The Desires of Christ

Think Like Me

God earnestly wants to have an eternal, personal, intimate relationship with you. Jesus Christ's desire to provide this relationship for you is expressed in the Bible in 1 Timothy chapter 2, verses 3 and 4:
1 Timothy 2:3 This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior [Jesus Christ],
1 Timothy 2:4 who desires all people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. ESV

Verse 4 expresses Jesus Christ’s 2 overall desires or objectives for the human race. I have paraphrased Christ's 2 desires as Believe in Me - Think Like Me. If you haven't already and are interested, read the page The Desires of Christ for details on how I arrived at this.
Hopefully as you are reading this, you are a believer; you have already met Jesus Christ’s first desire for the human race, to be saved. If you haven’t, please see the page on this web site Believe in Me. The personal, intimate relationship God earnestly wants to have with you that is described in this web page is available only to believers, those who have been saved by expressing faith alone in Christ alone.
However, if you haven’t yet been saved, are not a believer in Jesus Christ, then by all means please read on. Hopefully you will discover something here that will help you see your need for the eternal, personal, intimate relationship God so earnestly wants to have with you.

On this page we are going to focus on the personal, intimate part of the relationship God wants to have with you. This is expressed in Jesus Christ's second desire for the entire human race, come to the knowledge of the truth – Think Like Me.
The key to Jesus Christ’s second desire is the Greek word for knowledge in 1 Timothy 2:4, epignosis. If you are going to understand and appreciate the relationship God wants to have with you, it is critical that you understand this Greek word for knowledge. If you are not familiar with the word epignosis or the phrase metabolized Bible doctrine, please see the Epignosis page on this website. They are discussed in detail there but the first few paragraphs of that page should give you enough information so that you can understand how coming to the knowledge of the truth relates to the personal intimate relationship God earnestly wants to have with you. The most important thing to remember is that epignosis, i.e. metabolized Bible doctrine, is the actual assimilation of the very thinking of Jesus Christ into the believer’s soul.

Let’s start with just a brief discussion of the personal intimate relationship God earnestly wants to have with you. An in-depth discussion is provided elsewhere on this web site or a link will be provided for additional study.

Personal

Personal means that God wants to have a direct relationship with you as a person. Your relationship with God as a believer is not limited to just being a member of a congregation in a church building listening to a sermon, singing hymns and possibly participating in some kind of a ritual. You can have a direct, one on one relationship with God.

Of paramount importance with regard to our personal relationship with God is the fact that every believer is a priest. If you have met Jesus Christ’s first objective to believe in Him then you are a priest.
A priest is a human being who represents himself or others before God. In previous ages, membership in the priesthood was severely restricted. Priests were a small minority among believers and it was limited to males only. This age is unique in that the priesthood has been extended to include every believer, male and female. This is stated in Revelation 1:6a:
Revelation 1:6a He [Jesus Christ] has made us members of his royal family. He has made us priests who serve his God and Father. NIrV

As a priest, we represent ourself before God. We have no need for another person to act as a go-between between us and God. This is the basis for our spiritual privacy in which we live our own life before the Lord.
The most important function of our priesthood is how we deal with the sins we commit after we are saved.
The Christian life is empowered by the filling of the Holy Spirit. When we sin, we lose the filling of the Holy Spirit and our fellowship with God. The only way we can regain the filling of the Holy Spirit and restore fellowship with God and is by confessing or acknowledging our sins to God. This is stated in 1 John 1:9:
1 John 1:9 If we confess [cite, name, acknowledge] our sins, He [God the Father] is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

God is perfect. In grace, He has created a perfect plan for us imperfect persons. When we contradict His plan through our sinning, He has made provision for us by citing or naming our known sins to God the Father. This is the only means compatible with grace for receiving divine forgiveness for sins we commit after we are saved, there is no other option. In grace we have this wonderful system, one that we can use instantly at any time since every believer is a priest.

