Unity of Mind In The Gospel
“Unity Of Mind In The Gospel”
--from March 10th --
--from March 10th --
Day 1
Read 1 Peter 2:9-12
Do you ever wake up just struggling with who you are? Sure you have, or you just haven’t identified that this was the struggle you were dealing with. It’s that age old battle of the mind. The biblical way of talking about it is saying that we exchange the truth for a lie, which is from the enemy. God’s ways and promises are replaced with half truths and lies that don’t live up to the promises. Peter just lays it out in a much stronger manner with his approach of declaring all the things that we are in this passage. It reads like a great rally statement that is needed to start every single day. It is like every day I wake up and get ready, and there is a montage of motivation playing to the background music that is getting me pumped for the day. But before we get too dramatic and too caught up in it, let’s really look at what Peter is trying to say. Think about these things:
What does it mean to be a royal priesthood?
Why does it matter that you are reminded that we are a “people for his own possession?”
When you think of a sojourner (a person temporarily in a place) and an exile (a person that is cast from a place), how does this work in what Peter is trying to explain to the readers?
How does this become your prayer?
Day 2
Read 2 Corinthians 5:11-21
“The Gospel” is a phrase that I plan to use over and over again in the next little while, especially this sermon series. The word literally means “good news” and the nature of it makes it a proclaimed message of triumph. It is like a king coming into a liberated city and proclaiming to the people of the city its liberation. This analogy works so well, but we stop short in its application so often. I often thought of the gospel being the thing that saved me and therefore goes on the shelf as the past event I have already experienced. But the good news of the city that was delivered changed the way the city had to, and got to, function. They were free and therefore some things are going to be changing around town! To leave up the posters and tax fees of the previous leader would be foolish and very confusing to anyone visiting the city or moving in.
So run with that analogy in your head, but root it in the idea that Paul is portraying here in 2 Corinthians. He wrote the letters to the church at Corinth as a way of correcting the church that was not living like the church. So the heart of everything he is writing is to remind them that they have been freed, changed, renewed, and repurposed. It was the mindset that they were living in that was not lining up to the Gospel. Paul’s point here is simple, the old is now new and you are an ambassador and a minister of reconciliation. So go out and live like that.
What is a minister of reconciliation and how does that impact your daily life?
What is an ambassador and therefore what is an ambassador for Christ?
What does Paul mean in saying that he regards no one according to the flesh in verse 16?
How does this become your prayer today?
“The Gospel” is a phrase that I plan to use over and over again in the next little while, especially this sermon series. The word literally means “good news” and the nature of it makes it a proclaimed message of triumph. It is like a king coming into a liberated city and proclaiming to the people of the city its liberation. This analogy works so well, but we stop short in its application so often. I often thought of the gospel being the thing that saved me and therefore goes on the shelf as the past event I have already experienced. But the good news of the city that was delivered changed the way the city had to, and got to, function. They were free and therefore some things are going to be changing around town! To leave up the posters and tax fees of the previous leader would be foolish and very confusing to anyone visiting the city or moving in.
So run with that analogy in your head, but root it in the idea that Paul is portraying here in 2 Corinthians. He wrote the letters to the church at Corinth as a way of correcting the church that was not living like the church. So the heart of everything he is writing is to remind them that they have been freed, changed, renewed, and repurposed. It was the mindset that they were living in that was not lining up to the Gospel. Paul’s point here is simple, the old is now new and you are an ambassador and a minister of reconciliation. So go out and live like that.
What is a minister of reconciliation and how does that impact your daily life?
What is an ambassador and therefore what is an ambassador for Christ?
What does Paul mean in saying that he regards no one according to the flesh in verse 16?
How does this become your prayer today?
Day 3
Read 2 Corinthians 6:14-18
We are not far removed from chapter 5, so don’t lose sight of what you have already unpacked and learned in this sermon and the days of devotions following. The reason is because I have often heard this verse used to be talking about dating someone that is not a Christian. Is that a good use? I think it is, but it is not the only use. Paul was making a general statement about relationships we do have control over. Yeah it is really great advice to consider that we are not yoked to someone that doesn’t believe like us, but you will also remember that Peter gave advice in 1 Peter 3 for the woman that found herself with a husband who did not believe like her. So if you are in that situation, it’s good news to know that there is a Gospel for it that is helpful, but according to Paul, you would do better to be careful not to get in that situation in the first place. That is a good application of this text, but now consider all the other applications that you should consider. What about a friend that you decide to be close with and therefore “yolk” your life together with theirs in sharing advice and help? It wouldn’t make sense to do that with someone that is not of “unity of mind in the gospel.”
But the real question then becomes how far do you take this? I mean, you can’t reach people with The Gospel if you shut everyone out, but then again, you can’t use the excuse of “trying to reach people” for every bad relationship you take on. This is the beginning of juggling with this passage.
For you personally, what are the relationships that you need to consider this teaching in at this moment?
How would you explain this idea to someone that does not believe like you?
