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Last time I touched on the fact that the right brain learns how to return to its natural state of joy/peace by someone synchronizing emotionally with it and then demonstrating how to do it. The right brain learns primarily by imitation and so it is important to have others involved in our lives who care about us that we can imitate. The body of Christ is made up of people who are desiring to imitate Jesus in their spirit and actions and relationships and are being used by Him in turn to be mentors that can be imitated by those He puts into their sphere of love and influence. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another.
What I also see in this passage is a caveat to being of the same mind with others. While it is important for mentoring to synchronize emotions with one who is less mature in order to help them learn how to respond and act like themselves, we are not to extend that concept to reflecting negative emotions and attitudes with people who are mistreating us. There is a big difference between emotional synchronization for mentoring purposes and indulging in the temptation to react in kind when we are confronted with a wrong spirit.
I have observed over the past few years that it seems like the essence of temptation is to take on or react with the same kind of spirit with which we are confronted. This is probably due to the natural tendency of the mind to want to synchronize with others that is part of God's design for us. But with sin in the picture it is no longer safe or right to synchronize with others all of the time when it means getting out of sync with our Creator's Spirit. Thus the warning here to not return evil for evil.
It is the natural urging of our fallen nature to want to get even, to become defensive and to not allow others to hurt us. Our flesh is very much into protecting ourselves from pain, shame and blame. But the way we naturally want to do that is always going to be at the expense of others because of our deep-rooted selfishness. We will often have very plausible and even religious-sounding excuses to justify our self-protection and desires to reflect back what others are doing to us, but it never makes it right. We may be able to restrain or restrict the degree to which we act out our desires for returning evil, but in God's eyes our real condition (not our identity) is the motives of our heart, not just the outward actions that can be seen by others. If we allow desires to remain in our hearts or imaginations for others to experience evil who have done evil to us, we are secretly giving a place to the enemy, a handle that he can use at most unexpected times to expose us, a point of vulnerability for the enemy to defeat us. There are no exceptions to this principle, not even at the deepest hidden levels of our heart. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone, not even secretly in our hearts.
The next part of this instruction can be a little confusing. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. I have looked at this verse in several translations but it comes up with the same ambiguity in every one I have looked at. This phrase can be taken in two different ways. My question is about which side of the sentence defines the meaning of right in the center. Does this mean that we are to respect right independently of what others think is right, but publicly so that it is obvious to everyone, or does it mean that we are to respect what it considered right in the opinion of those around us? I think I would lean toward believing that the first assumption is the correct one, but as I said that does not come clearly through the way this is worded.
I also wonder why this comes directly after the instruction about not returning evil for evil. I suspect there is an important relationship here and that they did not just happen to be back to back. But right now I don't see a real clear connection. I want to think about this some more.
The last part of this passage is clearly connected to respecting what is right. While we are to give preference to living at peace with all men, that will not always be possible while at the same time respecting what is right. Clearly there are going to be times when publicly taking a stand for what is right is going to put us at odds and out of peace with all men. But I think the main point of this is the other aspect to this instruction. That is, we should not ignore being at peace with others while taking pride in asserting our independence from them by trying to be different with no regard for peace and harmony around us.
I am quite familiar with this sort of personality. Some people think it is something of a trademark to be different than those around them. They take pride in not fitting in or in feeling that their differences from others somehow make them more important or more religious. They sometimes mistake stubbornness as conscientiousness and have little regard for living at peace with others. While there will be times when standing for right will put us at serious odds with others, it is not necessary to be at odds just to be unique. Being different is not equivalent to being righteous though at times some people believe that.
The core problem that must be faced in each of these things is our problem of pride. This is addressed head-on in the center of this section, do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. This is the basic problem that interferes with aligning our lives with each of these instructions. And it must always be viewed within the context of verse two – the transformation of our lives through the renewing of our minds. This transformation involves the removal of the pride that infects every area of our mind and heart. Pride is the greatest obstacle to the work of God in our lives and is the greatest threat to our peace and joy.