I mention the filling of the Holy Spirit here because Jesus Christ relates it to His second desire for the human race – come to the knowledge [epignosis] of the truth – in John 4:23&24:
John 4:23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.
John 4:24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth." NIV

The phrase in the Spirit here refers to the filling of the Holy Spirit. Being filled with the Holy Spirit and studying truth, i.e. the Word of God, are a necessary part of worship.

Probably the most well-known aspect of this personal direct relationship God so earnestly desires to have with you is prayer. Through prayer you have instant access to the throne room of God to communicate directly with God the Father. You can express your gratitude to God, intercede on behalf of others and petition for our own personal needs.
This part of your personal relationship with God also depends on the filling of the Holy Spirit as stated in Ephesians 6:18:
Ephesians 6:18 Pray in the Spirit at all times and on every occasion. Stay alert and be persistent in your prayers for all believers everywhere. NLT

Once again, the phrase in the Spirit here refers to the filling of the Holy Spirit.
Once you have met Jesus Christs first desire for you – to be saved – this wonderful aspect of a personal relationship with God, prayer, is available to you when you are filled with the Holy Spirit.

Intimate

The intimate part of the relationship God earnestly wants to have with you can be summed up in two words: love and likeminded.

Let's start with Love.
The Bible states that God is love. This means that love is part of the very essence of God. Everything that God does is motivated by His love.
God’s love for you as an unbeliever was expressed in an impersonal way as indicated in this verse:
John 3:16 "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

By impersonal is meant that this love was directed toward the entire undeserving human race in general, not just toward one person specifically. This is indicated by “the world” and “whoever”. The only way that any human being can respond to this impersonal love of God is by believing in Jesus Christ – whoever believes in Him.

If you are a believer, God now has a direct personal love relationship with you because of the relationship you now have with Jesus Christ. At the moment you believed in Jesus Christ, God wrapped His loving arms around you and He will never let go. This is beautifully stated in Romans 8:38-39:
Romans 8:38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
Romans 8:39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

We are recipients of this wonderful personal love of God because we are said to be in Christ Jesus. God loves His Son Jesus Christ. Since we are now in Christ Jesus, God loves us with the same love He has for His Son. God is now free to pour His love out upon us in magnificent ways.

God does not desire for this love relationship to be just one way. He desires for you to reciprocate or return His love. He also wants you to express love toward other members of the human race. Your ability to love God or any member of the human race is only possible because God first loved you. This is expressed in 1 John 4:19:
1 John 4:19 We love, because He first loved us.

We love – this can mean our reciprocal love for God or our love for other members of the human race. Both are indicated here:
1 John 4:11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

Now let’s look at the other aspect of intimacy, likeminded.

A characteristic of your relationship with people who are your intimate friends is like-mindedness; you like the same things; your norms and standards are the same. The same is true for our intimate relationship with God. How do we achieve this? The Apostle Paul gives us a clue in 1 Corinthians 11:1:
1 Corinthians 11:1  And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. NLT

How do we imitate Christ? Do we dress like Him, wear our hair like Hollywood depicts His hair or mimic the way we think He acted? The Apostle Paul tells us how we imitate Christ in Philippians 2:5:
Philippians 2:5 You should think in the same way Christ Jesus does. NIrV

To imitate Jesus Christ, we must be likeminded with Him; we must think His thoughts. How do we know what Jesus Christ thinks? Jesus Christ’s thinking is what we have in the Bible, the Word of God. This is stated in 1 Corinthians 2:16:
1 Corinthians 2:16  For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. NLT

For us to be intimate with God, we must be likeminded with Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus Christ wants us to come to the knowledge [epignosis] of the truth. As mentioned above: The most important thing to remember is that coming to the knowledge [epignosis] of the truth is the actual assimilation of the very thinking of Jesus Christ into your soul.
We must Think Like Him.

Being likeminded with Jesus Christ is the key to our ability to express love. This is stated in Philippians 1:9:
Philippians 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge [epignosis] and all discernment,

This is also expressed in 1 John 4:16:
1 John 4:16 We have come to know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

The word epignosis is not used in John 4:16 but it expresses the same principle. Epignosis is the thinking of Christ, truth, that we come to know and believe. Our ability to love is based on our consistent study of the Word of God in the manner described on the Epignosis page.
The intimate love relationship we can have with God is expressed in the last half of John 4:16:
The one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

What do we have in the Bible that Jesus Christ thought about love?
He stated the importance of love directed toward God in Matthew 22:37&38:
Matthew 22:37 And He said to him, " 'YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.'
Matthew 22:38 "This is the great and foremost commandment.

