The Spirit of Christ

As Christians it would be wonderful to fully possess the spirit of Jesus Christ. The apostle Paul told the Romans “...Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). Therefore, we realize that as Christians we must possess the spirit of Christ. The first question one may ask at this point is “What kind of spirit did Christ possess?” Let’s look at many of the different types of spirit that Christ had. When we think of Christ we often times think that He was obedient as it states in Philippians 2:8. In addition, Jesus was Humble (Matthew 11:29), Forgiving (Luke 23:34), Prayerful (Mark 1:35), Diligent (Luke 2:49), Sympathetic (Hebrews 4:14-15), Merciful (Hebrews 2:17), Self-sacrificing (Matthew 8:20), Pure (1 John 3:3), Loving (John 15:13), Righteous (Matthew 3:15), Patient (1 Peter 2:20-21), Serving (Philippians 2:5-6), and Non-reviling (1 Peter 2:23). I’m sure there are many others that you could name from the scriptures but these are just a few, enough for us to realize that the Christ we serve was perfect. We should want and strive to have the spirit of Christ because we want to be His. As Paul mentioned earlier, we can’t belong to Christ if we don’t take on the spirit of Christ. So how can one obtain this precious spirit? By imitating each spirit that Christ our Lord possessed. When we make a commitment to follow Jesus we are also making a commitment to put on the spirit of Christ. It takes a conscious, sincere effort to follow Jesus. Are we putting on the spirit of Christ? Does He know that we are an imitator of Him?