Reflections on 1 Corinthians 2:16
“For, ‘Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16, NIV)
Paul ends this chapter with a question borrowed from Isaiah 40:13: who has ever known the Lord’s mind well enough to give Him advice? No one. The Corinthians were proud of their wisdom, but none of it could teach God a thing.
Then comes the turn: but we have the mind of Christ.
Lining up the translations side by side, nearly all of them say it plainly. Knox says, “Christ’s mind is ours.” Moffatt says, “our thoughts are Christ’s thoughts.” The Remedy, by Dr. Tim Jennings of Come and Reason Ministries, says that we who have opened our minds to the Holy Spirit “have Christ’s mind reproduced within us!”
One translation stopped me. The Living Bible says we have “a portion” of Christ’s thoughts. Not a portion. It says we have His mind, because we have the Holy Spirit. That reading waters down what Paul is offering.
We are not here to instruct God. We are here to receive Him. Paul began this chapter by setting aside polished human wisdom (2:1–5), and he ends it by saying we have been given something far better: the very mind of the One we follow.
What does that look like in a life? Maturity is becoming Christlike. It means having the mind of Christ so we can do as He would do in every situation we meet. We see others through the eyes of Love, understand their struggles, and allow them their mistakes and weaknesses. His wisdom lives in us. In the verse just before this one, I wrote that the Jesus in me can be seen only by the Jesus in you. This is how that happens: the same mind, living in each of us, recognizing itself.
To have the mind of Christ is to see people as He sees them. It is to have His heart of Love, and even His knee-jerk reactions to life’s painful events. It means we don’t think the worst of someone just because we don’t understand their heart. This is our only safeguard against hurting others and making fools of ourselves.
But having the mind of Christ is a two-edged sword. Our hearts hear the cries of the sin-sick soul needing love and comfort, and that is all good. The other side is that we also see and understand the one who has turned away from the Lord. Our hearts are tuned in to the ones we are with, and we feel deeply the rejection of a soul who refuses the truth that would save him. With the heart of Christ you see more and feel more. Christ felt the rejection of Judas. He knew the pain Peter would have to endure after his denial.
There is a price for the wisdom that sees deeply into a matter. Understanding the soul standing before you does not mean you can make up their mind for them. It only means you can present the truth in the very best way, to encourage them to take a chance on trusting the Lord.
I have paid that price. I remember sitting on the couch, looking at my father while my mother was going off on him, and realizing he had stopped caring. He was gone. I will never forget that day. It was the day I knew my father was going to leave us. I could see it in his eyes. The joy was gone, and only a deadness showed.
There are times you don’t want to know the truth about someone you look up to or care about. Love lets us see through the masks people wear to the real hurting soul inside. Sometimes we are not able to help, and we know it, because we have seen their decision written in their eyes.
And still, because we know we are loved and cared for, we don’t need to think of ourselves first. We can stop self-protecting. Living is thinking of others first, because we know our life is hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3). Even when our hearts ache for those we love, nothing can disturb our peace when we have the mind of Christ.
So here is the question I’m left with as Chapter 2 closes: if we truly have His mind, not a portion of it, what would change in how I look at the next person who disappoints me?
