29 March, 2024

Christian Thinking and Christian Living

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by | 20 July, 2008 | 0 comments

By H. Lynn Gardner

Our thinking shapes our behavior. Thinking has fallen on hard times. People decide to vote for or against a candidate because they like or dislike his or her appearance. They choose a church because they like a preacher or get a good feeling from the experience. Many give more thought to choosing dog food than to deciding about Christ.

Giving little attention to Christian thinking has produced superficial Christianity. Bill Hybels recently admitted the seeker approach had made a “mistake” in emphasizing church programming rather than teaching converts to be “self-feeders” through Bible study1.

We must return to emphasizing Christian thinking because Scripture makes clear that correct thinking is essential to Christian living. Wrong actions come from wrong thinking (Mark 7:21-23).

Bringing Our Thinking into Harmony with Christ”s Truth

We are to bring “every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5, English Standard Version). We must bring our thinking into harmony with God”s thinking. Our information age is awash with wrong ideas and false teachings about life and religion on TV, the Internet, and in the media. Books, magazines, and conversations are full of them. At every turn the world bombards us with its way of thinking.

How refreshing to find those who love and genuinely seek truth. Thinking Christians want the wisdom of God more than the wisdom of the world. We must not choose human opinion over divine truth. We must submit our minds to the God of the universe and learn from him. He will help us interpret every aspect of life and the world in the light of his Word.

Christian thinking means viewing the whole of reality from God”s point of view. Since God designed and created the physical universe and life, we will gain our best understanding of anything in this world when we view it in light of its relationship to its Maker. We must constantly study God”s Word and correct our ideas and thoughts to reflect his truth.

Loving God with Our Minds

Jesus instructed, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). Love for God should be the driving force in our effort to understand life in this world. Knowing and serving God by submitting one”s entire self to him brings renewal of our minds and directs our whole life.

God created us. Sin messed us up. God redeemed us, giving us back the full potential of humanity for which he created us. With our whole being renewed, love for God motivates us to serve him in every aspect of our lives.

Seth Wilson taught, “What you teach people to love is more important than what you teach them to learn.” Love for God deserves first priority in our hearts.

Loving God with one”s mind will make us honest and fair in our business dealings. It makes employers and employees serve others as they would serve Christ. It guides us in the use of computers and electronic devices so we don”t corrupt our minds or hurt others. We treat our family and others as we would want to be treated.

Loving God does not mean you are filled with a certain warm, fuzzy feeling; it means you put him first in every part of your life. Knowing God”s greatness and holiness and recognizing and repenting of our unworthiness bring joy. The overpowering love of God expressed on the cross “demands my soul, my life, my all.”2

Holiness of Life Issues from Purity of Heart

Holiness begins in the heart. “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). Jesus speaks of the center and core of our being. Heart is the inner person including mind, emotion, will, and conscience. “The hidden person of the heart” designates the seat of intellectual and spiritual life (1 Peter 3:4, ESV. See also Philippians 4:7; 2 Corinthians 3:14, 15).

The pure in heart choose one priority. Pleasing God is their most important passion, desire, goal, and motivation. They obey God by what they say and do and by what they avoid. At the center of their being they have made an unreserved commitment to God. This commitment is total and free from any reservation. It extends to how they think about everything (Luke 14:25-33).

The holy person has “clean hands and a pure heart” and rejects all falsehood (Psalm 24:4). “Teach me wisdom in the secret heart. . . . Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me” (Psalm 51:6, 10, ESV). “For as he thinks within himself, so he is” (Proverbs 23:7, New American Standard Bible). “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23, ESV).

A pure heart is single-minded. We should not think one way about physical things and another way about spiritual things. A double mind results in a divided life and divided loyalty. Using one”s voice to pray and praise God on Sunday morning and then on Monday morning using the same voice to take God”s name in vain and tell lies and dirty jokes, reveals a divided mind.

