Can We Overthink the Christian Life?
00:00:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:00:02.580 | - Well, you can pop the streamers and drop some confetti
00:00:07.680 | because today Pastor John is episode number 900
00:00:11.920 | in the podcast series.
00:00:13.080 | And of course it also means that we have taken up
00:00:15.560 | 900 various themes in this podcast.
00:00:18.540 | And of course we haven't done it alone.
00:00:20.600 | We've relied on a bunch of really great and gifted guests
00:00:23.920 | over the years to help pull this off.
00:00:26.000 | And in the course of producing this podcast
00:00:28.120 | day in and day out, it is not uncommon,
00:00:31.000 | especially in social media and places like Facebook
00:00:33.800 | to read occasional comments from people who claim
00:00:36.120 | that this podcast and what we do,
00:00:38.800 | we're sort of overthinking the Christian life.
00:00:42.320 | So that's the question for you today
00:00:44.940 | here in episode number 900.
00:00:46.920 | And so I'm daring to create
00:00:48.960 | a potentially ironic episode here,
00:00:50.960 | but the question for you today is this,
00:00:53.080 | can we overthink the Christian life?
00:00:56.000 | And isn't life more about embracing the moment
00:00:57.880 | rather than thinking through every life situation?
00:01:01.480 | And what would you say are some biblical reasons,
00:01:05.000 | some validations for why it's important for Christians
00:01:07.560 | to think carefully about various levels
00:01:10.340 | of ethical situations like the ones
00:01:13.280 | that we address here on the podcast?
00:01:15.480 | - I have three responses to that question.
00:01:17.480 | Two of them I think are basically affirmations
00:01:22.080 | of the concern that's being expressed.
00:01:24.400 | And the other one, perhaps more critical,
00:01:27.600 | a little pushback, caution.
00:01:29.880 | So first, I would say, yes,
00:01:33.720 | it is possible to overthink the Christian life.
00:01:37.440 | And I can think of maybe three ways to talk about that
00:01:42.000 | where a person might overthink the Christian life.
00:01:45.520 | And of course the word over, overthink,
00:01:48.160 | obviously implies something's being done disproportionately.
00:01:52.400 | And so, yeah, we wanna get our lives in proportion here
00:01:56.400 | and not do anything disproportionately.
00:01:59.120 | So here are those three things
00:02:01.280 | that I think would say yes to this criticism.
00:02:04.760 | One is, even if one of us, I mean,
00:02:07.840 | even if any of us is thinking too much
00:02:10.880 | about the Christian life,
00:02:12.840 | it might be because he's just thinking poorly
00:02:15.360 | or incorrectly or wrong-headedly.
00:02:18.040 | And the issue is not quantity,
00:02:19.840 | but that person is just not thinking well,
00:02:22.000 | not thinking right.
00:02:23.400 | So clearly there's bad thinking about the Christian life.
00:02:26.880 | Number two, but if I use the word overthinking,
00:02:30.040 | not just bad thinking,
00:02:31.360 | the first thing that comes to my mind
00:02:35.280 | is that it would be overthinking about issues
00:02:40.280 | if we think so much that our thinking
00:02:45.480 | excludes other important things
00:02:49.400 | that we should be doing instead.
00:02:51.440 | For example, I am overthinking
00:02:54.520 | if I'm thinking when I ought to be praying.
00:02:57.320 | I'm overthinking if I'm thinking
00:02:59.160 | when I ought to be trusting.
00:03:00.560 | I'm overthinking if I'm thinking
00:03:02.400 | when I ought to be resting or sleeping
00:03:04.400 | or relaxing with my wife or playing with my children
00:03:07.640 | or enjoying a poem or singing a song.
00:03:11.120 | We overdo anything, including thinking,
00:03:15.360 | if that thing is keeping us from doing something else
00:03:20.440 | that we ought to be doing.
00:03:22.520 | And of course, it's a great challenge in the Christian life
00:03:25.640 | to keep our many activities and responsibilities
00:03:28.960 | in a healthy proportion.
00:03:30.680 | So yes, there's such a thing as overthinking,
00:03:34.000 | namely thinking when you ought to be doing something else
00:03:36.640 | besides thinking.
00:03:38.200 | Number three, another way to think about overthinking
00:03:43.200 | in the Christian life is to say,
00:03:46.080 | I'm overthinking when I'm thinking
00:03:49.280 | motivated by fear or driven
00:03:52.000 | by some unhealthy controlling compulsion.
00:03:56.600 | If I feel insecure in my acceptance with God,
00:04:00.360 | and I believe that thinking more clearly
00:04:04.480 | about the Christian life will make me more acceptable,
00:04:08.200 | I'm definitely overthinking.
