The following are selections from Chapter Two of Love Your God With All Your Mind, Sketching a Biblical Portrait of the Life of the Mind, by J.P. Moreland (click link in sidebar to purchase):

Unfortunately, sincerity is not enough for powerful Christian ministry. We must also have an accurate biblical understanding of what we are to be about . . . According to the Bible, developing a Christian mind is part of the very essence of discipleship unto the Lord Jesus.

Our Lord is a God of reason as well as of revelation . . . His very word is true (John 17:17) , and His church – not the university - is the pillar and support of the truth (1 Timothy 3:15) . . .

The God of the Bible requires teachers who diligently study His Word and handle it accurately (compare 2 Timothy 2:15) and 1 Timothy 4:15-16) . . . The Buddhist is to leave his mind behind, but the Christian God requires transformation by way of its renewal (Romans 12:1-2).

1. Revelation is truth . . . When we affirm that the Bible is a revelation from God, we do not simply assert that God as a person is known in and through it. We also mean that God has revealed understandable, objectively true propositions . . .

2. How does the Holy Spirit help us understand the Bible? … There are three passages typically used to justify the idea that the Spirit helps us understand the meaning of a scriptural text: 1 Corinthians 2:14-15, John 14:26, and 1 John 2:27 . . .

First Corinthians 2:14-15 . . . There are three keys for interpreting the verse. First, the word for ‘accept’ is dechomai . . . Dechomai sometimes has a slightly different shade of meaning, namely, ‘to receive willingly.’ It is used in 2 Corinthians 8:17 to refer to Titus’s acceptance of Paul’s request to visit Corinth. The term has nothing to do with Titus grasping Paul’s request intellectually. It expresses his willingness and openness to accept it. So in our passage, the natural man – the unbelieving person – does not receive willingly the things of God . . .

1 Corinthians 2:14-15 tells us that the Spirit aids the believer in being open to Scripture, in entering into it experientially, and in finding it good and acceptable. The Spirit helps us apply the significance of the text, but He does not teach us the cognitive meaning of the text . . .

John 14:26 . . . This passage does not affirm that the Holy Spirit will teach the meaning of Scripture to believers. It promises to the apostles that the Spirit will inspire them and aid them in remembering the words of Jesus . . .

1 John 2:27 . . . John is addressing a historical situation in which Gnostic-like teachers were claiming special, secret insight into the Bible, a sort of specially illumined wisdom of which they were gatekeepers in much the same way some people today appeal to the Spirit to validate their biblical interpretations . . .

We need local churches dedicated to the task of training believers to think theologically and biblically.

Three Important Texts

Romans 12:1-2 . . . [W]e cannot ‘prove,’ that is, ‘make known to ourselves and to others,’ what God’s will is, without the renewing or transforming of our minds . . .

Matthew 22:37-39 . . . It is interesting to note that Jesus did something His followers should emulate: He intelligently answered the Sadducees’ question! . . . Jesus revealed His intellectual skills in debate by: (1) showing His familiarity with His opponents’ point of view; (2) appealing to common ground (a text all the disputants accepted) instead of expressing a biblical text He accepted but they rejected (Daniel 12:2); and (3) deftly using the laws of logic to dissect His opponents’ argument and refute it powerfully . . .

1 Peter 3:15 . . . The need to have answers to people’s questions is the core of our third passage . . . Two key words are central to Peter’s meaning: apologia [defense] and logos [account] . . . apologia means ‘to defend something’ . . . In 1 Peter 3:15, the apostle does not suggest that we be prepared to do this, he commands it . . .

The word logos means ‘evidence or argument which provides rational justification for some belief’ . . . Peter is saying that we are to be prepared to give rational arguments and good reasons for why we believe what we believe, and this involves the mind.

Biblical Resistance to the Intellectual Life

1 Corinthians 1-2 . . . Some conclude from this that human reasoning and argument are futile, specially when applied to evangelism . . . if it is in fact an indictment against argumentation and reasoning, then it contradicts Paul’s own practices in Acts . . .

It is hubris (pride) that is in view, not nous (mind). God chose the foolish (moria) things that were offensive to human pride, not to reason properly used . . .

The passage may also be a condemnation of Greek rhetoric. Greek orators prided themselves in possessing ‘persuasive words of wisdom,’ and it was their practice to persuade a crowd of any side of an issue for the right price.

The doctrine of depravity doesn’t mean reason is irrelevant . . . from the fact that reasoning alone will not bring someone to Christ, it does not follow that we should not persuade or reason with people. Preaching alone will not save people without the Spirit’s work, but we still preach and work on our messages . . .

[T]otal depravity means that the entire person, including the intellect, has been adversely affected by the Fall and is separate from God. The sinner alone cannot extricate himself from this condition and cannot merit God’s favor or commend himself to God on the basis of his own righteousness.

To have faith in a statement means to let yourself be convinced of and, therefore, accept the statement as true. To have faith in God means to firmly rely on Him. Either way, faith is relying on what you have reason to believe is true and trustworthy . . .

Jesus’ teaching about becoming like a little child had nothing to do with the intellect. It was directed against being self-sufficient and arrogant . . . The opposite of the child is a proud, stiff-necked person, not an intelligent, reasonable one.

British pastor John Stott was asked to reflect on fifty years of ministry and give advice to a new generation of Christian leaders. Upon reflection, here was his response:

‘I’d want to say so many things, But my main exhortation would be this: Don’t neglect your critical faculties. Remember that God is a rational God, who has made us in His own image. God invites and expects us to explore His double revelation, in nature and Scripture, with the minds He has given us, and to go on in the development of a Christian mind to apply His marvelous revealed truth to every aspect of the modern and post-modern world.’


2 Cor 1:13