Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. 2 Tim. 2:7
What are we doing with our minds? Think about that for a moment. What is the most taxing mental activity in which you’ve engaged in the last 24 hours? Some of us by necessity spend the bulk of our time engaged in strenuous physical activity. Others are necessarily employed in more intellectually demanding work. But when it comes to “free” time, what are we doing with our minds?
This is a crucial question as the Scriptures call us to love God…with all our minds (Mark 12:30). We are to set our minds on the things above (Col 3:1) and to meditate on the things of God (Psa 1; Phil 4:8).
However, modern technology and culture have made it ever more convenient to spent our free time in mental leisure. We don’t need to remember things—our phones remember everything for us. We don’t need to read or talk—we can be stimulated by an endless selection of mildly to extremely interesting material streamed on the internet. Social media has subtly and not-so-subtly inculcated the fear of missing out such that we must keep up with our feeds.
Worse, in many pockets of the evangelical church, believers have suffered from several generations of topical, man-centered, lowest-common-denominator teaching, which leverages emotional appeal over substantive plea. In other words, decades of less thinking in the pulpit have led to a smaller appetite for deep thinking in the pews. All of this has made it very comfortable for many to love God with everything but the mind.
For that reason, I highly recommend to all John Piper’s book, Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God. In it, Piper makes a plea to “embrace serious thinking as a means of loving God and people” (15).
Mark Noll, who is a history professor at Notre Dame and who studied with Piper at Wheaton College, writes this in the Foreword:
“Much in contemporary American life promotes sloppy thinking or the use of careful thinking for human self-promotion. Much in conservative Christian churches promotes suspicion of modern learning or the use of reactionary emotion to replace thinking. Piper sets out the alternative: thinking (as clearly as possible) linked with the affections (treasuring God as highest good); respect for intellect with caution against intellectual pride; and commitment to diligent study with total reliance on God’s grace” (12).
Piper shares his own story of understanding the significance of deep thinking to the growth of love for God and others. He also makes a biblical case for a God-centered life of the mind, responds to a couple of biblical passages that—on their face—seem to promote anti-intellectualism, and he explains from 1 Cor 8:1-3 how all thinking exists for the love of God and the love of man. In short, he encourages and equips the believer to love God with all the mind.
Who is this book for? “…mainly for the Christian—in or out of school—who wants to know God better, love him more, and care about people” (16).
What does Piper have in mind by “thinking”? Primarily “the amazing act of reading. The best reading of the most insightful literature (especially the Bible) involves serious thinking” (19). One of the best chapters includes how to read deeply, including how to read the Bible asking the right questions.
To that end, this post will be the first of several from the elders in the first half of the summer recommending books to you that will challenge you to think deeply, that you might grow in love for God and love for others.
Think can be acquired as a free pdf or purchased in hardcopy here.
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