The tune name for the hymn "May the Mind of Christ, My Savior" is St. Leonards, composed by A. Cyril Barham-Gould (1891–1953) can be used for church worship whose style is more traditional. The meter of the hymn is 8.7.8.5.
The Resound Worship tune for "May the Mind of Christ, My Savior" was composed by Matt Weeks as is recommended if the church worship style is more contemporary.
https://www.resoundworship.org/song/may-the-mind-christ-our-saviour which includes chord chart, Lead sheet, lyric sheet, chordpro, mp3, backing track, choir score, piano score, lyric video, or full song bundle.
Here is the contemporary YouTube version https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3O2TuqjFFc
Here are the original six-verse hymn lyrics composed by Kate B. Wilkinson in 1925. It is recommended that the congregation also sing this version in its regular rotation of worship songs.
May the mind of Christ, my Savior
Live in me from day to day,
By His love and power controlling
All I do and say.May the Word of God dwell richly
In my heart from hour to hour,
So that all may see I triumph
Only through His power.May the peace of God, my Father
Rule my life in everything,
That I may be calm to comfort
Sick and sorrowing.May the love of Jesus fill me
As the waters fill the sea;
Him exalting, self-abasing,
This is victory.May I run the race before me
Strong and brave to face the foe,
Looking only unto Jesus
As I onward go.May His beauty rest upon me
As I seek the lost to win,
And may they forget the channel,
Seeing only Him.
Weekly worship is a composite of the three categorical elements of Westminster Larger Catechism’s structural format, with some parts more embedded in the structure of the worship service and other parts emphasized in the sermon.
WLC 2-5 defines the epistemological principle of Scripture alone, so we practice sola Scriptura formation in weekly worship. WLC 6-90 defines fundamental beliefs about God, the one true God and his works of creation and providence, so we practice soli Deo formation in weekly worship. WLC 1, 91-152 defines duties assigned to the renewed man called the new covenant law of Christ, so we practice lex Christi virtue formation in weekly worship. Lex Christi virtues can be sub-categorized as spiritual (1st- 4th a, 10th Cs about God and heart desires), relational (5th 7th 9th Cs), and material related to labor that produces resources for life in the created world (4th b, 6th, 8th Cs). We could use the acronym for spiritual, relational, and material as “SRM formation.” Finally, WLC 153-196 defines the duties of the 2nd and 3rd Cs about the proper use of the Word, sacraments, and prayer.
However, the Westminster Larger Catechism’s system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures distinctly funnels all knowledge about the value and use of Scripture (sola Scriptura) and about knowing God and his works (soli Deo) into moral law applications (sola lex Christi), starting with faith as the first duty of the 1st commandment. United with Christ by the Spirit through effectual calling to saving faith (WLC 67, 69; WCF 14), faith is exercised on all Scripture as it reveals God and his works, and faith is exercised to enliven other moral law duties (“the obedience of faith” Rom. 1:5; 16:26; “faith working through love” Gal. 5:6; ‘add to your faith other virtues’ 2 Pet. 1:3-11; faith shown by works, Jas. 2:18).
Reformed ministers have vowed to ‘receive and adopt the Westminster Standards as containing the system of doctrine taught in Scriptures.’ That system includes at least four theologically interdependent categories for moral law uses the bridge the gamut of systematic theological categories (WLC 95-97, 28):
1. show us the holy nature and will of our God,
2. show us our inability by virtue omissions and prohibition commissions, why we are subject to its corresponding punishments as fallen in Adam, and danger of wrath, so as to be inexcusable on the day of judgment apart from Christ,
3. show us our need of Christ’s taking the curse due to us for our failure and his active righteous fulfillment of that law as second Adam,
4. show us our virtue duties.
