Adopt the thoughts of the Lord Jesus Christ

One of the most important aspects of thinking like Jesus is just to think in the first place. Most people are extremely passive about their lives and do their best to avoid the thought necessary to be intentional.

Passive people may hide behind the excuse that they trust in God. Submission to God and passivity toward life are not the same. The Lord is both the most submissive and the least passive individual there is. He is absolutely submissive to the Father, as we must be if we are to follow his example. In his life, he was constantly confronted with changes he had to make to better live as the Father would in his place. He immediately implemented every improvement and rejoiced in the opportunity to do so.

How do you respond to correction? Unfortunately, human nature opposes learning. Once they learn something, most people think they know everything. Paul said, “Be not wise in your own conceits.” (Romans 12:16) God can’t teach you anything when you think you know everything.

Submissive people, like Jesus, are teachable. They are willing—and even eager—to learn how they can improve; they want to know what they are wrong about and what they are ignorant of.³ They hunger and thirst after righteousness. Jesus said we ought to become like little children.⁴ We, like children, should question everything, assume there is far more than what we know, and seek after frequent paradigm shifts. We should test all new ideas and hold to those that are better than whatever we had before.⁵ How do you react when you are confronted with ideas that conflict with your preconceived notions? Are you as willing as he was to instantly leave behind what you thought you knew when presented with something better? As you do, like Jesus, you will “...increas[e] in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man.” (Luke 2:52) No matter what you think you know, there may be more that God has for you to learn. We know from the account of his ordeal in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross that Jesus was still being confronted with ideas he did not expect until the final moments of his mortal life.⁶ Do you expect to figure it out faster?

While it is not possible to be more submissive to the Father or the truth than Jesus was, it is also not possible to be more courageous and tenacious to what he knew was better. Submission to the Father and the truth requires uncommon boldness in the face of challenges to either. You cannot serve God and anything else.⁷ Loving him above all else leaves no room for anything that conflicts with his character in your life.⁸ How do you respond to ideas that contradict the truth in God? Do you call out bad ideas, even when offered by those with seemingly good intent, and even when they are friends or family?⁹ Do you do your best to persuade others toward what is better?¹⁰

If you want to think like Jesus, you’ll have to get better at perceiving and correctly assessing the long-term net benefit of potential actions for yourself and others. You cannot do what is best without considering your options. You can’t do what is best beyond the limits of the options you perceive or the accuracy of your estimate of the cost and benefit of each. To do what is best, you have to pay attention to how your plans are turning out and make changes as soon as you learn they are necessary.