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We may have the mind of Christ —

1. Representatively. The minds of great men represent themselves —

(1) Through the character of their disciples. Jesus put His disciples in possession of His mind — both its great ideas and governing sympathies. They faithfully represented His mind to others. They died; but their followers, in their turn, transmitted the mind which they received. We look at the true Church, and we can see in it the mind of Christ.

(2) Through literature. A man's book is a kind of second incarnation of himself. Thus the mind of Jesus has come down to us in the New Testament.

(3) In their historic influence. Christ's mind has come down to us in this way.

2. Personally. Christ has distinctly assured us that He — not His mere influence, but Himself — is with His Church always, even unto the end, to enlighten, sanctify, guard, and strengthen it. This fact gives the Bible a wonderful advantage over other books. I take up the work of a departed author, and I find many things which I cannot understand, but I have no help. But when I take up the Bible — though it has been written for centuries — its Author is by my side. If we have the mind of Christ, then —

I. WHETHER WE RIGHTLY ACT IN RELATION TO THAT MIND OR NOT, OUR OBLIGATION IS IMMENSE. Our obligation is ever regulated according to the powers and privileges with which Heaven has endowed us. "Unto whom much is given, of them much will be required." In connection with this principle note —

1. That the most precious thing in the universe is mind. Matter, in all its forms of life and beauty, is but the creature, symbol, and servant of mind. One human soul, though tabernacling in poverty, is of more essential worth than the sun. The sun has no feeling, thought, volition; it can neither form an idea of itself, nor of its Author. But the feeblest moral mind has all this, and can do all this,

2. That the most precious mind in the universe is the mind of Christ.

(1) All human minds are not of the same relative value. The minds of such men as Newton, Bacon, Milton are worth the aggregate mind of their age. But he who is instrumental in restoring one soul to moral truth and God, may do a greater work for the universe than he who corrects a hundred inferior minds. But the most majestic intellects bear no comparison with the mind of Christ; His mind was "the image of the invisible God."(2) Now nothing enhances our responsibility so much as connection with minds of a high and holy order. But contact with the mind of Christ enhances our responsibility a thousandfold. "If I had not come, and spoken unto them, they had not had sin," &c. "This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world," &c.

II. IF WE ACT RIGHTLY IN RELATION TO THAT MIND, THE EFFECTS ON OUR CHARACTER WILL BE MOST GLORIOUS. There are three great blessings which will result.

1. Mental vivacity. Mind is the quickener and developer of mind. The amount of vital energy and impulse, however, which one mind is capable of imparting to another will, perhaps, generally depend upon two conditions.

(1) The character of the subjects of intercourse. Where they are tame commonplaces or vague abstractions, but a small amount of impulse will be imparted; but where they are of an opposite character, a powerful effect may be expected.

(2) The native vigour of the mind that presents these subjects. The most moving subjects will produce little effect when presented by a lifeless mind; but where there is great native energy in the soul of the communicator, in any case, there must be a powerful effect. Now you have just these two conditions in the highest form in connection with the mind of Christ. His mind is life and light — condensed energy and focal flame. His mind broke the mental slumbers of humanity, put the world in action, and gave it an impulse that shall go on accumulating for ever. He, therefore, who is rightly connected with the mind of Christ must be a man of mental earnestness. A sleepy-minded Christian is a solecism — a contradiction.

2. Moral assimilation. "He that walketh with wise men shall be wise." Fellowship with a pre-eminently spiritual, holy, humble, benevolent, and devout mind is eternally incompatible with worldliness, impurity, pride, selfishness, and impiety.

3. True happiness. Christ's mind does two things towards human happiness.

(1) It removes all obstructions. Sin is the great obstruction, and the great work of Christ is "to lint away sin"; to put it away in its —

(a)  Idea form — the intellectual errors of men are sources of misery.

(b)  Disposition form — the wrong and conflicting dispositions of men are sources of misery.

(c)  Guilt form — the sense of guilt upon the conscience is a sore element of distress.

(2) It supplies the necessary condition of happiness. A suitable object of supreme love. Our supreme affection is the fountain of our happiness; but for the supreme affection to yield perfect happiness it must be free from all moral defects, capable of helping us in all the contingencies of our being, ever reciprocating our affections, and one which will continue with us for ever. In Christ we have all this, and nowhere else. If, then, we are in right connection with the mind of Christ, we are happy. Melancholy and gloom are foreign to Christianity.

(D. Thomas, D. D.)

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KJV: But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

WEB: But he who is spiritual discerns all things, and he himself is judged by no one.