Loving God with Your Mind

Today, we’re going to take a look at a bit of Scripture that I can’t help but believe that most of you adults have heard at least one sermon on. It starts with these familiar words.

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Romans 12.1

This is where I’m supposed to talk about devoting your body to God. And that might get a little interesting if I break it down using parts of the body symbolically. Feet represent where you go. Hands, what you do. Ears what you listen to. Eyes, what you look at. And mouth what you say. What do you think? Good outline? Well, I’m not going to talk about any of that this morning. Instead of preaching on Paul’s commands about your bodies, I’m going to speak to you about what Paul has to say about the other aspect of who you are.

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12.2

This morning I’m going to talk about the mind. Your mind is an element of your soul along with your affections and your will. But today, it’s going to be just about the mind and how it needs to be renewed.

Jesus has taught us that we are to love God with our minds. Do you remember the Pharisee’s question?

Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?

And what was Jesus’ answer?

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. Matthew 22.36-37

The importance of loving God with your mind becomes clear when you understand what the mind does. It is the mind that works to understand life. What is good and to be pursued? What is evil and to be avoided? It is the mind that answers the question, ‘What makes life work?’ There are ways to answer that question that are rooted in a love for God. And, sadly, there are ways to answer that question that are rooted in anything but a love for God.

And that gets us to the problem. Why is it that people don’t love God with their minds? Why do they not understand how life works? The problem is, of course, sin.

It is important to understand that sin is not just about guilt. It is most certainly that. But it is also about corruption. Sin takes what is good and twists it up so badly that it can no longer be good or do good. Sin destroys. That is an aspect of sin that needs to be appreciated a bit more that it has been. Sin takes what is good and makes it foul.

Paul wrote about how sin has affected the mind.

Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. Ephesians 4.17

To the pure, all things are pure, but to the defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure; but both their minds and their consciences are defiled. Titus 1.15

For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Romans 8.7

Sin has corrupted our minds. They have become futile, that is, useless; defiled that is, morally defaced and polluted; and hostile. I don’t think you need any synonyms for that. Sin has taken this glorious ability that God created humanity with, and it has perverted it. Loving God with the mind has become impossible.

But Jesus has come. He has come to rescue us from our sin. Not just the guilt of sin though, again, that really is important. He has come also to rescue us from the corruption of sin. And here is one result in us: we are able to love God with the mind - at least, somewhat.

As with the rest of what Jesus has done in His saints, the decisive break with sin has occurred. But now, the power of the Gospel to change us has to spread out and touch all of who and what we are. And that gets us to Paul’s command.

…be transformed by the renewal of your mind…

All right, so that’s the goal that we are to work toward, the renewal of our minds so that we will love God with our minds. But if we are going to make progress in this, we need to know well the obstacles that stand in our way. How can we overcome them if we don’t know what they are?

Here’s one obstacle that has affected just about all of us. We have not been taught how to use our minds so that we will love God like we’re supposed to. This is about how we were educated.

What has been, and continues to be, the goal of education? It’s all about the accumulation of knowledge. The goal is to produce people who know stuff; the more they know, the better. So, education is about facts, things to know. I think that this especially the case with a number of you. Many of you who have received a college education majored in the sciences. Not many literature or philosophy majors in our midst. And what is science about as it is practiced these days? It’s about the knowledge of facts. Which facts you know has been determined by the particular science that you have been trained in. But generally speaking, these days the educated person is understood as the person who knows a lot, at least a lot in his or her field.

Now, is that the right goal? Is that God’s goal? First, it’s important to note that when God talks about the education of the next generation, He uses a broader term: something like ‘training’ or ‘nurturing’. And that’s important, but exploring it will wait for another day.

What is God’s goal when it comes to the training of the next generation? It isn’t knowledge. It’s wisdom. And what is God’s idea of wisdom? It’s the ability to take knowledge and use it to live well. The wise person pursues a life lived well and that to the glory of the God who gave Him a mind to do that. Knowledge isn’t the goal. It’s a means to the real goal: becoming a wise person.

But our culture is all about knowledge alone. And that’s why you hear about brilliant kids, kids with heads filled with all sorts of knowledge, doing some extraordinarily foolish things. They are not wise. They are very knowledgeable, but they don’t know how life works.

So, a thought for those of you who are parents. When it comes to the schooling of your children, what’s the goal? Is wisdom the goal or is it merely knowledge? What God calls for is wisdom. God calls us to produce wise men and wise women. And you teens who will, soon enough, have decisions to make about what you do after high school, this applies to you, too. The goal is not for you to gather more knowledge. It’s for you to become someone who is wise. Keep that goal in mind as you make decisions about your future.

God gave us all a mind so that we could be wise. Sin certainly has made a mess of things. But Jesus has come to redeem our minds. Jesus has come so that we can take whatever knowledge we gather and become very wise people.

So, intent on the goal of wisdom, the Spirit calls us to the renewal of our minds. What does that mean? What are we supposed to do?

When it comes to the need for wisdom, the kneejerk reaction of many Christians is to refer to that verse in James.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. James 1.5

So, you have some important decision that you need to make. What do you do? You ask God for wisdom and - boom - there it is. Isn’t that what the verse is saying?

Well, no. For one thing, taking it that way ignores the context. James, like the rest of the biblical authors, didn’t write in one-line verses. He wrote in paragraphs. In that paragraph, James is actually writing about dealing with trials, not big decisions.

