There are a lot of Christians who are, subtly or overtly, opposed to thinking. Oh, maybe not thinking. Maybe just thinking too much. In worship, for instance, they think a warm feeling and a sense of God is much better than "Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God" (Col 3:16). "Teach and admonish?? No, no ... it's better to just 'feel the Spirit move'." The concept of Apologetics, a defense of the faith, is not very popular despite the command (1 Peter 3:15; Jude 1:3). And, seriously, all this "theology" and "orthodoxy" stuff ... is that really necessary? Well ... apparently God thinks so.
Jesus commended the Pharisees for being able to reason from the sky conditions to the forecast, but warned them about not being able to do the same from the given signs (Matt 16:2-4). We are commanded to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind" (Matt 22:37). We are told to "be transformed by the renewal of your mind" (Rom 12:2; Eph 4:23). Paul has a list of things -- "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise" -- to think about (Php 4:8).
God gave us a brain to think. Scripture commands us to think. The entire Bible is written on the premise that we can think. God's Word even tells us what to think about. "Set your minds on the things above" (Col 3:2). Peter says we should be preparing our minds for action (1 Peter 1:13). We're to think about "how to answer" (Prov 15:28) and set our minds on the things of the Spirit (Rom 8:5-6). Don't buy the idea that the most spiritual person isn't thinking but feeling. Scripture disagrees.
2 comments:
Too much of the western world has given up on thinking. But it was Christianity that encouraged thought. The early scientists believed they were thinking God's thoughts. The Reformation encouraged people to think and learn about God, bringing about wide literacy so that more people could read and understand the Bible. They introduced universities to encourage people to think about God. All of that has been perverted, as humans are want to do, but thinking about God was important to Christianity for 2000 years. Only now, when we have rejected objective reality, has feeling about God become dominant. But we can't feel correctly about things we don't actually know about.
I needed to think about this post a bit, as I wasn’t immediately certain how I felt about it. LOL. Seriously, of course, I concur 100%. Both our rational and emotional faculties are important gifts from God, but a balanced utilization of all aspects of our brain’s functions is crucial (as is vigilance regarding the ways the devil and our sinful natures might be influencing or controlling any of them). I am mindful :) that your recent statement, “orthodoxy -- right thinking -- precedes orthopraxy -- right practice” (from 5/12/25), correctly implies that our intellectual and reasoning activities must be dominantly active in order to then live rightly before the Lord (along the lines of the popular saying that “our feelings should be the ‘caboose’ and not the ‘engine’”).
I found it interesting that in Col. 3:16, which you quoted to begin, Paul says that “teaching and admonishing with wisdom” from God’s Word will naturally lead to “singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” Intellectual activity elicits emotional expression (i.e. thinking, then feeling). In fact, I would say that all of the hymns you featured in your “Col. 3:16” series contained clear expressions of very strong emotions in response to very strong biblical truths--engaging both the heart and mind of the thinking and feeling person in a God-honoring synchrony.
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