In the context of this verse, what does the phrase “we are the temple of God” mean and what should you learn from that?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
We are not far removed from chapter 5, so don’t lose sight of what you have already unpacked and learned in this sermon and the days of devotions following. The reason is because I have often heard this verse used to be talking about dating someone that is not a Christian. Is that a good use? I think it is, but it is not the only use. Paul was making a general statement about relationships we do have control over. Yeah it is really great advice to consider that we are not yoked to someone that doesn’t believe like us, but you will also remember that Peter gave advice in 1 Peter 3 for the woman that found herself with a husband who did not believe like her. So if you are in that situation, it’s good news to know that there is a Gospel for it that is helpful, but according to Paul, you would do better to be careful not to get in that situation in the first place. That is a good application of this text, but now consider all the other applications that you should consider. What about a friend that you decide to be close with and therefore “yolk” your life together with theirs in sharing advice and help? It wouldn’t make sense to do that with someone that is not of “unity of mind in the gospel.”
But the real question then becomes how far do you take this? I mean, you can’t reach people with The Gospel if you shut everyone out, but then again, you can’t use the excuse of “trying to reach people” for every bad relationship you take on. This is the beginning of juggling with this passage.
For you personally, what are the relationships that you need to consider this teaching in at this moment?
How would you explain this idea to someone that does not believe like you?
In the context of this verse, what does the phrase “we are the temple of God” mean and what should you learn from that?
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 4
Read Philippians 2:1-11
You are surely tired of me bringing up this verse over and over again. I have to keep seeing it personally, because it helps me to stay focused and its application is for every day and season in my life. So I am back again to feed off it some more.
For our theme this week, we are talking about Unity of Mind in The Gospel. The illustration was given of the triangle. If you have God at the top angle of the triangle and the husband and wife on either side of the bottom angles of the triangle, and you move the husband and wife up the triangle toward God, then you will have a great illustration of the idea that getting closer to God will move the marriage closer together. That illustration serves on a different level of intimacy than most relationships, but the formula itself works the same. We are looking to be in full accord and of the same mind, the mind of Christ (verse 2). Paul wrote that we are to have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in Jesus. In other words, we get this when Jesus saves us. We get His “mind” according to these verses.
How do you grow in this mindset as you try to apply it to all of your relationships?
What does humility have to do with this mind and why is it a part of it?
Take a minute and read 1 Peter 3:8-17, our key text for this whole series, and compare the words used there that also show up in this passage.
How does this become part of your prayer today?
You are surely tired of me bringing up this verse over and over again. I have to keep seeing it personally, because it helps me to stay focused and its application is for every day and season in my life. So I am back again to feed off it some more.
For our theme this week, we are talking about Unity of Mind in The Gospel. The illustration was given of the triangle. If you have God at the top angle of the triangle and the husband and wife on either side of the bottom angles of the triangle, and you move the husband and wife up the triangle toward God, then you will have a great illustration of the idea that getting closer to God will move the marriage closer together. That illustration serves on a different level of intimacy than most relationships, but the formula itself works the same. We are looking to be in full accord and of the same mind, the mind of Christ (verse 2). Paul wrote that we are to have this mind among ourselves, which is ours in Jesus. In other words, we get this when Jesus saves us. We get His “mind” according to these verses.
How do you grow in this mindset as you try to apply it to all of your relationships?
What does humility have to do with this mind and why is it a part of it?
Take a minute and read 1 Peter 3:8-17, our key text for this whole series, and compare the words used there that also show up in this passage.
How does this become part of your prayer today?
Day 5
1 Peter 4:1-11
Notice the repeated pattern over and over again in the Bible that we have highlighted each day: Since Christ…, therefore think like this…. It’s the overlooked idea that salvation is what happens as we have our sins removed, but it is also how we are informed to live because of our new way of thinking. You have heard of rose-colored glasses? This is like saying salvation-themed glasses. To follow Jesus means that you change your thinking to Jesus like thinking. It’s a heart change, but that means a mind change also.
The end goal of this passage is the same as the others that Peter wrote earlier in the book: so that people will see how you are and that will draw them to glorify God. We do not do good things for good sake, but because doing good things, from a position of being saved, shows a Good God to the whole world. That is why Peter goes all the way from the extremes of drunkenness and origies, to the seeming lesser things of showing hospitality without grumbling. My daily decisions in how to live my life matter significantly because of what I claim to believe and because that is a reflection of God to the rest of the world.
What do you think that Peter means in verse 10?
What parts of your life need to have the applications of self-control and sober-minds?
What do you think verse 8 means?
How does this become part of your prayers today?
Notice the repeated pattern over and over again in the Bible that we have highlighted each day: Since Christ…, therefore think like this…. It’s the overlooked idea that salvation is what happens as we have our sins removed, but it is also how we are informed to live because of our new way of thinking. You have heard of rose-colored glasses? This is like saying salvation-themed glasses. To follow Jesus means that you change your thinking to Jesus like thinking. It’s a heart change, but that means a mind change also.
The end goal of this passage is the same as the others that Peter wrote earlier in the book: so that people will see how you are and that will draw them to glorify God. We do not do good things for good sake, but because doing good things, from a position of being saved, shows a Good God to the whole world. That is why Peter goes all the way from the extremes of drunkenness and origies, to the seeming lesser things of showing hospitality without grumbling. My daily decisions in how to live my life matter significantly because of what I claim to believe and because that is a reflection of God to the rest of the world.
What do you think that Peter means in verse 10?
What parts of your life need to have the applications of self-control and sober-minds?
What do you think verse 8 means?
How does this become part of your prayers today?
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