But there’s another problem. This way of thinking assumes that we don’t need the book of Proverbs.

Proverbs is a father teaching his son about life, about how to live well. He’s teaching his son how to become a wise man. You’ll note that he doesn’t tell his son, ‘If ever you need some wisdom, just ask God. That will do the trick’. What does he do instead? He points out things to his son. Look at the ant. Consider the flirtatious woman. Be warned by the sluggard. He takes what the boy knows and uses it to lead him into wisdom. He is nurturing him into becoming a wise man.

So, what are you to do? How are you to renew your mind? How are you to lead the next generation into wisdom? And those of you who are the next generation, what are you to do so that you will be able to love God more and more completely with your mind?

Well, for the older generation there’s this. You can’t pass on what you don’t have. How can you lead someone else into wisdom if you don’t have much of it yourself? So, to quote Proverbs,

The beginning of wisdom is this: Get wisdom, and whatever you get, get insight. Prize her highly, and she will exalt you; she will honor you if you embrace her. Proverbs 4.7-8

This is the first step for young and old alike. Gaining wisdom needs to be important to you. It needs to be a priority, something that you are willing to invest your time and effort in.

But then, the next step is this.

Finally, brothers, 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, think about these things. Philippians 4:8

You need to spend time thinking about the things in that list. And bear in mind that Paul’s lists are always merely examples of many other items that could be included. Spending time thinking on these things is important because pursuing those things, what is true and excellent and whatever else can fit on that list, is pursuing wisdom. It’s pursuing a life well lived. Doing this sort of thing needs to take the time and effort that you are currently giving to some other good things. It needs to become a priority.

But you don’t do any of this by sitting alone in a corner. Wisdom is not gained in the abstract. Proverbs is a look at life as it is being lived: friends, ants, fools, lazy people, diligent people, Godly people, evil people and all the rest. The dad in Proverbs looks at what’s going on all around him and his boy, and he helps his son think through what it means to be honorable or just or excellent. He helps his son think through what being wise looks like in those situations.

So, you can ask yourself what being honorable looks like on the job. Proverbs extols the virtue of diligence. How are you to pursue that in a situation where you are being taken advantage of? What does it mean to rest in the midst of an over-busy world? As you work at getting this wisdom, you will have questions. Good. Take them to the Father. Pray for wisdom. Ask for the ability to understand life in the way that the Scriptures call for. As you do all of this, He will bless you with more wisdom.

And that gets me to this: the format of Proverbs. What is it? It’s a father mentoring his son. We need to be mentored by someone who has some wisdom. That’s face-to-face, back-and-forth conversation. That’s the way that it’s supposed to be. Isn’t that what Moses is talking about here:

You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. Deuteronomy 6.7

Face-to-face, back-and-forth conversation.

And as you mentor these children you will encounter different aspects of life. And as that happens, you have an opportunity to say to them something like this. ‘Let’s take a minute to think about what just happened. What do we know about it? Do we have any decisions that we have to make? What are our options? Which is the best option in this situation? Let’s think about what happened. And then let’s go to the Father with what we think we know and what we think is a wise choice and see what He has to say’. Wisdom is gained by mentoring.

And that leads to this. I think that I can say that not many of us have been mentored into wisdom by our parents. How many of you have had your parents explain life to you in the way that that father of Proverbs explained it to his son? And because of that, we don’t have as much wisdom as we could have or as much as we need. But Jesus knows about that. And He has provided for that need.

I don’t know how many times I have read through the Bible. And yet, the Spirit takes something I’ve read a million times and forces me to notice it in a new way. I suspect that that’s also true of you. So, I’ve been reading 1 Timothy. It’s Paul mentoring Timothy. He is being a father to someone who is his child in the faith. One thing that he does is explain the wise way to be a pastor. Listen to what he wrote.

Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity. … Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 1 Timothy 4.12,15

Here’s what the Spirit has laid on me from this. As your pastor, I am to be your mentor. I am to live in such a way that I set an example for you when it comes to how to live well, how to live wisely. I am supposed to grow in wisdom so that you can see my progress. And the point of that is so that you can imitate me. Now, I want you to know that I feel uncomfortable saying this. But I have to. It’s in the Bible. Paul has described what a pastor is supposed to be and what he is supposed to do. So, according to how Jesus has set things up, and in light of the need of many of you when it comes to not having been mentored, a part of your growing in wisdom is tied to watching me.

As I have reflected on what God is doing in my life, I have given thanks to Him for my recent hearing and balance problems. And I have done that because it has given me an opportunity to help you become wise. You are watching me trust my God as my life has gotten a little harder. According to God’s own plan and His powerful grace, I have become an example of how to deal with that. I think that this is some of what Paul was writing to Timothy about.

I want you to know that I gladly endure these difficulties for your sake because I really do love you all. And that is another gift from God that I thank Him for. Remember, I’m the guy who is content to sit alone in a corner with a book and a cup of coffee. God is changing me.

Now, this will not work, not even a little, if you don’t pray for me. I am no super-saint. I sin just like you do. And the fact of the matter is that I can make a royal mess out of things if I do something really stupid. And don’t you think Satan would love that? So, please pray that I would be able to be a good mentor to you when it comes to passing on what God is teaching me about how to live well.

And then, let’s pray for each other that, by the grace of God, we all will become very wise people, people who love God with our minds.