The greatest and foremost thing we must do is develop love for God. And notice where that love is – heart, soul, mind. It is an expression of our thinking.

Jesus Christ stated His love for God the Father in John 14:31a:
John 14:31a but so that the world may know that I love the Father, I do exactly as the Father commanded Me.

We must love God the same as Jesus Christ did. How do we do this?
1 John 2:5a but whoever keeps his word, in him truly love for God is perfected. RSV

Only when we keep His Word, when we think like Jesus Christ, can we have a true love for God.

Jesus Christ also stated another direction for our love in Matthew 22:39:
Matthew 22:39 "The second is like it, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.'

It comes as no surprise that the other direction for the expression of love is toward people. Our Lord expresses His love toward people when He states that He loves us.
John 15:12 "This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you.

He restates His command for us to love each other in John 15:17:
John 15:17 "This I command you, that you love one another.

The Apostle John was present when Jesus Christ stated that command and he passes our Lord’s command on to us.
1 John 3:23 This is His [God the Father’s] commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He [Jesus Christ] commanded us.

After we meet Jesus Christ’s first desire - Believe in Me – we demonstrate that we have met His second desire when we love one another. Our ability to express this love can only be done when we come to the knowledge [epignosis] of the truth – think like Jesus Christ. Being likeminded with Jesus Christ is the key to our ability to express love as stated in Philippians 1:9:
Philippians 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge [epignosis] and all discernment,

How can this love that Jesus Christ had be described? The greatest description of love in the Bible can be found in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7:
1 Corinthians 13:4 Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant,
1 Corinthians 13:5 does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered,
1 Corinthians 13:6 does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth;
1 Corinthians 13:7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Since the content of the Bible is the thinking of Christ and since we have shown that Jesus Christ loved while He was on the earth, we might interpret verses 4-6 in this way:
Jesus Christ was patient; Jesus Christ was kind and was never jealous; Jesus Christ did not brag and was never arrogant,
Jesus Christ did not act dishonorably; He did not seek to always get His own way; He was never provoked to anger; He never reacted to a wrong that He suffered,
Jesus Christ did not rejoice in evil but rejoiced with the truth.

We have no idea what Jesus Christ looked like, but we certainly know what His attitude was in life and how He dealt with other people. He would have been a wonderful person to be around.

I believe that the number one reason why Jesus Christ wants us to think like He does is so that we can have the same love that He did. This is the very heart of our intimate relationship with God. When we are like-minded with Christ, when we imitate Him, we can express love in the same way He did. We can never achieve perfection therefore we can’t do it perfectly like He did. However, we can produce a reasonable facsimile of it.

As you read this, you may wonder what the difference is between love as described above and the love of people who are not believers. Any member of the human race is capable of loving.
The difference is that love as described above is based on the power of God, not on the power of human beings.
Love as described above depends on the power of God the Holy Spirit.
Romans 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

In addition to that, as shown on the Epignosis page, the power of God the Holy Spirit is required to come to the knowledge [epignosis] of the truth.

Only those human beings who have met Jesus Christ’s first desire for them – to be saved – have the power of God the Holy Spirit available to them.

The second source of God’s power for the love described above is God’s Word. Hebrews 4:12a states:
Hebrews 4:12a  For the word of God is alive and powerful. NLT

God’s Word is powerful no matter where it is found, even in the believer’s soul as epignosis. As we have seen, epignosis, i.e. the thinking of Christ in the believer’s soul, is the source of love.
Philippians 1:9 And this I pray, that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge [epignosis] and all discernment,

1 Corinthians 13:8a states:
1 Corinthians 13:8a Love never fails;

That refers to the love shown above in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7. That love is based on God’s power. The love human beings are capable of producing on their own power fails constantly. Love that is based on the power of God never fails.

