I Kings 3:5, 7, 9 (NIV) 5 At Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream, and God said, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." 7 "Now, O LORD my God, you have made your servant king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. 9 So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.
I Corinthians 2:16, 13:12 (NIV) 16"For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ. 13:12Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
If God would give you anything you wanted, what would you ask for? There was a time when God offered to give Solomon anything he wanted and he received the gift of an understanding heart to distinguish between right and wrong, between what is real and what is just talk, between what is important and what is trivial, and between what is on the surface and what is the truth beneath. Paul says we have received something more. We have the mind of Christ.
To have the mind of Christ is different from making a surface judgment. With the mind of Christ we can see beneath the pretenses, the dishonesty, and the outward appearances of things to see the truth and respond in the way Jesus would. Jesus could speak to a Samaritan woman and see that beneath her going from one man to the next there was a deep spiritual thirst. Jesus could see that Nicodemus, who came to Him just wanting a clear answer, really needed a life changing experience with God. He could see that a fickle disciple, Simon, could be a rock of stability whom He called Peter.
How often do we miss it? How often do we just not have a clue? We miss what is really going on and fail to see the hidden truth that God wants us to see? I am convinced that the seed of the mind of Christ grows best in the soil of the soul that knows how thoroughly God knows each one of us and how sympathetically and compassionately God knows us. God knows us so thoroughly, so completely, and with such love and sympathy and compassion that our mind cannot comprehend it and our hearts cannot contain it. Our experience of God fully knowing us will change our lives. When we have the mind of Christ we are sent out into the world so we can operate in the confusion and illusions and delusions of our time rooted in the wisdom of Christ, serving others with that wisdom and calling on others young and old to share that wisdom with us.
Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
From a sermon preached by Henry Dobbs Pope July 11, 1999
© Rhonda Hinkle Mitchell Broyles
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