THINKING CHRISTIANS

/JJ T. Mark Duncan

. to myLord, Sit at my right hand until I make your
enemies your footstool." He then asks the Pharisees
how can Messiah be both David's son and David's
Lord. Jesus thus confounded the Pharisees, who
prided on their knowledge of
They d1d rtot understand that the person of Mess1ah
must be both human and divine.
One of the many things which amazes me about our
great Lord and Savior was His ability to say the right
things at just the right time. In Matthew 22, Jesus
confounded the Sadducees (who were trying to trick
Him) by turning their unbelief against them. The
Sadducees, who were the religious of the
day, did not believe the Scriptures. This unbelief
was especially evidenced by their rejection of the
resurrection. The Sadducees tested Jesus by It is evident that Jesus, as a man, understood the
presenting Him with a hypothetical problem necessity of ordering His thoughts according to
resulting from the Levirate law. According to. this God's word. Jesus, the man, was a thinker. As a
law, if a man died with no children, his next of kin man, Jesus was sinless yet grew in wisdom (Luke
had a duty to marry the widow and raise up children 2:52). He studied God's word diligently and
in the dead man's name. In the absurd situation saturated His mind with it. Jesus' interaction with
presented by the Sadducees, brothers truirried . . people that He loved His heavenly
the same poor woman, none of whom was Father w1th His mmd. .
successful fathering a child. In the resurrection, the
Sadducees wondered, whose wife will she be. I When the Pharisees asked Jesus to tell them which is
love Jesus' response to those unbelieving the great commandment in the law, our Lord
hypocrites: "You are mistaken, not knowing the responded with these words: "You shall love the
Scriptures or the power of God. For in the wrd your God with all your he<lrt, with all your
resurrection they neither marry nor are given in soul, and with all your mind" (Matthew 22:37).
marriage, but are like angels of God in heaven"
(Matthew Knowing that the Sadducees
could not care less this p,oor widow, Jesus
responded directly to .. their declaring that
God is not the God of the dead but of the living.
Not learning the hard lesson the now red-faced
Sadducees had just learned, the Pharisees gathered
to see if they coulci successfully place Jesus on the
horns of a dilemma. They asked Jesus a
question concerning the greatest law. So far so
good. Now it is time for Jesus to ask them a
question. It was a question about the persot:t of
Messiah. Whose son, Jesus asks, is Messiah. The
Pharisees properly respond that Messiah is the son
(descendant) of David. Jesus follows up that
response by quoting Psalm 110:1, "The LORD said
The Counsel of Chalcedon October 1990 Page 4
Although each portion of Christ's response carries
great significance, the part most Christians least
understand is the command to love God with their
minds.
How does one love God with the mind?. The Greek
word translated "mind" has reference to the intellect
and is indicative of the ability to think deeply
through a matter. Of all God's creatures, only man
has the ability to reason. Ability to think is part of
what it is to be made in the image of God. To love
God with our mind means to glorify our Sovereign
Lord with our intellectual faculties.
This whole area of loving God with the mind is
l'recisely where the. Church of Jesus Christ has
failed in the last 100 years. Christianity invented the
university. Practically all the private colleges and
universities in America were founded by Christians.
When our nation was being established, Christians
understood the importance of loving God with their
minds. Pastors were the most hightly educated and
intellectually adept citizens of the community. The
Church directed society both intellectually and
spiritually. The Church understood in order to build
a godly nation, she must educate her people to think
God's thoughts after Him, In the not too distant
past, Christianity was convinced of the necessity to
develop in her people a distinctively Christian world
and life view.
It is because the Church has failed to stress the
importance of loving God with the mind that
America has decayed morally. Ideas have
consequences. Before the Constitution of the United
States was ratified, at least one state required belief
in Jesus Christ to be eligible to vote. The reasoning
was, if someone did not believe in Christ, they could
not be trusted to possess the moral ability to vote for
the good of the people. Once Christianity gave up
the intellectual leadership of our nation, humanistic
ideas slowly began to fill the vacuum. Ideas have
consequences. Godly ideas bring wealth to a
civilization. Evil ideas (even when espoused in the
name of good) bring woe to a civilization.
Abortion, pornography, evolutionary humanism,
and oppressive taxation are just a few of the sad
results from the intellectual withdrawal of
Christianity from our culture. The Puritans came to
this continent to establish a Christian civilization, a
nation whose God is the Lord. Many Christians
now wait for the rapture rather than developing,
from Scripture, an intellectual alternative to
humanism. Christ promised that the very gates of
Hell will not prevail against His Church. A gate is a
defensive structure. God's people should therefore
be storming the gates of Hell with the powerful
gospel of God's truth.
Because we wallow in a sea of humanistic
intellectualism, it is more important than ever for
Christians to love the Lord with their minds. The
primary way we do this is through an intimate
knowledge of Scripture. In II Timothy 2:15 it is
written: "Be diligent to present yourself approved to
God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the Word of truth." Peter
commands believers to "always be ready to give a
defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the
hope that is in you" (I Peter 3: 15).
Paul writes in Ephesians 4 that Christ has given
pastors and teachers in the Church that the saints
might be equipped for the work of the ministry, to
gain a knowledge of the Son of God, that believers
no longer "be children, tossed to and fro and carried
about with every wind of doctrine." Loving the
Lord with our minds, therefore, has great benefit for
us. It gives us that stable foundation upon which we
can build our lives.
Failure to love the Lord with our minds, on the other
hand, has devastating consequences. The book of
Hebrews teaches when we fail to enrich our minds
with the solid food of God's Word, we are baby
Christians "unskilled in the word of righteousness"
(Hebrews 5:13). In verse 14 the writer states: "But
solid food (meat of God's Word) belongs to those
who are of full age, that is , those who by reason of
use have their senses exercised to discern both good
and evil." This passage teaches that if believers are
to become discerning Christians, that is , if they are
to have the ability to distinguish between good and
evil, they must devote their minds to God's Word.
