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- PDFEduardo Elizondo—November 29, 2025
Today, we are going to talk about the mind of Christ. We’re going to study something very, very important in Philip. 2 to begin, because we want to understand more about the mind of Christ.
Christ is our example
Our Lord Jesus Christ was the God of the Old Testament
He was the Word, and the Word became flesh, and He tabernacled among us (John 1)
We’re going to study something very, very important. It’s a memory verse for many of us in Philip. 2.
When we talk about the mind of Christ, and ‘let this mind be in you,’—we’re going to read that—we want to understand how we can see the intersection of obedience with the Holy Spirit of God, with the relationship that we have with God, and how all these things come together.
We’re going to see something very, very important about this particular example, and all the things that the Apostle Paul wrote in this example in Philip. 2, where we get this clear instruction from the Apostle Paul, where he said:
Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”
This is the important thing: that we have to let this mind be in us! But we know that this mind is not going to automatically be in us. It says that our job is to let it be in us. We also know that it has to be through the calling of God the Father and Jesus Christ and the operation of both of Them in our lives.
It says, v 5: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, although He existed in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but emptied Himself, and was made in the likeness of men, and took the form of a servant” (vs 5-7).
This is important because we know that the word servant here is ‘doulos,’ which means slave! Literally, He went from being the LORD God of the Old Testament to a human being. That’s the form that all human beings have, the form of a servant or a slave! That’s what He came to humble Himself from the highest point of exaltation and glory and honor that He had.
As he prayed to the Father in John 17, he said, ‘Glorify Me with the glory that I had before the world existed.’ He had that glory, and He divested all of that.
Verse 7: “But emptied Himself, and was made in the likeness of men, and took the form of a servant,” because we all have the form of a servant!
That’s exactly what we have to decide, whether we’re going to serve sin and our nature and Satan, or IF we’re going to serve God.
This is a very, very deep and important example, an explanation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which wasn’t just about the Kingdom of God coming, but about our life now and the example of how to empty ourselves and what that means.
He “...emptied Himself, and was made in the likeness of men, and took the form of a servant.”
It’s most important what comes next, because a lot of Christianity of this world does not acknowledge this part.
Verse 8: “And being found in the manner of man, He humbled Himself...”
first it says He emptied Himself, and He was divested of His Divinity
then He humbled Himself
He was already acknowledging that He came and took the form of a servant, but “...He humbled Himself...” being in that form of a servant because, as we know, just being in the form of a servant, having this human body, doesn’t automatically make us a good servant or a servant of God! We have to decide who we’re going to serve!
But he humbled Himself, and that’s a requirement for us as well, that we would humble ourselves!
“...and became obedient unto death...” (v 8).
We know that word obedience Christianity doesn’t like, especially when it comes to the Laws and Commandments of God. But here, in Philip. 2 the Apostle Paul is very clear what Christ did. Not only divesting of His Divinity and coming as a pinpoint of life. But also, once He was born, and He was in the flesh, He humbled Himself in order to be obedient!
Paul said, He “...became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross” (v 8).
I know mainstream Christianity likes to talk about the sacrifice, and how great that is, but:
What about the rest of His life?
What about obedient? Obedient from the beginning, because there was not a single sin in Him!
He never sinned
He was full of the Holy Spirit
He was connected to His Father through the Holy Spirit
He was obedient every day of His life
This has a purpose, not only to become the Savior of the world, and the Lamb that takes away the sin of the world, but also so that we should follow in His footsteps of humbling ourselves, and becoming obedient to God, to all His Commandments and His Laws:
that are love
that are eternal
that are magnificent
Those Laws are actually what God uses to change us. That is part of God’s character and His nature, and that’s what He uses in our persons, to change us, from who we are to what He wants us to become!
That’s why it’s important to understand that He became “...obedient unto death, even the death of the cross...” It wasn’t just a one-time event. His life was a life of obedience, and of obedience to the Father! He did the very first and most important Commandment, because IF we’re going to say obedience unto what? Well, let’s go to Matt.22, because Jesus was asked: ‘What is the greatest Commandment?’
Matt. 22—this is very important. If He said which was the greatest Commandment, He surely started there. He said some other things about this greatest Commandment, and the second one that is like it, this again are our memory Scriptures, and this one is in all three Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke.
Matthew 22:35: “And one of them, a doctor of the Law, questioned Him, tempting Him, and saying, ‘Master, which Commandment is the great Commandment in the Law?’” (vs 35-36).
It’s amazing, because if we take a moment and analyze what’s going on, a doctor of the Law is questioning Jesus, tempting Him. It’s not for him to learn, it’s just for him to tempt Him.
