To have the mind of Christ is indeed the one requirement of lawful striving—a mind which humbly and faithfully submits itself to the will of God as expressed in His great Plan of the Ages, and which devotes all energy to the accomplishment of His will, because of an intelligent appreciation of the ends He has in view. If so filled with the same mind that was in Christ Jesus, we, like Him, will desire to be as free as possible from entangling earthly affairs, and to have our time as free as possible for the Lord's service, and then to devote all energy, ability and effort to that service.
The mind that was in Christ Jesus disposed Him to self-emptying of His prehuman nature and to self-sacrifice, even to the ignominious death of the cross, that He might glorify God. Such a disposition is surely the fitting attitude of everyone who loves God supremely. As supreme love for self leads to self-exaltation, so supreme love for God leads to self-humiliation, that He may be exalted; and as truly as one abases Himself under God's mighty hand, so truly will the Lord exalt him in due time.
Isa. 53; Matt. 11:29; 20:26, 27; 23:12; John 13:14, 15; Rom. 15:3; 2 Cor. 8:9; Phil. 2:7, 8; 1 Pet. 2:21; Phil. 3:7-9; Heb. 13:13; Prov. 3:34; 15:33; 25:6, 7; Isa. 57:15; 66:2; Jer. 45:5; Luke 22:24-27; Jas. 4:6, 10; 1 Pet. 5:3, 5, 6.
