In This Shallow Culture, How Can We Keep From Turning Into Trivial Christians?
“Reflect on what I am saying,” Paul wrote, “for the Lord will give you insight into all this” (2 Timothy 2:7). When we invest in understanding and meditating on God’s truths, we become people of depth and substance. If you want depth, you have to behold God’s truth often, allowing it to make the crucial sixteen-inch journey from your head to your heart.
Scripture confronts sin in our lives, prompts us to obedience, and gives us delight in Christ. We need to go to God’s Word, open it, read it, meditate on it, and learn to delight in it. It will make us better, deeper, and happier people.
“For we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you…Therefore we do not give up. Even though our outer person is being destroyed, our inner person is being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:14,16, CSB).
As I shared in this blog, surveys demonstrate that we are currently not winning the battle of renewing our minds by God’s revealed truth. Most evangelical Christians are losing their grip on a biblical worldview. Reversing this trend will never happen without radical and decisive changes in our personal habits: supplementing our personal study of God’s Word with reading truly good books of spiritual substance, and getting solid training in our churches and Bible studies.
So what’s the answer to the question, Does the Church Need More “Heart Knowledge” or More “Head Knowledge”? The answer is yes, we need more of both and less of neither, and we need to not artificially divide them or promote a false choice between them. The biblically-informed mind of Jesus fed and directed His heart, and His heart moved His mind, in complete concert. So it should be for us.
We simply must encourage enhanced biblical and theological knowledge in our churches, so that instead of conforming to the world, we can become transformed by the renewing of our minds, just as Romans 12:1-2 instructs us. This requires our partnership with the work of God’s Spirit. Let’s follow the example of the Apostle Paul, who prayed fervently that the love of the Philippians would “abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, so that you may approve what is excellent, and so be pure and blameless for the day of Christ” (1:9-10).
Let’s not be content with empty entertainment and diversions. Let’s turn instead to the delicious truths in God’s Word that energize, strengthen, sustain, and comfort us. “Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed [how happy!] is the man who takes refuge in him!” (Psalm 34:8, ESV). May God help us to renew our minds, set our minds on things above, and love Him with all our hearts and minds.
This article originally appeared here and is used by permission.