In some other occasions, we see that Jesus says, ‘Why do you tempt Me? He knows what’s in their minds, and He calls them out on it; but this time He didn’t. This time He simply gave the answer, the straight up answer.
Verse 37: “And Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest Commandment; and the second one is like it: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets’” (vs 37-40).
they hang
they are sustained
they are standing
Now, they are hung from those two greatest Commandments, because that is:
the love of God
the love of our neighbor
That’s the love!
But there’s no way to define that love without the foundation, which are all the other Commandments.
this is the pinnacle
this is the culmination
this is the completion
this is the fulfilling of the Law that Jesus Christ came and did
to fulfill the law and make it glorious, like it says in Isaiah.
But it’s amazing where it talks about this thing because, “Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’” (v 37).
WHEN He says, “...with all your mind...” it’s because we have to let this mind be in us! THEN Paul explained to us what that mind is. It’s a mind that is:
denying self
humbling self
to become obedient
to receive instructions
from God the Father!
Jesus always did that. He was always connected to the Father. He was always obedient to the Father!
But it’s really amazing when we connect these things and see that the very first Commandment, the greatest Commandment, is a reciprocal relationship, if you want to call it that, because you have all of the Commandments in the Laws of God, which are perfect. All of those Commandments hang on the love of God! It hangs on this relationship. That’s why I was talking at the beginning about the intersection of obedience and the relationship!
Obviously, you have to have the Holy Spirit of God in order to do this, in order to love God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your soul, and with all your being! Here it’s with all your mind!
that mind that humbles itself
that mind that denies itself
that mind that is looking to God for direction in everything, day in and day out
Then the second one is like it—“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” (v 39).
That’s why all the Commandments hang on those. They’re NOT done away. They’re NOT thrown to the ground. They’re hanging on those two Commandments!
So, whoever says that you can love God without doing the Commandments of God is lying, because you cannot love God unless you are living in His love, keeping the Commandments of God, which include within them:
the love of God, first
then the love of neighbor
That’s why the first four Commandments are all about the love of God, and the last six are all about the love of neighbor, which takes us back to the loving of God!
It’s amazing when we think about how Jesus did, and IF we study His life as an example for us to follow: that He emptied Himself, and that he humbled Himself unto obedience. Jesus Christ came to set the example of obedience, not instead of us, but the example for us to follow!
John 8—we’re going to see something amazing, because He never once says:
I kept it all, and the reason I kept it all and the reason I obeyed and became obedient was so you don’t have to, so that you don’t have to become like Me! You don’t have to develop this mind!’
Never says that!
Obviously, it’s so that we would know Him, that we would follow in His footsteps, because we have to walk as He walked!
John 8:28 is a very, very important part of the Scriptures. Jesus was telling the Pharisees:
John 8:28: “Then Jesus said to them, ‘When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you yourselves shall know that I AM...’”—exactly what was said to Moses at the burning bush. Tell Pharoh ‘I AM sent you.’ So, Jesus was testifying to them:
I AM the One that you say to worship
the One that you say to know
the One that you say that is your God
“...and that I do nothing of Myself....” (v 28). That’s probably even more amazing as it is to have the I AM right in front of them, in the person of Jesus Christ!
So, IF He does nothing of Himself, THEN what does He do? Everything that He does is of Who? He says it immediately after,:
“...But as the Father taught Me, these things I speak” (v 28).
Whatever He was doing, He was being taught by the Father, and He was speaking the things that He was being taught by the Father every day!
Right here is where we see He testified of that obedience that He humbled himself to do. Obedience, even unto death! But:
it wasn’t only His death
it wasn’t only His sacrifice
He was sacrificing His life
His entire life He was giving up self
He was one with the Father, through the Holy Spirit
He paved the way for us to learn to do the same
“...I do nothing of Myself. But as the Father taught Me, these things I speak. And He Who sent Me is with Me. The Father has not left Me alone because I always do the things that please Him” (vs 28-29).
So, the Father never left Him. The Father was always with Him! It’s the same terminology that we read in the Old Testament, where:
Noah walked with God
God was with Joseph, and everything under His hand flourished
They were with God; that is the difference! The people of God were with God, and they always concerned themselves with God first, rather than themselves.
they showed this denying of self
they showed this humbling of self to become obedient unto death day in and day out, not just at the end
That’s what Jesus says: “...The Father has not left Me alone...” How was the Father with Jesus Christ? Because Jesus had the Holy Spirit! We know that God gave the Holy Spirit without measure to Jesus Christ, and that made all the difference!
Verse 30 “As He spoke these things, many believed in Him.”
