each his own qualities, but each those of others also”. This is a spiritual mind. It is the mind that was in Christ Jesus. And then he goes on to speak of that mind, and the way it came out in Christ.
We can occupy our thoughts with that just for a few moments, and see the beautiful way in which Christ went down. We know the scripture. We have often read it and spoken of it. May it be that, as going over and over it, dear brethren, we see the way that mind came out in Christ. It is to come out in our relations towards one another; it is to come out in us in the way we do things. But let us view it and contemplate it objectively in Christ.
It says that He was subsisting in the form of
God. Think of that divine Person, equal in Deity in every way, God. And yet He emptied Himself. You could not think of anything greater, more exalted, more glorious, than Christ in His own place in the Deity, and yet emptying Himself. He came that way. That is how He came to us, by way of emptying Himself, taking a bondman’s form. Oh think of that divine Person taking a bondman’s form! If we are going to serve amongst the saints, let us be bondmen. We have seen, dear brethren, servants who have gotten out of their place. They did not retain a bondman’s form. Solomon says, “There is an evil that I have seen under the sun
… I have seen servants upon horses, and princes walking as servants upon the earth”, Ecclesiastes 10: 5–7. If we are going to serve the saints let us retain a bondman’s form. That is the way the Lord Jesus served here. Let us not get out of our place. Then, “Taking his place in the likeness of men; and having been found in figure as a man ...”—a beautiful reference to the way the Lord Jesus entered into the condition of things that we are in, sin apart. How close He came to men! How close He has come to us, beloved brethren, in the state that we belong to, entering feelingly into all that attaches to this area where we have to work things out and face sin and breakdown, He has entered feelingly into that. He was found in this area, in figure as a man. What a Man! What a mind!
He did not exalt Himself. He was found here in a bondman’s form, and in that position He humbled Himself. Oh, can we think of anything more wonderful, beloved brethren, than Jesus humbling Himself? Not only coming to associate Himself with us in our condition, sin apart, but to humble Himself. Think of the wonder of that mind, the mind of Christ, humbling Himself! Man does not do that. It is not natural to man to
do that. He has to be humbled, and God does that with us. Thank God for the way He humbles us! He will humble us through our histories. He will humble us through our failures, as to what we are personally, our sins; God uses them to humble us. Thank God for the way He does that. He will humble us in our failures in the assembly. He is humbling us right now, because there are matters that are not settled. God would use those things to humble us. But He did not have to humble Christ. He had the mind to go down. I am sure we need this kind of mind. If we are going to meet things, if we are going to do anything in the assembly, if we are going to have any power in the assembly, if we are going to be effective, we need this mind. “The mind … which was also in Christ Jesus ... becoming obedient even unto death, and that the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and granted him a name, that which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of heavenly and earthly and infernal beings, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to God the Father’s glory”. You can see how God has answered that mind that came out in Jesus. He will answer it in us, in giving us a place with Him in His glory, the assembly suited to that Person, every one of us, individually, suited to be with Christ. That mind is to come out in us, and it will be in the power of the Spirit.
That was what I had to say, beloved brethren, and I think what I have said is important. It may have been poorly put out, for one is but a feeble vessel, but I think it is of vital importance to us to make room for the Spirit, thereby getting the power to meet what needs to be met. Let us contemplate the mind that was in Christ Jesus, for His name’s sake.
Address at Plainfield
17 May 1980