The Attitude of Jesus
Jesus is our Savior, mainly. We cannot intercede like Him. We cannot suffer like Him. He alone can genuinely intercede and suffer our pains but He is also our example sometimes, especially in basic attitude.
2 ...be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind.
3 Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.
4 Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.
5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:
7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:
8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.
(Phil 2)
The attitude of Jesus is more remarkable than we can understand. He deserved respect, even worship. He commanded fear because of His greatness. He is the Captain of The Armies, the Killer of gods. Yet He laid all that aside to walk like a man, even being subject to the weakness and ordinary-ness which that involved. It might be pictured by the President coming to hang around the break table with the workers at the loading dock. How can extreme greatness ignore the greatness for a time and mix with unimportant people?
Paul tells us that if Jesus could humble Himself from real greatness, we should humble ourselves from imaginary importance.
The Attitude of The Martyrs
And they overcame and conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, for they did not love their life and renounce their faith even when faced with death. (Rev 12:11 AMP)
Our natural instinct is to preserve our life at all costs. Most people will comply with criminals if they think that will save their physical life. Many of us would instantly give our lives for our spouse or children. This may be a little more instinct than thoughtful choice. If we had an hour to think about it, we may not be so eager to die. I think there may be a special grace given to those who are faced with death for the cause of Jesus and His Gospel. We may not have this special grace all the time. However, we could and should have the willingness to give up our natural lives for the Lord at any time.
Many times when we have a dream at night, we know it is a dream. Some people are even able to control what happens in the dream. Sometimes, we can not recognize the difference between reality and a dream. I had such a dream some time ago.
I found myself in a small prison cell awaiting execution. I had no idea this was a dream. It was total reality as far as I could tell. It was not clear what I had done to deserve death but it was coming at any moment. This was not theory any more. It was real and serious (as far as I knew). My thoughts and feelings at this moment were so different from what I thought they might be. In just moments I am going out into the unknown-ness of death. What if Jesus is not enough? What if I am mistaken about everything I had believed. I was ashamed of some of the things in my past. Finally, I found the grace to face death. Jesus had been true to His promises all my life. When I came to the ultimate conclusion that Jesus was much more than enough to carry me through the unknown and that He was deserving of all confidence in Him, I awoke. I hope that I would carry that attitude until I see Him. Can we hold onto the attitude that our natural life is worth losing if it means we can honor Him? Not in theory but in reality.
The Attitude of the Translators
Many English Bibles originally had a preface in the front. Nobody reads these and therefore many editions of new Bibles do not bother to even include them. Godly translators of Bibles usually worked as teams of scholars. This was because the Bible is a large book but also for the sake of the safety and accuracy that multiple workers could potentially provide. The work of translating could take a long time. Many hours (or years) went into the strenuous work of producing a new Bible. As one reads the finished product, he usually does not appreciate the labor and time that went into producing the new work. Hence, the Preface. This is the translators chance, and their only chance, to convey to the reader a little of what went into this great work and something of their dilemmas in producing this Bible. This is their only opportunity to explain a little of why they chose certain words and the difficulty of transmitting thought from one human language to another.
Again, nobody reads this. I admit that reading through the original preface of the King James Bible is extremely difficult, for me. One thing that seems to come out of the translators preface is humility. They seem to have a humble attitude about themselves and also about their finished work. This attitude seems to be glaringly missing from many proponents of this particular translation today. If we could have the same mind (attitude) as the translators had, I think our current church world would be a much more accurate and pleasant place.
We need to search our hearts. Is the attitude of Jesus seen? Is the attitude of the martyrs present? Is the attitude of the Bible translators in us?
Jan 3, 2025