Why? Because nobody had done the works that He had done! He had not only the words, but He had the testimony, and that is what we have to do! We have to have not only the words and the instruction, but to apply it in our lives, to obey the words of God, what’s written in His Word!
We’re going to look a little deeper as to how it was that the Father was always with Jesus. He said that ‘the Father is always with Me, He never leaves Me alone, because I always do the things that that please Him.’
Why?
Is it just because He had to earn the Father’s love through obedience?
or
Is it more that Jesus was just earning His love?
God will come and dwell in those who are willing to obey. God will come and make His abode in those who are willing—exactly what we read in Philip. 2—to empty themselves and to humble themselves unto obedience! Because that’s what Christ did; He is our example.
John 14—we read these words every Passover, because this is the New Covenant.
John 14:6: “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.’” Jesus was perfect, He never sinned, and:
He was the Teacher
He was the Gate of the door
He is the Good Shepherd
We come to the Father through Christ!
Verse 7: “IF you had known Me, you would have known My Father also....”
He is telling this to His disciples; this is not to the Pharisees. So, this shows that they had not known Him up to then.
“‘...But from this time forward, you know Him and have seen Him.’ Philip said to Him, ‘Lord, show us the Father, and that will be sufficient for us.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Have I been with you so long a time, and you have not known Me, Philip? The one who has seen Me has seen the Father; why then do you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me?....’” (vs 7-10).
This is not a Trinitarian or anything like that or absolute monotheism like the Jews believe in. No! They are two separate beings, and they were from the beginning as we know in
John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
We understand that. But how is it—because He never lied—that this was true as well: that the Father was in Him? It is through the Holy Spirit and it’s through these things that were actively going on in Their relationship!
John 14:10: “...The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from My own self; but the Father Himself, Who dwells in Me, does the works.”
How? Through the Spirit! The Holy Spirit is the same Spirit in both of Them! God the Father and Jesus Christ being full of the Holy Spirit, as it says in John.
John 14:10: “...The words that I speak to you, I do not speak from My own self; but the Father Himself, Who dwells in Me, does the works.”
we see that Jesus Christ was speaking the words that the Father gave Him to speak
we see that Jesus Christ was doing the works that the Father gave Him to do
we see this relationship through the power of the Holy Spirit
we see that relationship that is based on love, as we saw with the first and greatest Commandment
through obedience, which is where love takes you
we see that love takes you to obedience, and obedience also takes you to love
You can see it from either direction! You can’t have one without the other.
Loving obedience from God in the flesh to His Father in heaven. It’s a wonderful thing how we can see what the words, and that is the proof.
Then Jesus says, v 11: “Believe Me...”—He’s telling us so that we may believe and that we may do likewise, that we would seek that relationship.
Verse 11: “Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; but if not, believe Me because of the works themselves.”
They all had seen that He had healed the sick, that He had healed the lame and the blind, and He resurrected Lazarus. The works were there. They were the testimony that He was doing the works of God the Father and that the Father was dwelling in Him through the Holy Spirit. He was dwelling in the Father through the Holy Spirit, as well.
That is what They invite us to when we make that covenant at baptism and the laying on of hands to receive the same Holy Spirit in us! That is exactly what They want, that’s what they desire. That’s what both God the Father and Jesus Christ desired.
Verse 12: “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who believes in Me shall also do the works that I do; and greater works than these shall he do because I am going to the Father.”
He had not, yet gone to the Father when He was saying these things, but He was going to the Father, and He’s now at the right hand of the Father.
He says, “...the one who believes in Me shall also do the works that I do...” That is what He wants us to do. He wants us to believe in Him, and to believe in Him is to walk like He walked; to empty ourselves:
of our ego
of our pride
of our human nature
as much as possible and to humble ourselves into obedience to God the Father and to Himself—Jesus Christ! This is Their desire!
Let’s go to John 17 to prove that. We’re going to read just a few verses from this prayer that Jesus prayed to the Father right before He was crucified. He’s talking about us! We know that He was talking first about His disciples and the great work that He had done with them. But then He says:
John 17:20—Jesus says: “I do not pray for these only... [for His disciples] ...but also for those who shall believe in Me through their word...”—and that’s us!
We are believing in Christ through the word of the apostles through the New Testament, not only the Old Testament. We believe the complete Word of God, but through their word! And remember, roughly a third of the whole New Testament are quotes from the Old.
they’re explaining
they’re bringing to light
they’re magnifying
and it’s all one unit!
What’s the goal of this?
Why was He praying for us?
“...those who shall believe in Me through their word...that they all may be one...” (v 21)—second greatest commandment!
