Love the Lord with Your Mind

As a high school Bible teacher, I have the privilege to introduce my students to the biblical worldview and how it provides the best explanation for reality. Our mission statement as a class is to “love the Lord with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strength by thinking critically about what we believe, why we believe it, and how to apply it to our daily life”. I have adopted part of this mission statement from Jesus’ summary of the law in Matthew 22 where He commands us to worship our Creator with our whole self. What is interesting about this command is that loving the Lord must involve using our faculties to understand what it is we believe and why we hold those beliefs. In his book Love Your God with All Your Mind, J.P. Moreland observes that in 1 Peter 3:15 Peter is exhorting Christians to “be prepared to give rational and good reasons for why we believe what we believe, and this involves the mind.”[1] Therefore, if we are to be faithful ambassadors of Christ, we must seek to think well and properly about the reasons we have for our beliefs.

This principle of thinking well directly relates to our individual discipleship as Christians. Echoing the scriptural teaching on this subject, Saint Augustine observes that the very essence of following Jesus involves the development of the mind.[2] This process, usually referred to as sanctification, results in spiritual transformation. However, this work in the life of the Christian is both the responsibility of the Holy Spirit and the individual. Paul tells us in Romans 12:2 to be continually renewing our minds so that we might be able to discern what is the will of God. Contrary to the modern evangelical emphasis of the Spirit’s role in understanding Scripture, this intellectual renewal involves diligence and dedication in studying to grow in biblical literacy. As Moreland observes, “The Spirit helps us apply the significance of the text, but He does not teach us the cognitive meaning of the text. He leaves that up to us.[3]

Finally, thinking well and properly about what we believe and why is not only essential to the discipline of apologetics, but provides the very foundation for it. One of my favorite Pauline passages is Colossians chapter four where Paul tells the church to “Walk in wisdom towards outsiders, making the best use of the time. Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person” (emphasis mine). In other words, faithful obedience in witnessing to nonbelievers must involve knowing what it is we believe and having good reasons for believing it.

[1] J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with All Your Mind: The Role of Reason in the Life of the Soul (Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress, 2012), 54.

[2] Ibid., 43.

[3] Ibid., 49.