However, our typical worship services do not have the # 1 parallels with God’s holy nature or the # 4 use of the positive virtues of the moral law rehearsed with any prominence. While Christ-centered preaching has become more prominent, I observe that tends to be more about a general statement of justification and forgiveness of sins[1] but seldom hear that message is specifically linked to #3 use in Christ fulfilling specific moral law duties and crediting those specific duties to our account. Typical orders of weekly worship use the moral law as prohibition (# 2 use), reciting some or all of Exodus 20:2-17 for the knowledge of sin and immediately prior to prayers related to confession of sin, which is only half of the WLC 103-148 moral law exposition. There seems to be a reticence to proclaim moral law virtues as the application of every sermon for fear of being labeled a legalist. We have ‘received and adopted Westminster’s system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures’ that the first motion of life within us is faith (WLC 67), but haven’t ‘received and adopted that system’ that exercising faith is our renewed 1st C duty (WLC 104). Preachers might tend to improperly separate faith as God’s first effectual calling grace-gift (WLC 67) from its exercise on other moral law duties, which are also God’s grace-gift. All exercises of faith are from effectual union with Christ by the Spirit, all are by grace.[2] We have extrapolated another 1st C duty of “glorifying God and enjoying him forever” to apply to all of life (WLC 1, repeated within WLC 104), but somehow “faith” has come to mean something distinct from a moral law duty since we have divided Westminster’s system of doctrine, divided faith from work. Our Westminster pastors devoted the other half of WLC 103-148 to explaining all biblical duties from anywhere in Scripture under the rubric of the moral law.[3] Given our vows to represent that system of doctrine taught in the Scriptures, it is concerning that worship services do not rehearse and our preachers do not use #4 more prominently. I’ve observed a preaching tendency to use good biblical applications derived from any textual commands, but a reticence to link a sermon’s applications to some part of the moral law outline. Fragmenting duties under so many sub-variants of separate biblical texts reveals ignorance of Westminster’s symphonic morality system of doctrine and neglects sanctification’s unifying and integrating structural motifs. Westminster Larger Catechism identified how God gave us two Great Commandments about love and ten interdependent love commandments in part to prevent this structural chaos. Why then do nearly all Reformed biblical counseling books address personal discipleship, parenting, marriage, pre-marriage, marketplace ministry, and church ministries as if each were supposed to develop a whole unique set of biblical sub-principles, and nearly all failing to organize their biblical principles under a moral law outline in ignorance of Westminster’s symphonic morality perspective? When this one perspective is neglected as Westminster’s foundational interlocking piece, we lose the interdependent fulfillments in other systematic theological categories. No wonder the world looks more attractive to our children when the virtues of the moral law are not set forth as the purpose of God’s coming kingdom, when the there is no groaning for removal of the sorrows accumulated from the punishments given that correspond to those very laws[4] and when the restoration of all moral law virtues in the new earth[5] are paraphrased and sung as our “hope for heaven” which in literal theological lingo is only a truncated hope for the ethereal intermediate state of our disembodied souls present with Christ until the resurrection (WLC 86).
I wrote the following hymn as one step forward to teach Westminster’s faith-exercised symphonic morality perspective and rectify these substantive omissions.
The preface verses (a) and (b) reveal something about the Scriptures written on our hearts as faith is exercised and used for self-analysis (sola Scriptura). Verses 1-10 correspond to the moral law in order, with the initial two stanzas of each verse reflecting on some relationship of that command to God and his character in Christ (soli Deo, an indicative stanza). In the third stanza, I express an aspect of that commandment's virtue duties, with the final stanza expressing an aspect of its prohibition (sola lex Christi, two imperative stanzas). The suffixed three verses (c), (d), (e) below the score connect the moral law to union with the risen Adam, and our hope to see glimpses of that law in practice today and in the new earth. All verses are derived from Scriptural teachings and biblical allusions. Thus, the hymn combines Westminster Larger Catechism’s three meta-structural elements, together with the moral law’s theologically interdependent connections to salvation and restoration.
The hymn, which I composed using the tune “May the Mind of Christ, My Savior,” may be considered too long at first glance. In reality, many contemporary song leaders repeat verses and choruses numerous times, such that a familiar praise song with five verses and a five-times-repeated chorus, plus a bridge repeated twice, would equal twelve verses. All fifteen verses of the hymn could be sung as a teaching tool on the moral law since the hymn itself is short and has no chorus.
Pre-sermon iteration: In abridged form, it could be used as a weekly three-verse pre-sermon hymn, selecting preface verses (a) and (b) above the score, plus one commandment verse relevant to the primary moral law application of the sermon. This prepares the congregation to listen in faith and ask for more of Christ’s law to be written on our hearts and to reckon our lives by it. (Note: that same commandment should be highlighted in the prayer of confession.)
Sending hymn iteration: In the same service, a second abridged form of the hymn could also be used as a sending in connection with the sermon theme. In that case, the congregation sings the relevant commandment verse again as the first verse, then sings the suffixed three verses (c), (d), (e) below the score about union with the risen Adam, our hope to see glimpses of that law in practice today and in the new earth. Using this iteration, the Gospel is integrated with hope for the coming restoration in the new earth.
