Attitude of Christ

From the Desk of David Boyd, National BGMC Director

Have you ever discovered that some people are hard to offend and others are hard not to offend? Some will believe the best in nearly every circumstance, and others (perhaps due to their past) seem to feel they are being made to suffer.

First Peter 4:1 states, “Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin.” Isn’t it interesting that Scripture instructs us to arm ourselves with an attitude that is willing to accept suffering. Suffering not only includes potential persecution from non-Christians, it should also include a willingness to accept and forgive the unintentional or brash actions of individuals around us. Peter describes those who have this proper attitude as being willing to suffer. Those willing to suffer he describes as being “done with sin.” Thus, a proper attitude arms us with a mindset willing to accept difficulty, and that, in turn, protects us from responding in sin.

Phillipians 2:5-9 further describes attitude as it reads: “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name.”

Christ was willing to set aside how He should have been treated and live a life with a sacrificial attitude. Let’s remember to live with this same attitude of Christ. It protects those around us, it protects ourselves, and it is life lived in obedience to the Word of God.