How to Be a Thinking Christian, Obstacles to Being a Thinking Christian and Consequences of Failing to Love God with All Your Mind
Matthew 22:37 commands us to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is a command to be a thinking Christian. In the second post in this series, I considered what it means to be a thinking Christian and make the case for being a thinking Christian. In this essay, we will address obstacles that stand in the way of becoming a thinking Christian.
Obstacles to Being a Thinking Christian
By now I trust we agree that serious thinking and study are a normative part of the Christian life. In fact, we probably knew that even before I produced my arguments for thinking Christianly. But, if we know it, why don’t we do it?
What are the barriers that arise to keep us from being thinking Christians? In answer to this question, there are at least three places to look.
- First, there are the misunderstandings of the fundamentalist Christian heritage. As a result, much of evangelicalism is markedly anti intellectual.
- Second, we raise barriers when we make false distinctions between sacred and secular.
- Third, we have various personal barriers that we erect to protect us from the hard work of thinking as a Christian.
Anti-Intellectualism in the Church
When we read the following passages, we can understand how they are misinterpreted if taken out of context. They appear to be attacking human knowledge, human wisdom (i.e., philosophy) and the serious thinking we have been discussing.
Where is the one who is wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the debater of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men (1 Co. 1:20-25).
See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ (Col 2:8).
Now concerning food offered to idols: we know that “all of us possess knowledge.” This “knowledge” puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know (1 Co. 8:1-3).
James Sire helps us understand the meaning of these passages:
Many Christians have interpreted these passages to mean that Christians should avoid the world of scholarship and philosophy. This is surely not a proper understanding of Paul’s word. He is not objecting to good thinking but to inaccurate thinking, especially of the sort that insists on its accuracy. Paul is rather putting God’s genuine knowledge against claims to human knowledge.[1].
The Mistaken Division of Sacred and Secular
The Bible never divides one’s life into sacred and secular parts. The Reformers rightly taught that we must integrate our faith with every part of our life. Faith was not something left behind at the church every Sunday, only to be picked up again the following week. Rather, the Christian faith is to inform and influence our work, relationships, studies, and all of our endeavors.
Unfortunately, many believers caught up in the culture of our day don’t understand or practice this. Instead, the tendency is to privatize religion and place it in its own separate compartment. One result of this is that intellectual life is only a part of our secular life and is separate from our faith life. Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland laments,
“As a result, Sunday school classes, discipleship materials, and sermons too often address the heart and not the head, or focus on personal growth and piety and not on one cultivating an intellectual love for God in my vocation.”[2]
Erected Barriers
Perhaps the most significant barriers to becoming a thinking Christian are those we erect ourselves. Here is a list I have compiled from my experience and in talking with others at the churches I have attended over the years:
- I didn’t like school and I don’t want to repeat the pain I experienced.
- I’m afraid that I will seem stupid because I know little about the Bible or church stuff.
- I don’t have enough time.
- I’m just too tired to spend any time studying after work.
- It’s not one of my priorities.
- I just don’t have that kind of mind.
None of these excuses are valid. Let’s look at each one.
(1) This is not about school, and you are a great deal more mature than you were then. This is about being obedient to God. No one expects more of you than you can do, but God expects you to give it your best.
(2) People are often afraid to discuss what they know little about. No one wants to look stupid. Attending a Bible study or class at your church doesn’t require you to engage in deep discussion. Just by attending and listening, you will learn. Also, teachers always welcome questions. Show up, listen, learn and ask questions when you need to. This is being a thinking Christian.
If you still fear you don’t know enough, visit with your pastor, or an elder, and ask them to help you develop a learning plan. Fear of looking bad is not a valid reason for not loving God with your mind.
(3) Everyone has the same number of hours available each day. All of us have time when we are not working or engaged in other necessary commitments. The question is how we decide to use that time.
(4) Here are some thoughts: go to bed earlier; get up earlier and work your mind while it most fresh; when you come home from work, take a walk either before or after dinner and see how it energizes you. If you want to do something you value as important, you will do it.
(5) Perhaps you need to reconsider your priorities. Just where does serving and obeying God fit into your priority list? How do you spend your free time? Are there activities or distractions you can pare back or eliminate? For example, here are some things I’ve allowed to suck up too much of my time and needed to address (note how many are related to technology):
- Watching television. I’m an avid NASCAR fan, and enjoy watching the Kansas City Chiefs. I haven’t cut those events out of my schedule, but I watch little else on TV other than the news.
