We live in an age when it is considered uncouth to say anything detrimental about anyone. This has much to commend it. No one should demean the disabled (mental or physical), people of certain ethnic origins, the poor, etc. But the Bible pulls no punches when it comes to venerating wisdom and knowledge and disparaging those who have not worked hard to attain those two companions. The Bible is full of tight logic, well argued thought and sensible conclusions. God expects us to think and put arguments together and arrive at conclusions that agree with it because it is right. Proverbs 9:6 (ESV)
Leave your simple ways, and live,
and walk in the way of insight.”
We live in a culture that quite often values the mundane, the simple, the ordinary, the stupid … . Philosophy and logic and well argued thought are not near as important as they ought to be. And the Bible is clearly on the side of good thinking. People should not use their lack of education as an excuse for not knowing things and not being able to put cogent thoughts together. They need to get out of the chair of nothingness and sit in the chair of hard mental strain. A good reminder from God to us today about the importance of not wasting the minds He has given us. I can bemoan the fact that God did not make me as intelligent as the biblical scholars that I read. But maybe the principle difference between them and me is not the IQ but rather hard work. Scholars are made, not born and I have adopted many habits that make me culpable for my lack of wisdom, knowledge and well fired brain power. Lord, forgive me and help me to show repentance in hard mental activity that demonstrates itself in understanding.
Many in the church today separate what God has joined together – heart and mind. To say that we are to use our heads is not to say that our hearts should be cold, dead, and unemotional. The greatest commandment does not say love God with all your heart soul OR mind. It says heart AND mind. We must not emphasize heart or mind to the neglect of the other.
Sola deo gloria.
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