J. I. Packer says we “need to blow the whistle on the sidelining of personal holiness” prevalent in Western Christianity. He cites “the shift of Christian interest away from the pursuit of holiness to focus on fun and fulfillment, ego-massage and techniques for present success, and public issues that carry no challenge to one”s personal morals.” Scripture strongly insists “that Christians are called to holiness, that God is pleased with holiness but outraged by unholiness, and that without holiness none will see the Lord.”3

God works through our experiences to develop, shape, strengthen, and mature us. Packer states, “The joys and sorrows, fulfillments and frustrations, delights and disappointments, happiness and hurts, that make up the emotional reality of our lives, all these experiences are part of his curriculum for us in the school of holiness, which is his spiritual gymnasium for our reshaping and rebuilding in the moral likeness of Jesus Christ.”4

As we learn from Jesus we can be pure in heart. What really counts is not our IQ, our accomplishments, how many books we have read, or how many conferences we have attended””what really counts is the commitment of our heart to Christ.

Developing the mind of Christ prepares us to act and speak as he desires. We study the Bible, ponder its meaning, draw appropriate conclusions from it, and make personal applications. Feeding on God”s Word can keep us from bitterness, self-pity, and self-centeredness and bring us peace, joy, love, humility, and hope.

Conversion Includes a Change of Thinking

Nancy Pearcey grew up in a Lutheran home and attended a Lutheran school. She knew what Christianity taught but did not know why it was true. Her Jewish friend was Jewish because she wanted to please her parents. Nancy was a Christian for the same reason. Since pleasing their parents led to contradictory conclusions, she decided it was not a good way to decide the truth of a religion.

Later, she became convinced that Christianity was, in fact, true and be-came a believer. Christianity answered her deepest questions: the cry of the human heart for purpose and meaning, a truth big enough to live by, and the hunger of the human heart for eternity.5

Once we discover that the Christian worldview is really true, then living it out means offering up to God all our powers””practical, intellectual, emotional, artistic””to live for Him in every area of life. The only expression such faith can take is one that captures our entire being and redirects our every thought. The notion of a secular/sacred split becomes unthinkable. Biblical truth takes hold of our inner being, and we recognize that it is not only a message of salvation but also the truth about all reality. God”s Word becomes a light to all our paths, providing the foundational principles for bringing every part of our lives under the Lordship of Christ, to glorify Him and to cultivate His creation.6

We must not just hide ourselves within our own little Christian subculture. We can appreciate the great things done in our world. We must evaluate each by the truth of God”s Word. Our biblical perspective guides us every time we read the newspaper, watch TV, choose a DVD, surf the Internet, read a book, or talk with a friend.

As a cocky young athlete, Michael Wilkins renounced Christ and the church because the Christian life seemed weak and pathetic. In Vietnam, one night on guard duty, he reviewed the day. He had killed the hated enemy gleefully that day without a twinge of conscience. He saw his buddies maimed. That night he experienced brokenness and admitted the evil in his heart.

Later he accepted Jesus as Savior and Lord. Today he is the dean and professor of New Testament at Talbot School of Theology in California.7 A change in thinking is essential to a change in life.

God designed the church to be the pillar and ground of the truth

(1 Timothy 3:15). Local congregations need a strategy for providing spiritual and intellectual training. Feel-good sermons and entertaining programs will not do it. Sermons with solid biblical content feed the mind and soul. We need Bible lessons in Sunday school, youth meetings, and small groups that teach and apply biblical principles to daily living.

What can a congregation do to teach her members to know, believe, understand, and apply God”s Word?

“¢ Find ways to teach basic Bible doctrine, evidences for Christianity, methods of Bible study, church and Restoration history, and practical ministry.

“¢ Incorporate five-minute talks in the worship service by persons telling how Christian principles have helped them in their job and life.

“¢ Have a program of study preparing young people for the college experience.

Can you come up with good ideas for training church members to be thinking Christians?

________

1“Willow Creek Repents?” http://blog.christianitytoday.com/outofur/archives/2007/10/willow_creek_re.html; see Gary Hawkins and Cally Parkinson, Reveal: Where Are You (Chicago: Willow Creek Association, 2007).

2Isaac Watts, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”

3J. I Packer, Rediscovering Holiness (Ann Arbor: Servant Publications, 1992), 9.

4Ibid., 16, 17.

5Nancy Pearcey, Total Truth (Wheaton: Crossway, 2004), 52, 55.

6Ibid., 55, 56.

7Michael J. Wilkins, The NIV Application Commentary: Matthew (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2004), 221, 222.




H. Lynn Gardner is retired after serving many years as professor and dean at Ozark Christian College.




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“ONLINE EXTRA: Making Disciples–An Interview with Ethan Magness” by Darrel Rowland

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