(upbeat music) We close out the week with a question from Aaron, a podcast listener in Sherburn, New York. Pastor John, I just listened to the APJ episode number 634. Is my Bible reading too academic? It is wonderfully instructive. I'm the academic type. I'm no genius, but I enjoy the exercise of thinking.

It's almost athletic to me. It's food. But here's my question. When I'm being academic to the glory of God, discovering his word rigorously, systematically, in detail, in a regular, disciplined manner, and that study is raising my affections for God, and when I rejoice in God when I'm done, when I wanna bow down or lift up my voice into him as a result, when I'm more in love with him, if all of that is true, how do I help the people for whom thinking is a turnoff, that for whom dividing things so closely leaves them feeling cold, as you say?

What would you say to Erin as she tries to help her friends? - The first thing I would say is that you should make clear to those folks, the so-called non-thinkers that we're gonna talk about, that you believe, you know, that many non-thinkers may be far better lovers of people than many thinkers are.

Make sure they know that you don't think thinking is the one criterion by which a person's worth or effectiveness or virtue is determined. So they need to get that. Then I think the challenge is to find ways of motivating them to think as clearly, logically, and biblically as they can.

And my assumption here is that all things being equal, a person who thinks clearly and logically and biblically will be more fruitful and more effective than a person who doesn't. And of course, I know all things are never equal. And so less gifted thinkers may be far more fruitful, far more effective in life and ministry than some thinkers are.

But that doesn't change the fact that any given person who has many wonderful personal gifts will be more fruitful and more effective if they grow in their ability to think clearly, logically, and biblically. So how might we motivate everyone to grow in this skill? Now, since non-thinkers are unlikely to be motivated by thinking, the most fruitful approach for Aaron, the thinker, is to show the kind of fruits of her own thinking which non-thinkers really get excited about.

And it sounds to me like Aaron is really good at this. I mean, she talks about her affections for God being raised, about rejoicing in God, loving Him, wanting to lift up her voice and sing a hymn because of her thinking. And all of that, it seems to me, is exactly what would awaken an emotionally hungry non-thinker to be curious.

Like, how do you keep the fires of your emotions stoked like that? And then you would be able to give some illustrations of how thinking provides the kindling that you throw on the fires of your heart. But it may be that some of the non-thinkers that Aaron knows would indeed be inspired to push the envelope of their own thinking habits if they saw biblical reasons for doing so.

Not everybody, perhaps, but some might be. So let me mention a few. These are helpful, I think, for everybody to consider, especially young people, I think, who are just getting started as they discover what their brains are for. First, the Bible repeatedly shows that God has given us the power of thinking as a servant to the power of feeling or vigorous, proper emotions.

1 Peter 1:13, "Gird up the loins of your mind." ESV translates that, "Prepare your minds for action. "Be sober-minded. "Set your hope fully on the grace "that is being brought to you." So what's the connection between setting your hope, that's an emotion, fully on God? Answer, loins of the mind have been girded up so that the mind can be active and effective in the use of the promises of God to throw the kindling of the Word on the fires of hope.

That's the way the Bible thinks about the relationship between thinking, or the mind, and hoping, or the heart. Second, I would point out to people that God commands us to think about what He has revealed in Scripture and shows us that this thinking is the means by which He gives understanding.

2 Timothy 2:7, "Think over what I say, "for the Lord will give you understanding." So God's giving understanding happens through our thinking. Third, the Apostle Paul thinks that it is fundamental to the way we are spiritually transformed in life that our minds are renewed. Romans 12, 2, "Do not be conformed to this world, "but be transformed in the renewing of your mind." So if we're gonna be transformed into the likeness of Christ, Paul assumes it comes through a renewed mind.

And what minds do is think. Fourth, I would point out that when Paul wrestled with whether he would pray or sing in a rational way or a less rational way, he insisted that the best solution was both. What am I to do? This is 1 Corinthians 14, 15. What am I to do?

I will pray with my spirit and I will pray with my mind also. I will sing praise with my spirit and I will sing praise with my mind also. He's probably talking about tongues and that means his mind is not fully engaged. He may not even know fully what he's saying.

And when he has to choose between the emotional overflow of inarticulateness and the emotional overflow of mental clarity, he says, "Why should I surrender either?" I love it. The fifth observation is the Bible treats some kinds of thinking as childish. There's a kind of thinking that we should leave behind in childhood and move on to mature thinking.

1 Corinthians 13, 11, "When I was a child, "I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, "I reasoned like a child. "And when I became a man, I put away childish things." He's making an analogy, but the analogy is valid to refer to the premise that children think differently than adults, let's move on.

Or 1 Corinthians 14, 20, "Brothers, do not be children "in your thinking, be infants in evil, "but in your thinking, be mature." Or to put it another way, Philippians 3, 15, "Let those of us who are mature think this way. "And if in anything you think otherwise, "God will reveal that to you." So if the so-called non-thinkers that we know are moved by the scriptures, maybe these kinds of passages would stir them up to apply themselves in ways they never have.

But I'm gonna end like this, I'm gonna circle back for Erin and simply say that she should keep on enjoying the fruits of the emotions and affections that your biblical thinking is awakening. Because those kinds of fruits, those robust, proper, Bible-saturated, truth-based emotions are the most compelling argument you could give to non-thinkers for why they should wanna stretch their minds more than they have.

- Amen, thank you, Pastor John. And with that, we end our 149th consecutive week of episodes, and we look forward to launching week number 150 on Monday. And we plan to do so with a friend of ours, Randy Alcorn, who has a new book on happiness simply titled "Happiness." And it's one of the year's very best books.

We're gonna talk with Randy about happiness on Monday. Don't miss it. And you can keep up with all of our episodes with our free app for your phone. And of course, you can get the apps and send us your questions at our online podcast home at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. I'm your host, Tony Reinke.

We'll see you on Monday with guest Randy Alcorn. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)