“...even as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that They also may be one in Us...” (v 21)—first greatest Commandment!
To love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength, with all your mind, with the mind of Christ in us!
guiding us to obey
guiding us to humble ourselves
guiding us to listen to the Word of God
to understand the Word of God
to obey the Word of God
to listen to the instructions of our Heavenly Father and our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, Who is also our High Priest
And understanding that so that we may be one in Them! That’s what They want!
“...that they also may be one in Us, in order that the world may believe that You did send Me” (v 21).
The best Gospel that anybody will ever hear or see is not really a sermon.
it’s our actions
it’s our attitudes
it’s our conduct
it’s our way of living
Because that shows the obedience to every Commandment, especially the first and greatest Commandment. That we would be a people:
who are in love with our Creator
who love His Word
who are meditating on His Word day and night
who can’t stop thinking about Him
who can’t stop praying
who do the things that God wants us to do
who may be one with Them
They want us to be one with Them—Jesus Christ and God the Father! This explains it even further:
Verse 22: And I have given them the glory that You gave to Me, in order that they may be one, in the same way that We are one.”
He’s explaining that glory we understand as the Holy Spirit, the same Spirit that God the Father gave to Jesus Christ and that He was full of. We receive it:
in the measure that we love Them
in the measure that we obey Them
in the measure that we desire Them
in the measure that we deny ourselves
in the measure that we humble ourselves to obey Them
Jesus Christ is the One Who spoke in the Old Testament. He’s the One Who gave us all the Commandments and the Laws from the Father because He and the Father are one.
one in spirit
one in unity
one in glory
one in perfection
all of that! Even though Jesus Christ did say, ‘My Father is greater than I.’ But this is Their deciding, this is the prayer of Jesus Christ (John 17), that we may all be one, that we would all be perfected into one! The same way that We are One, through the Holy Spirit, through that glory that the Father gave Him.
Verse 23: “I in them, and You in Me, that they may be perfected into one... [God the Father and Jesus Christ, and we are in Christ Jesus] ....and that the world may know that You did send Me, and have loved them... [the Father loves us] ...as You have loved Me.”
Jesus has the same love for us that the Father had for Him! This is an amazing thing when we think about it and when we tie these things together and get these lessons of what is it that we are called to do. When we read ‘Let this mind be in you, which was in Christ Jesus our Lord, that He emptied Himself’ we also are called to empty ourselves:
in order to receive the instruction of God
in order to receive the Holy Spirit of God
This is what we are to do! This is what we have to continue on! This is what it is that we become one with God.
The apostles understood this; They all understood this, especially Apostle John who really got it. That’s why Jesus loved him, because he understood the love. He understood the love that Jesus Christ had for His Father, the obedience, the connection.
That’s why when you read the Epistles of John, it’s all about the love of God and it’s all tied with the obedience! That’s all tied with:
humbling ourselves
obeying Christ
understanding our reality
that yes, we are in the flesh
that we have human nature
that we do sin
but
that we do not practice sin
that we are forgiven when we repent
that we can have a relationship with God
1-Peter 3:8: “Now, the goal is that all of you be of one mind, sympathizing, loving the brethren, compassionate and friendly... [following the steps of Jesus Christ is] ...not rendering evil for evil, or abuse for abuse, but instead a blessing... [that’s exactly what God wants us to do] ...knowing that you were called to this: that you should inherit a blessing” (vs 8-9).
These are the very practical things of how we apply it, but we can tell that all of these are the Commandments. The Commandments are not only in the Old Testament, they’re enforced today, ALL the Laws and Commandments of God.
The Commandments are also here in the New Testament where it says:
Verse 10: “For the one who desires to love life, and to see good days, let him restrain his own tongue from evil, and not allow hislips to speak deceit. Let him avoid evil, and let him continually practice good. Let him seek peace, and let him earnestly pursue it” (vs 10-11).
God is going to give us that peace. God is going to give us that relationship with Him. When we understand the example, when we understand the magnitude of:
Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you...”
The depth is the love of God through the Commandments of God and through the Spirit of God that all combines together in a wonderful relationship with God
that we may be able to speak the words of God
that we may be able to do the works of God
of all the Fruits of the Spirit:
love
joy
peace
etc.
Because
that is what a true Christian is
that’s letting that mind be in us
of denying self
of humbling self
to be obedient
just like Jesus Christ,
to be obedient unto death
Scriptural References:
Philippians 2:5-8
Matthew 22:35-40
John 8:28-30
John 14:6-10
John 1:1
John 14:10-12
John 17:20-23
1-Peter 3:8-11
Philippians 2:5
EE:bo/po
Transcribed: 12/4/25
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