[1] This Christ-centered preaching technique is further compounded by an erroneous Lutheran tendency to propose that justification (actually an application of faith-union with Christ) is the cause of sanctification (actually another aspect of faith-union with Christ) , wherein justification becomes the meaning of the Gospel about what God does for us in salvation by grace, while sanctification is what we do in our thankful response to this free grace. In fact, both are the result of gracious, effectual call to faith-union with Christ in all his propitiating and resurrected merits, imparting his life-giving Spirit to forgive and justify, as well as the God-empowered, faith-exercise of that union on the whole Christ as righteous (Rom. 1:16-17; 6:1-13; 8:29-34; Phil. 1:6; 2:12-13; 4:13; Eph. 2:1-10; 2 Cor. 3:18; 1 Cor. 1:30; 4:7; 15:45; WLC 67, 69), see Richard Gaffin, By Faith and Not Sight: Paul and the Order of Salvation, (P & R, 2013), preface by Mark Jones, loc. 249 Kindle edition, and pp. 56, 77-90; and in the Fullness of Time: An Introduction to the Biblical Theology of Acts and Paul (Crossway, 2022), pp. 470-479; and David Powlison, How Does Sanctification Work? (Crossway, 2017), pp. 53-70 where he critiques the imbalanced maxim that remembering justification as the preaching of the Gospel of the forgiveness of Christ’s cross to ourselves should be the stand-alone motivation for sanctification or that we must eliminate all self-effort by eschewing every motive not consciously linked to our free justification. These are not good ways to present either justification or sanctification.
[2] Phil. 2:12-13; 1:6; 4:13; See Ibid, Gaffin, By Faith, 77-84.
[3] I call that the symphonic morality perspective, see my book Westminster Foundations, chapter 3 www.bethoumyvision.net
[4] Rev. 21:4; WLC 28; e.g. 6th C punishments of injury, sickness, demon possession and death replaced by 6th C fulfilment in eternal life; see my book Westminster Foundations, chapter 15 for the full list of virtue fulfillments and the horror of hell’s eternal punishments related to every moral law, foreshadowed in WLC 28 earthly punishments, citing Deut. 28:15-68.
[5] Rev. 21:1-22:5
Lyrics by Timothy Paul Yates, 2025
CC by SA 4.0; 8.7.8.5 meter
Preface verse (a)
May the law of Christ, my Sovereign,
Be written on my heart today,
By the Spirit’s law of life freed
from all wand’ring ways.
Preface verse (b)
May God’s gift of faith empow’r me
to receive the Word of God.
meekly ponder God and his works,
Reckoned by your sword.
1. May my union with Christ pledge me—
spirit joined to husband, head—
Lord exalting, self abasing
None before him; wed.
2. May my mediator’s promise
of new covenant access
draw me near in humble worship;
count idols useless.
3. May my Triune Lord be hallowed
For his attributes and names
Boldy profess; Ne’er complain or
speak his name in vain
4. May the Lord’s six-day creation
And the Lord’s good Sabbath rest
Synchronize my toil to bear fruit
So the seventh blessed
5. May my Father’s blessed family
In the Son’s submission mild
Bring the Spirit of adoption
Honor parents, child
6. May the living Lord of all life
Form Christ’s mercy within me;
Save the guiltless, peace restoring;
From all life-harm, free.
7. May the Lord of glor’ious splendor
Shone in Christ’s desired face
Lure me to vow wedlock’s honor;
Por-nei-a no trace.
8. May the Lord, all self-sufficient,
From abundant providence
By lawful work give daily bread;
Never fraudulent.
9. May the Lord, our truth revealer,
Joined to Christ, the I AM truth,
Witness justly, hopeful, by me;
Falsehood put to death.
10. May the Lord, our wisest shepherd
Cause my thirst for him to pant
Restore my soul, dwell in your house;
E’er I shall not want.
Suffix verse (c)
May the risen Adam’s law-work
Represent my righteousness
Justified, adopted, holy,
Glorified and blessed.
Suffix verse (d)
May the Lord who restores all things
Give me glimpses of that joy
In the law of Christ fulfillments
That I see today
Suffix verse (e)
May the Lord restore lex Christi
Give this groaning world new voice
In Christ each law consummated
The new earth rejoice