V "Christians have failed to love the J
I Lord with their minds and as a result
cannot discern good and evil." A
This is precisely the problem of the 20th century
Church. Christians have failed to love the Lord with
their minds and as a result cannot discern good and
evil. Many Christians vote for politicians who
support abortion. Many other Christians support
government mandated wealth redistribution in the
form of higher taxes. (This, of course, is done in
the name of compassion for the poor). Most
Christians do not recognize that Social Security
system is a violation of the 1st and 8th
commandments. Oppresive taxation is not merely a
political problem, it is a moral problem. While
many Christians express moral outrage at the
insidious evil of abortion (and it is every Christian's
responsibility to do so) why are conservative, Bible
believing Christians not outraged when the Civil
government declares itself to be god and provider?
Should we be more concerned about human life than
the good name of God? Is it right to be more
concerned about the 6th commandment than the 1st?
Any government which demands more than God's
tithe is setting itself up as god. Men, therefore,
become slaves to the state rather than slaves to God.
They become idol worshippers in direct violation to
the first table of the law. It is a sad commentary on
our times that many prefer statist slavery to the
freedom (and responsibility) Christianity brings.
Most Christians have never even thought about
government's responsibility to rule according to
The Counsel of Chalcedon October 1990 Page 5
. God's law. That is the sum of the . problem.
Christians do not think .. Few pastors challenge their
people to love God with the mind.
Christians are commanded not to be conformed to
this world (Romans 12:2). For over 100 years the
Church has conformed to the demands of culture.
God says culture must conform to the demands of
His law. God's people must be salt and light in
such a way as to mold our nation into conformity to
God's moral requirements. Our duty is to work for
God's will to be done on earth as it is in heaven
(Matthew 6:10).
How are we to accomplish such a lofty task? We
accomplish this by loving God with our minds. We
accomplish our God-given task by saturating our
minds with God's Word. We inust look at the
world through the lenses of Scripture. For example,
when the news media constantly barrage us with the
evils of discrimination, those who love God with
their minds know, in some cases, God requires us to
discriminate. For His own righteous reasons, God
does not permit women to hold office in the Church.
While it is true that men and women are spiritual
equals in Christ (Galatians 3:28) God has ordained
different roles for men and women irt the divinely
ordained institutions of Church, family, and state.
That is discrimination. Only men who demonstrate a
high degree of spiritual maturity are qualified to be
officers of the Church. That too, is discrimination.
God commands us to discriminate. We must
discriminate with regard to Church membership.
Only believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are eligible
for membership in the local assembly.
The news media constantly portrays opponents to
homosexuality as uncompassionate, bigoted, and
discriminatory. This has affected. the minds of some
Christians to the extent that an "evangelical" leader
has said that God permits some homosexual
relationships. Christians who love the Lord with
their minds know that love is measured in terms of
rendering to men what they need the most. To love
a homosexual, therefore, is not to "accept him as he
is" but rather challenge him to repent of his
abominable immorality and flee to Christ for
forgiveness. Until that homosexual repents,
however, God requires us to discriminate against
him. Unless the Church of Jesus Christ presses
civil government with the necessity to discriminate
against those who practice this perversion, churches
and Christian schools may one day face lawsuits for
refusing to hire such individuals. We must never
allow the humanist to define compassion or morality
for us, for if we truly love the Lord with our minds
we know God's law is the only objective standard of
right and wrong. When society changes the
The Counsel of Chalcedon . October 1990 Page 6
definition of morality, God's people must oppose
that change with all their might.
How can we love God with our minds? The most
important thing one can do is study the Scriptures.
It is essential to develop a consistent daily time of
Bible study and meditation. I encourage all who
read this to find a church which believes and teaches
the ~ h o l courtsel of God. Take advantage of
everything that the church has to offer. It is
primarily through the local church that believers are
challenged and encouraged to love the Lord with the
mind. It is also important for believers to read good
Christian literature. God uses gifted servants to help
His people love Him with their minds. The fact you
are now reading The Counsel of Chalcedon is
indicative of a desire on your part to more effectively
love . God with your mind. . Reading serves to
stimulate our thinking and therefore helps our
understanding of the Scriptures.
There may be some readers of this who lack self
confidence in their intellectual ability to understand
Scripture. While it is true that parts of the Bible are
very difficult to understand, it must be kept in mind
that God designed the Bible to be understood by the
common man. The Bible was not designed for the
seminary graduate or the "intellectual." The Holy
Scriptures were designed for everyday people to
study and understand. Because all. believers have.
the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9) all can understand the
Scriptures. That is not to say the task is easy.
Twentieth century Christians fail to love God with
their minds precisely because it requires discipline.
Most things in life which are really worthwhile
require diligence and hard work. It is difficult to
love the Lord with the mind, butthe fruits which
flow from it are well worth the endeavor. May God
richly bless you as you seek to love Him with all
your heart, soul, and mind. n
Theists--The( onom)ists
We thought that the following true story would be a
humorous conclusion to Mark Duncan's article,
''Thinking, Christians.''
Recently a young girl was moving to our section of
Atlanta from a nearby area. An adult f1iend inquired
if the little girl would now be attending Chalcedon
Christian School. "Oh no!" she replied, "My pastor
told me that all of their teachers are Theists." (Editor-
! checked with Chalcedon Christian School Head-"
master Robert T. Lester, and he did confirm that this
is indeed true--all of the teachers are committed
Theists.)