{"id":3999,"date":"2016-05-22T10:00:39","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T14:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3999"},"modified":"2016-05-17T15:34:28","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T19:34:28","slug":"acquiring-the-mind-of-christ-20160522","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/?p=3999","title":{"rendered":"ACQUIRING THE MIND OF CHRIST — 20160522"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"christ_icon\"<\/a>Acquiring the \u201cmind of Christ\u201d doesn\u2019t happen through osmosis. It requires first that we have a sincere desire to \u201cput on Christ\u201d and then the willingness to actually work at changing and transforming ourselves into humans who make every attempt to think and act like Jesus, the Christ.<\/p>\n

While regular attendance at the Divine Liturgy is a real beginning and an absolutely essential part of this process, mere attendance is insufficient to accomplish transformation. It requires us to continuously look at how we think and behave and to establish a plan that will help us accomplish this transformation.<\/p>\n

One of the biggest problems I think most people encounter is that they don\u2019t necessarily feel or realize that they need to find ways to accomplish personal transformation. I\u2019m sure that if your reading this article you are already making an attempt to be a \u201cgood\u201d person and not break any Commandments. And so you probably think that, since you are not a great sinner, you\u2019ve already accomplished the task of personal transformation in the sense of how Jesus talked about it.<\/p>\n

We must remember that Jesus did not only teach \u201cbad\u201d people or \u201cgreat\u201d sinners. He spoke to the regular people of His day – people who probably regularly engaged in religious practices and attempted to live in accord to the dictates of their religion.<\/p>\n

The problem is, and was, that one can keep all the commandments and rules of religion and still not accomplish \u201cputting on Christ.\u201d To \u201cput on Christ\u201d means to live in accord with the \u201cspirit\u201d of His teaching and not the letter of the law. The letter of the law does not call us to unconditional love of others! The letter of the<\/p>\n

law does not necessarily call us to be non-judgmental or concerned about others. The letter of the law does not equate love of God with love of neighbor. The letter of the law does not suggest that we are truly called to be our brothers\u2019 keeper.<\/p>\n

The \u201cmind of Christ\u201d calls us to live in accord with the Spirit of God and not only the letter of the law. For most of us this requires some personal change and some personal transformation.<\/p>\n

Remember, in God\u2019s mind which is manifested in Jesus, union with Him – salvation – is achieved by how we treat others. To unconditionally love others, of course, we must first love ourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Acquiring the \u201cmind of Christ\u201d doesn\u2019t happen through osmosis. It requires first that we have a sincere desire to \u201cput on Christ\u201d and then the willingness to actually work at changing and transforming ourselves into humans who make every attempt … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-acquiring-the-mind-of-christ"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3999"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4000,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3999\/revisions\/4000"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stmichaelarchangel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}