Jesus Christ expresses His desire for us to think like He does in chapter 8 of the Gospel of John. In this chapter, Jesus Christ testified about Himself to the Jews. After much discussion with them, we have this statement in John 8:30:
John 8:30 As He spoke these things, many came to believe in Him.

Immediately following in verses 31 and 32 we have what Jesus said to those who had just met His first desire for the human race - Believe in Me:
John 8:31 So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;
John 8:32 and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."

Jesus’s word, i.e. truth, in these verses refers to the Bible, the Word of God. As noted above, in 1 Corinthians 2:16, the Bible is called the mind i.e. the thinking of Christ.
1 Corinthians 2:16  For, “Who can know the LORD’s thoughts? Who knows enough to teach him?” But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ. NLT

In verses 31 and 32, Jesus Christ expresses how you can have the personal intimate relationship God so earnestly wants to have with you – know the truth – come to the knowledge of the truth - Think Like Me - Jesus Christ’s second desire for the human race.

Truth that remains on the pages of the Bible is of little value to the believer. After being saved, the objective of the believer’s spiritual life is coming to the knowledge [epignosis] of the truth. But usable metabolized Bible doctrine accumulates gradually in increments. Truth builds upon truth. The believer must persist in learning as Isaiah 28:10b says: “Line on line, line on line, a little here, a little there”. Bit by bit believers develop a frame of reference for receiving and retaining ever more complex doctrines, thereby unveiling the whole panorama of their magnificent spiritual life. This system explains why the believer must faithfully listen to Bible teaching as a consistent routine. The thinking of Christ cannot be absorbed and used through sporadic bursts of enthusiasm but through consistent perception, metabolization and application of Bible doctrine.
The Holy Spirit works only with the mind of Christ resident in the soul to accomplish God’s plan in the believer’s life. Until believers are filled with the Holy Spirit and advancing in their understanding and application of the thinking of Christ, they will lack correct motivation, stability, and power. Believers can love and serve their Lord only to the extent that they metabolize God’s Word (Jer. 15:16).
Jeremiah 15:16 Your words were found and I ate them, And Your words became for me a joy and the delight of my heart; For I have been called by Your name, O LORD God of hosts.

An important point to stress here is that the Christian life is not just an academic exercise. The object is not to go to church or attend Bible class to learn God’s Word in an academic sense like you would in a college classroom. In college, you learn the academic stuff, take the test, then forget much of it as you go out into the real world. This is not the way of approaching God's truth. For us, the thinking of Christ is the real world.

This principle is expressed in James 1:22:

Jas 1:22 But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.

Being merely a hearer is the believer who treats learning the Word as simply an academic exercise. They learn truth but it never becomes epignosis, i.e. it is never believed and metabolized and therefore can never be applied to their lives. They cannot live their lives based upon the virtue developed from the thinking of Christ.

Being a doer of the Word simply means that you live the Christian life by applying the thinking of Christ you have metabolized and you serve the Lord in the capacity that He has for you.

If we are to have any success in the Christian life, it has to do with God working through us. We are the channel through whom God works but the channel has no power without the thinking of Christ in our souls. We can’t just decide that we are going to do something for Jesus without having knowledge about whatever it is we do. We must be doers of the Word.

Hopefully if you've read this far, you can see how being a doer of the Word leads to a personal intimate relationship with God our Savior, Jesus Christ, and a life of tremendous love, happiness, blessing and service for the Lord. Perhaps you would like this life for yourself.
It begins by meeting Jesus Christ's first desire for you - Believe in Me. It continues by making the study of God's Word a consistent part of the routine of your life. If you're not fortunate enough to have a church near you that focuses on the teaching of the Word of God, where you can worship God in Spirit and in Truth, then see the list of pastor-teachers under Suggested Links on the left side of this web site. Bible teaching from these ministries is available free of charge.

Below are some links to a more in-depth discussion on some of the aspects of our personal intimate relationship with God.

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Think Like Me

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Intimate Relationship with God

Virtue Love

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