Pride will prevent us from genuinely rejoicing with others who rejoice because we cannot selflessly synchronize our hearts with them. Instead we will secretly harbor jealousy in our hearts. Pride will prevent us from weeping with those who weep because we will be afraid of shame or of being vulnerable or of becoming entangled with their problems without being in control. Pride will cause us to react with less than noble feelings whenever we are faced with evil, pain and intimidation. It will become our liability that can threaten to undo what the Holy Spirit is trying to accomplish in our transformation. Pride will cause us to have little consideration for living at peace with others. Pride will even sometimes cause us to try to hide our decisions to stand for what is right in fear of what others may think about us.
The words in Greek translated into haughty in mind mean to not entertain a sentiment of a high opinion about yourself. It really strikes at the root of one of the three foundations of civilization that I have learned about, Kingship. This is the stratification of social value that we assign to ourselves and others based on comparison with others or arbitrary determinations. It is so much a part of our world and our thinking that we seldom even think about it consciously, but it undermines the body of Christ in which there is no place for differences in value. It is in direct opposition to the instruction to be of the same mind toward one another. In order for us to willingly associate with the lowly we must become freed from the pride that has artificially segregated people and caused us to view others as more or less valuable than ourselves.
This is very significant in the context of the gifts just listed in the body. It is far too easy to begin to evaluate others according to false estimations of the importance of different gifts and the people who exercise them. We may give lip service to the equal value of each person but in our interactions we betray the influence within our hearts of the spirit of the world, the separations created by artificial distinctions. We must constantly guard against allowing the influence of the world's way of thinking to infiltrate the new order of life within the true body of believers. We serve a different God with radically different tools of measurement. Be of the same mind toward one another.
Do not be wise in your own estimation is a restatement of our need to avoid being haughty in mind. This is such a deep-rooted problem that it is necessary to repeat it again in different words. This kind of pride is possibly the greatest danger to the success of the unity of the body as God works to bring us into harmony, love and humility. It is only as we become willing to lay aside our pride and recognize the enormous danger that pride poses to our spiritual life that we will be able to grow, to mature and to become more closely bonded and integrated within the body of fellow believers.
I have taken time to try to unpack mentally what these verses are saying to me here. But I also realize that I have barely touched the need for the truths of these words to sink deep into my own heart and thinking. That is not something that just happens by intellectually dissecting a passage but has to be impressed at a much deeper level by the Holy Spirit who knows how to get it to where it is needed. I desire for Him to do that in my life, to transform me into a person without pride, fear or shame. I want to be a person who is not hesitant to associate with those who are considered lowly by the world, for in God's eyes there is really no such thing as lowly. Everyone is of infinite worth so how can we say someone is lowly with the normal assumptions associated with that word? If lowly means of less value, then it is our system of measurement that seriously needs replacing.
I need to take some intense quiet time focusing with my heart on these insights and listening to the impressions of the Spirit. Otherwise all the expounding and wisdom and explanations become nothing but a sounding gong or a tinkling cymbal. There is a time to carefully analyze and there is also the need to take time to absorb and meditate.
God, please send the Holy Spirit to take these words, these messages, these crucial truths deep into the dark places in my heart where pride still clings tenaciously. Turn up the light in my soul and reveal the lies that I still believe about myself and others that prevent me from freely associating with some of the members of Your family. Give me the eyes of heaven, not only for others but for myself and help me to see the true ugliness of the pride that still prevents me from reflecting Your beauty, kindness and attractiveness in my life.
Continue Your work of mind renewal and transformation in my life. I trust in Your faithfulness, Your grace, Your patience and Your ability to accomplish everything You have promised to do. Cleanse me from every attitude, belief and confused idea that distorts Your image in my heart. Fill me with Your Spirit and make me a conductor of Your grace to others.
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