00:04:10.880 | I need a good dose of the gospel of grace.
00:04:15.600 | Or if I find myself,
00:04:17.200 | and I've known a couple of people like this,
00:04:19.520 | if I find myself driven in a kind of obsessive,
00:04:23.560 | compulsive way to meticulously think through
00:04:27.800 | every little choice in my life,
00:04:29.960 | I'm clearly in the grip of something very unhealthy
00:04:34.120 | and I'm overthinking.
00:04:36.200 | Thinking needs to flow from the heart of a restful reliance
00:04:41.200 | upon the mercy of God in Christ
00:04:45.800 | so that we are not trying to justify ourselves by thinking,
00:04:50.800 | but rather in a peaceful outworking of a heart
00:04:56.880 | that's fixed on Christ, we're doing what love calls for.
00:05:01.280 | So at least those three things should be said
00:05:04.440 | by way of affirmation.
00:05:07.000 | Yes, there is wrong thinking and overthinking in those ways.
00:05:11.640 | My second response is a pushback a little bit
00:05:16.640 | because I wanna say to those whose personalities
00:05:20.880 | just incline them to be not a thinker at all,
00:05:24.320 | but just act spontaneously,
00:05:25.880 | I wanna say to those people,
00:05:27.800 | at least come to terms with the biblical texts like this.
00:05:32.800 | 2 Timothy 2:7, "Think over what I say,
00:05:38.760 | "for the Lord will give you understanding in everything."
00:05:40.840 | So Paul says to think over what he says.
00:05:44.600 | And 1 Corinthians 14 20,
00:05:46.760 | "Brothers, do not be children in your thinking,
00:05:50.160 | "but be infants in evil,
00:05:53.440 | "but in your thinking be mature."
00:05:56.520 | Now, besides those particular texts,
00:06:00.640 | consider that the Bible is a book.
00:06:03.680 | I mean, and being a book, it requires reading.
00:06:07.560 | And what is reading?
00:06:09.080 | Besides using the mind to construe
00:06:11.360 | how words relate to each other
00:06:12.880 | and how phrases relate to each other
00:06:14.600 | and how clauses relate to each other
00:06:16.680 | and propositions relate to each other
00:06:19.000 | and paragraphs relate to each other,
00:06:20.920 | which is just another way of saying
00:06:23.040 | that the fact that the Bible is a book
00:06:25.760 | means that God intends for us to think
00:06:28.800 | some pretty serious thoughts about his revelation
00:06:33.280 | concerning himself and his ways in the world.
00:06:35.640 | He wouldn't have given us a book
00:06:37.440 | if he didn't expect that thinking would be necessary.
00:06:41.520 | It was a huge moment in my life
00:06:45.040 | when I woke up to the fact that the Bible
00:06:47.040 | is not just a string of pearls to be admired one at a time
00:06:50.600 | or a package of lifesavers to be dissolved
00:06:53.240 | on the tongue of my soul one at a time,
00:06:55.960 | but rather the Bible in its writings,
00:06:59.440 | most of them, forges a chain of arguments
00:07:02.800 | connected by words like because and therefore
00:07:05.960 | and although and in order that,
00:07:08.600 | and he expects us to do the reading and the reasoning.
00:07:13.040 | So for example, flee from sexual immorality.
00:07:16.320 | Every other sin a person commits is outside the body,
00:07:19.840 | but sexually immoral person sins against his own body,
00:07:23.520 | or do you not know that your body
00:07:25.040 | is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
00:07:27.440 | which you have from God?
00:07:28.800 | You are not your own.
00:07:29.760 | You were bought with a price,
00:07:30.960 | so glorify God in your body.
00:07:32.440 | Now, those are five arguments
00:07:37.320 | for why you shouldn't have sex before marriage.
00:07:40.280 | One, it's a sin against your own body.
00:07:42.440 | Two, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
00:07:45.000 | Three, you're bought with a price.
00:07:46.600 | Four, therefore you're not your own.
00:07:48.520 | Five, so glorify God in your body.
00:07:51.160 | So when the listener who wrote that question says,
00:07:55.600 | "Isn't life more about embracing the moment
00:07:58.960 | "rather than thinking through every life situation?"
00:08:01.780 | My answer is that if you embrace
00:08:04.200 | the moment of temptation to fornication
00:08:06.520 | without having thought with deep conviction
00:08:10.720 | about these arguments that God has given us,
00:08:14.120 | it may not just be the moment that you embrace.
00:08:17.420 | Here's my third response,
00:08:20.480 | and this again is by way of affirmation.
00:08:24.560 | Most of life not only should be spontaneous,
00:08:30.220 | it has to be.
