One Mind (Philippians 2:1-13)

A lot of winter sports come to the end of their season with grand finals in September and October. In Lyndoch last weekend, local football and netball competitions played their grand finals. The SANFL played their grand final that Sunday afternoon at the Adelaide Oval. This weekend the AFL played their final game on Saturday and the NRL on Sunday evening. For people who prefer motorsport, the Bathurst 1000 will be run next weekend and the Moto GP motorcycles will be racing in Philip Island a couple of weeks after that.

Whatever sport we enjoy playing or watching, there is always one goal: to win! For just about everyone who plays sport or follows sport, the aim is to keep winning enough so at the end of the season, you, your team, or the sportsperson you follow come out on top and win the premiership or championship.

Could you imagine, however, if the team or sportsperson who finished on top of the competition gave it away to the team or sportsperson who came in last place? How do you think people would react, for example, if Lachie Neale, the winner of the 2023 AFL Brownlow Medal, decided to give it to someone else who didn’t poll one vote, or who hadn’t even pulled on a pair of boots to play a game during the season?

From a human point of view, this seems too crazy to contemplate. However, if we can imagine someone finishing at the top of their game and then giving away their success to someone else, we can begin to understand Paul’s words in Philippians 2:1-13.

He describes how Jesus existed in eternity, from before the creation of the world, in divine power and glory. Jesus was in the place where every religious person that ever existed is trying to get to. However, even though he was at the top of the religious and spiritual ladder, the eternal Son of God gave it all up and lowered himself by giving up his ‘divine privileges’, taking on ‘the humble position of a slave’, and being ‘born as a human being’ (v7 NLT). Jesus continued his downward trajectory by hitting rock-bottom and giving his life in the most shameful way possible in the ancient Roman world: dying on a cross.

In AFL language, Jesus took off his best-on-ground premiership medal or Brownlow medal for best and fairest of the season to give it to people who are totally undeserving. In terms of motorsport, Jesus stepped off the top place of the winner’s podium to give his winner’s trophy to others who finished last or didn’t even complete the race. Jesus displays God’s infinite grace by giving away everything he deserved as the eternal Son of almighty God to people who are undeserving, needy, broken, and sinful. That’s God’s grace for us in Jesus.

Jesus stepped off the top of the ladder and into last place because he trusted our heavenly Father to raise him up again. Paul describes Jesus’ upward journey in verses 10 to 11. The Father lifted him up to the highest place, the top of the religious and spiritual ladder, back in eternity with him, and gave him the name which is above every name, the name of God himself. The Father did this because the Son gave everything up for others, trusting in God’s resurrection power and in love for all of us who need his saving love in our lives.

Paul writes in verse 5 that we are to have this same attitude or mindset in our relationships with others.

It’s not just footballers or other professional sportspeople who try to get to the top. Often, in our relationships with others, we like to be on top or to have the upper hand. We see this when we place demands or expectations on others, when we prioritise what will benefit us over what will benefit others, and when we focus on what we want over what is good for others. Whenever what we want, what’s good for us, or what benefits us is more important to us than what others need, what will be good for them, or what helps them, we try to move up the ladder to gain power or control over others.

Jesus teaches and calls us to have a different mindset. The mind of Christ is not about reaching the top of the ladder or winner’s podium at other’s expense. Instead, it moves in the opposite direction. Jesus’ way is the path of humble service where we do what is in the best interests of others and what will benefit them, no matter what it might cost us. This is the way Paul points us to throughout Philippians 2, from when he writes that we are to be ‘agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose’ (v2 NLT), to teaching us to ‘work hard to show the results of (our) salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear’ in the ‘power to do what please him’ (vv12,13 NLT).

Paul instructs us to do this in the faith that when we follow Jesus’ path down the ladder and off the winner’s podium by preferring other’s interests over of our own, when we prioritise what’s good for others even when it costs us, then our heavenly Father will lift us up to the highest places of heaven with Jesus. As long as we strive to get on top, we miss out on God lifting us up. When we follow Jesus with the mindset of humble servants, we will find God’s power to raise us up and seat us with himself in heavenly glory.

Being united with the mind of Christ gives us a whole new way to understand what it means to be in Christian community with each other. This is not the place to be pushing our own agendas, to be prioritizing what we want over what is good for others, or to be working for what benefits us at the expense of others. Instead, the mind of Christ is looking at what is good for and benefits others, what is in the best interests of others, and prioritizing and working for that, no matter what it might cost us. What we might be asked to give up will never be as much or as severe as giving our lives on a cross. However, when we trust Jesus and follow him with the same mindset, we will find God’s saving power who lifts us up to be with himself, just like Jesus did.

In a world where people strive to be at the top of the ladder, to get what they want, and do what benefits themselves, the mind of Christ challenges both our own way of approaching relationships and what our society tells us is good. Like the AFL premiers, we like to be winners and on top of the game. Jesus leads us in a different direction, and when we follow him in faith, hope and love, we find a better and more fulfilling way to live.

More to think about or discuss:

• In any sport or competition, would you prefer to win or see someone else take top spot? Explain why you prefer that…
• How would you react if someone won a championship or something similar and then gave the prize to someone else? What is your reaction to Jesus doing that for you?
• What is one way you might be able to put the mind of Christ into practice in your life? How might you trust God to lift you up with Jesus by doing what is in the best interests or that benefits someone else, even if it costs you?