Daily Devotions

Phip 2: 5In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.

Having the same mindset means to be able to reflect the same image as Christ Jesus. Indirectly it means that we should be a mirror image of Jesus Christ in our thoughts, deeds and behaviour. This does not mean that our appearance should be like Jesus, anyway there has not been any actual drawing of the true image of Jesus. All the pictures that we see are imaginations of the artists; each one would try in their own way to portray an image that would best represent Jesus.

In this text, Paul is telling all believers that we must portray Jesus in our lives. When we are in the world and are among the non-believers, they will not be able to see what Jesus looked like but they will be able to see us, the followers of Jesus. Do we follow Jesus in all His ways so that when the non-believers see us, then they would be able to see a reflection of Jesus in the way we live?

Our conduct will show and demonstrate to others the image of Jesus, most of all the way we carry our relationship with each other in the Church must reflect the life of Jesus. They must be communal love and mercy in our relationship. There must not be strife, back stabbing, gossip and slander. These are the way that non-believers would behave in the world.

We are the body of Christ and as such we must possess the same characteristics of Christ in this body. In every way and every day, our relationship within the body  of Christ and also when we have interaction with the non-believers, the love and grace of Jesus Christ must be see prominently in us.

This is what Paul means when he said ‘In your relationship with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus.’ The world can do all kinds of evil as they do not know Jesus and the Father, but we the children of God have no excuses to behave the same way.

Jesus called us to be the ‘light and the salt’ to the world. We must be totally different and we must reflect Jesus’ character in us so that others will be able to see Jesus in our lives and only then will they be able to respond to the Gospel of Salvation.

Let us be the bridge that bring the Gospel to the lost and let us not be stumbling blocks to those who are seeking for the Gospel.