- Social media
- Video games
- Streaming movies
- Reading only for entertainment
Now, I am not advocating you to stop doing things you enjoy. I still engage in these activities, but I work hard to limit the time I spend on them. Doing things that enhance my ability to be a thinking Christian outranks all the above.
(6) What kind of mind are you talking about? Most of us are not scholars. But God gave you a mind and a certain capacity to think. Are you using your mind in the way God intended, or are you just being lazy?
These are tough words, but as you can see, there are answers to each of these excuses for failing to think like a Christian. If we give in to these excuses, we and the church will suffer the consequences of not fully using the intellectual capacity God has given us.
Consequences of Failing to be a Thinking Christian
In a previous post, we considered the likelihood of slipping into conformity with the world. When we don’t think Christianly, we are in danger of accepting the worldview we learn from the unbelieving culture surrounding us.
Example: California Embryonic Stem Cell Research Vote
Instead of transforming our minds, we think like the world, including its understanding of what is wrong and what is right. An example of this is a vote to fund embryonic stem-cell research in California. This measure passed with 64% of the vote. With this margin, it is likely that a sizable number of Christians voted for the proposal.
This occurred soon after the deaths of President Regan and Christopher Reeve and was an emotionally charged issue. No one wanted to reject a proposal that might save lives. But what are the facts about embryonic stem-cell research?
In brief, here they are: it requires the death of human persons; there have been no positive therapeutic results from using embryonic stem-cells; and there have been positive therapeutic results from using adult stem-cells or stem-cells from umbilical blood (neither of which requires the death of a human person). The problem is it took study, research and thinking to learn these facts. It is likely many Christians in California voted with the majority because they were ignorant of these facts.
Bad Thinking May Lead to Idolatry
Another result of failure to develop the Christian mind is the danger of falling into idolatry. Herbert Schlossberg provides a modern definition for idolatry:
Idolatry in its larger meaning is properly understood as any substitution of what is created for the creator. People may worship nature, money, mankind, power, history, or social and political systems instead of the God who created them all. The New Testament writers, in particular, recognized that the relationship need not be explicitly one of cultic worship; a man can place anyone or anything at the top of his pyramid of values, and that is ultimately what he serves. The ultimacy of that service profoundly affects the way he lives.[3]
This raises the question of how we are using our minds? We can and should use our minds to follow our vocations and avocations, so long as we are using them to please God. The problem creeps in when we leave God out of the equation.
When don’t consider what the Scriptures say that may apply to our topic of consideration. When we leave our Christianity at church and allow secular thinking to dominate our mind at all other times. The result is that we will slip into some form of idolatry unless we discipline our minds to think as Christians.
Thinking Like the Unbelieving Culture
Another weakness stemming from our failure to think Christianly is our inability to withstand the pressures and attacks that come at us from the unbelieving world.
To make my point, let me ask you where you stand on the evolution–creation debate?
Our public schools teach Darwinian evolution and methodological naturalism as fact. Pick up any news magazine and you will find reference to the truth of evolution. We can say the same of almost any “nature” show on television.
Do you know that Darwinian evolution and naturalism have no place for God in their systems? Yes, someone may call themselves theistic evolutionists, but the theistic evolutionist has simply baptized Darwin. Naturalism does not need God and if it allows a place for God at all, he removed from the empirical evidence produced by science. Yet, many Christians accept evolution as fact and do not understand the consequences of this acquiescence? How can the church stand against the powers of the world when its members don’t understand what is at stake?
Conclusion
The only way to avoid these traps is to be a thinking Christian. This means knowing what you believe and why you believe it. It requires at least a basic understanding of biblical teaching. And it involves questioning anything that contradicts Scripture.
Next in the series: Practical Advice on Being a Thinking Christian
Recommended Resources
Notes
[1] James W.Sire, Habits of the Mind, (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2000), 205
[2] J. P. Moreland, Love God With All Your Mind, (Colorado Springs, CO: Navpress, 1997), 27.
[3] Herbert Schlossberg, Idols for Destruction, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1990), 6.
