Romans 15:5-6
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NIV)
When Paul prays that God would give us “the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had,” he’s not merely urging us to consider the example of Jesus in terms of his love towards all of us. He’s going beyond that to encourage us to put ourselves in his shoes and to think the way he did.
So, what does it mean to have “the same attitude of mind…that Christ Jesus had”? How would you answer that question? It’s not an easy question to answer because it requires us to stop, slow down, and perhaps even to enter into a meditative state of mind to consider what it would mean to see the world through the eyes of the Christ.
But Paul’s prayer assumes that such a thing is possible. Why? Because the Christ that was in Jesus is the same Christ that is in you, and in everyone. If Christ is the one in whom we all live, and move, and have our being, then we are the ones in whom Christ lives, and moves, and has being as well.
The seeds of our oneness with Christ, and with one another, begin to form within our imaginations as we consider what it means to share the same attitude of mind that Christ had in Jesus.
Why does the Apostle Paul pray this for us? As he explains, “…so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of Jesus Christ.” In the new translation of the New Testament by David Bentley Hart, this passage reads:
“And may the God of endurance and consolation grant that you be of the same mind with one another, according to the Anointed One Jesus, in order that, in sameness of feeling, you might glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus the Anointed with a single mouth.”
To “glorify the God and Father…with a single mouth,” we would have to realize that this is possible, and it becomes possible only as we all come to realize that our individual Oneness with Christ reflects our shared Oneness with each other. We are all expressions of the same Christ that permeates all of the Universe at once.
So, when Paul prays that we would all have the same mind that Jesus had, he’s doing so because he wants us to realize that Christ is within all of us, and he hopes that this realization might unite all of us together into one mind, glorifying God with one voice.
Quantum Theology: Volume One brings together an extraordinary and diverse group of scientists, mathematicians, theologians, mystics, authors, and cultural commentators to explore one of the most provocative conversations of our time: What happens when Quantum Physics and Theology begin to overlap?
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