Step Number One

Therefore, all who are mature, let’s have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that to you as well;  Philippians 3:15  NASB

Will reveal – Course correction—continuously.  That’s what we really need.  Each of us is perfectly equipped to get going.  We all see the goal.  But the bog stands between us and the blessed place, and the bog is full of danger.  How do we know where to put the next step?  Paul’s sage advice begins with an attitude check.  “If you’re mature, then take on this attitude.”  What attitude is this?

Well, first we have to correct some of the older English translations.  Here’s the 1995 NASB version: ^“ Let us therefore, as many as are ^[a]perfect, have this attitude;  . .”  You’ll notice the footnote attached to the word “perfect.”  The alternative reading is “mature,” which is adopted in later editions.  Of course, the culprit is the Greek word téleios, a word that means perfect in the sense of complete or finished or grown-up.  But when the 1995 NASB uses the English “perfect,” we are apt to think of “without error, absolutely true” in the mathematical sense (for example, “He got a perfect score”) and this would lead us to believe that the attitude Paul wants us to adopt is only for the flawless.  Certainly not me!  So, it’s a good thing later translators corrected this text.  Paul is writing to all who are mature in the faith, not to those who are sinlessly perfect.  If you have some history with God, then this is for you.

“Attitude” is from the Greek phronéō.  To understand why Paul uses this Greek term we need a bit of linguistic history.

phrḗn, or plural phrénes, means “diaphragm,” regarded as the seat of mental and spiritual activity, then “mind” or “understanding.” The compounds reflect the intellectual focus, phronéō usually means “to think” or “to plan,” and the nouns phrónēma and phrónēsis mean “thought,” “thinking,” or “reason.” . . .  Plato uses phrḗn in the physical sense and also for the inner person. The soul has phrónēsis (“receptivity”) prior to being in us. sophía differs from the more practical phrónēsis, but the two are also interchangeable. phrónēsis is the right state of the intellect and the source of virtue. Education is admonition in phrónēsis and truth. phrónēsis is the chief virtue. All culture is linked to it. It is a divine gift that should guide lawgivers and that directs the mind to immortality. phrónēma is the disposition, the intellectual and spiritual attitude, or self-confidence, which may produce arrogance if based on physical fitness alone.^[1]

Paul uses this Greek term for a Greek-speaking audience to exhort the population to adopt a common way of thinking based on the confession that Yeshua is the Messiah and a commitment to follow Yeshua’s teaching regarding the Torah.  “Attitude” isn’t exactly correct because our concept of attitude is cognitive/emotional while Paul’s view involves practical, volitional choices.  We can think of this as “let us have this way of living.”

And now the lesson.  What is the way of living we are to adopt?  Tolerance!  With patience!

Paul writes that if anyone who has some personal history in the faith has a different way of living (a different “attitude”), then our stance should be “God will reveal the right path.”  Not “I’ll tell you where you are wrong,” or “I can’t live with someone who thinks like you do.”  Be tolerant.  You are not the master teacher.  Be patient.  God is at work bringing about a common mind.  Oh, and by the way, a common mind does not mean everyone has to agree with you!  You might just be the one who needs a bit of godly revelation.

Topical Index: attitude, phronéō, common mind, mature, tolerance, Philippians 3:15

^[1] Kittel, G., Friedrich, G., & Bromiley, G. W. (1985). In Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, Abridged in One Volume (p. 1277). W.B. Eerdmans.