00:08:32.120 | I mean, we cannot stop every five or 10 seconds
00:08:37.120 | and come up with three or four arguments
00:08:40.620 | like John Piper does on "Ask Pastor John"
00:08:43.120 | for whether the next word coming out of my mouth
00:08:46.080 | is gonna be a harsh word or a gentle word.
00:08:49.640 | My arms and my legs and my facial expressions
00:08:52.920 | and the words coming out of my mouth,
00:08:54.280 | they flow like a river.
00:08:56.320 | They don't flow in little chunks
00:08:59.100 | with nice thinking in between them.
00:09:01.500 | Life simply doesn't work that way.
00:09:03.980 | Life is a spontaneous, reflexive action
00:09:07.720 | to what's happening around us.
00:09:10.140 | Maybe, I don't know, it's probably an exaggeration
00:09:12.760 | to say 10% of our life is seriously reflected over
00:09:16.940 | in the moment before we do it
00:09:18.580 | to try to come up with the ideal behavior
00:09:21.420 | that's gonna come.
00:09:22.260 | So yeah, you'd go insane trying to argue yourself
00:09:27.260 | into every next step that you take.
00:09:30.760 | You'd turn into some kind of impersonal robot
00:09:34.000 | and you'd alienate everybody around you
00:09:36.280 | by acting in an idiotic way.
00:09:38.800 | And besides, it's impossible.
00:09:40.400 | So yes, yes, yes, if you try to turn all of life
00:09:45.180 | into an "Ask Pastor John" moment,
00:09:47.520 | (laughs)
00:09:49.840 | you go insane.
00:09:51.160 | - Exactly.
00:09:52.000 | - It's crazy, I would too.
00:09:52.940 | Goodness, we only do these every week or two.
00:09:55.480 | (laughs)
00:09:56.680 | And record them.
00:09:58.360 | But here's my argument.
00:10:00.280 | My argument is that regular, periodic, disciplined thinking
00:10:05.080 | like John and Tony do every now and then,
00:10:07.480 | and people do maybe once a day with us,
00:10:09.740 | that periodic, disciplined effort to think about an issue
00:10:14.280 | is all for the sake of the 90% of life
00:10:18.220 | when you're not doing that.
00:10:19.840 | It's building a structure of biblical thought
00:10:22.600 | into your mind.
00:10:23.440 | It's building structures of right affections
00:10:26.240 | into your mind so that when the 90% of your life
00:10:29.600 | that has to be lived unreflectingly,
00:10:32.740 | that is without any long effort to think through reasons,
00:10:37.240 | you will act more spontaneously in accord with God's Word.
00:10:42.240 | And maybe the last thing I should say
00:10:44.600 | is that there are a few people
00:10:48.400 | who are given to overthinking life.
00:10:50.960 | My guess is that 99% of the people in the world,
00:10:55.960 | and Christians included, are not guilty of that problem.
00:11:00.600 | You may have met two or three of them,
00:11:02.880 | but far greater concern is that most people are wired
00:11:07.880 | for a kind of coasting in life without thinking,
00:11:13.520 | and what it produces is not authentic freedom
00:11:17.440 | and spontaneity, it produces going with the flow
00:11:21.760 | of the culture.
00:11:22.880 | So Tony and I, Tony and I will press on
00:11:27.880 | in our little effort to grow in grace
00:11:31.260 | and in thinking clearly about the Christian life.
00:11:34.220 | Come along if it seems helpful.
00:11:35.880 | Amen.
00:11:36.720 | Strategic thoughtfulness leading to godly spontaneity.
00:11:39.800 | That's great, Pastor John, thank you.
00:11:41.160 | And thanks for listening to the podcast
00:11:42.800 | for all of our 900 episodes.
00:11:46.520 | Many of you listen every day,
00:11:47.480 | and I wanna thank you for making us a part
00:11:49.120 | of your daily routines, your daily commute.
00:11:52.060 | This podcast does not happen without you,
00:11:54.960 | without your questions, your listenership,
00:11:57.800 | and of course your financial support is behind it all.
00:12:00.200 | And I know many of you who listen
00:12:01.680 | also support the work of Desiring God
00:12:04.400 | and make it all happen.
00:12:05.600 | So thank you for partnering with us
00:12:07.280 | up to this point of episode number 900.
00:12:10.640 | And every one of those episodes can be found,
00:12:12.640 | of course, at our landing page online
00:12:14.360 | at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn.
00:12:19.000 | I am your host, Tony Reinke, and I will see you tomorrow.
00:12:22.260 | (upbeat music)
00:12:24.840 | (upbeat music)
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