(upbeat music) - Well, you can pop the streamers and drop some confetti because today Pastor John is episode number 900 in the podcast series. And of course it also means that we have taken up 900 various themes in this podcast. And of course we haven't done it alone. We've relied on a bunch of really great and gifted guests over the years to help pull this off.

And in the course of producing this podcast day in and day out, it is not uncommon, especially in social media and places like Facebook to read occasional comments from people who claim that this podcast and what we do, we're sort of overthinking the Christian life. So that's the question for you today here in episode number 900.

And so I'm daring to create a potentially ironic episode here, but the question for you today is this, can we overthink the Christian life? And isn't life more about embracing the moment rather than thinking through every life situation? And what would you say are some biblical reasons, some validations for why it's important for Christians to think carefully about various levels of ethical situations like the ones that we address here on the podcast?

- I have three responses to that question. Two of them I think are basically affirmations of the concern that's being expressed. And the other one, perhaps more critical, a little pushback, caution. So first, I would say, yes, it is possible to overthink the Christian life. And I can think of maybe three ways to talk about that where a person might overthink the Christian life.

And of course the word over, overthink, obviously implies something's being done disproportionately. And so, yeah, we wanna get our lives in proportion here and not do anything disproportionately. So here are those three things that I think would say yes to this criticism. One is, even if one of us, I mean, even if any of us is thinking too much about the Christian life, it might be because he's just thinking poorly or incorrectly or wrong-headedly.

And the issue is not quantity, but that person is just not thinking well, not thinking right. So clearly there's bad thinking about the Christian life. Number two, but if I use the word overthinking, not just bad thinking, the first thing that comes to my mind is that it would be overthinking about issues if we think so much that our thinking excludes other important things that we should be doing instead.

For example, I am overthinking if I'm thinking when I ought to be praying. I'm overthinking if I'm thinking when I ought to be trusting. I'm overthinking if I'm thinking when I ought to be resting or sleeping or relaxing with my wife or playing with my children or enjoying a poem or singing a song.

We overdo anything, including thinking, if that thing is keeping us from doing something else that we ought to be doing. And of course, it's a great challenge in the Christian life to keep our many activities and responsibilities in a healthy proportion. So yes, there's such a thing as overthinking, namely thinking when you ought to be doing something else besides thinking.

Number three, another way to think about overthinking in the Christian life is to say, I'm overthinking when I'm thinking motivated by fear or driven by some unhealthy controlling compulsion. If I feel insecure in my acceptance with God, and I believe that thinking more clearly about the Christian life will make me more acceptable, I'm definitely overthinking.

I need a good dose of the gospel of grace. Or if I find myself, and I've known a couple of people like this, if I find myself driven in a kind of obsessive, compulsive way to meticulously think through every little choice in my life, I'm clearly in the grip of something very unhealthy and I'm overthinking.

Thinking needs to flow from the heart of a restful reliance upon the mercy of God in Christ so that we are not trying to justify ourselves by thinking, but rather in a peaceful outworking of a heart that's fixed on Christ, we're doing what love calls for. So at least those three things should be said by way of affirmation.

Yes, there is wrong thinking and overthinking in those ways. My second response is a pushback a little bit because I wanna say to those whose personalities just incline them to be not a thinker at all, but just act spontaneously, I wanna say to those people, at least come to terms with the biblical texts like this.

2 Timothy 2:7, "Think over what I say, "for the Lord will give you understanding in everything." So Paul says to think over what he says. And 1 Corinthians 14 20, "Brothers, do not be children in your thinking, "but be infants in evil, "but in your thinking be mature." Now, besides those particular texts, consider that the Bible is a book.

I mean, and being a book, it requires reading. And what is reading? Besides using the mind to construe how words relate to each other and how phrases relate to each other and how clauses relate to each other and propositions relate to each other and paragraphs relate to each other, which is just another way of saying that the fact that the Bible is a book means that God intends for us to think some pretty serious thoughts about his revelation concerning himself and his ways in the world.

He wouldn't have given us a book if he didn't expect that thinking would be necessary. It was a huge moment in my life when I woke up to the fact that the Bible is not just a string of pearls to be admired one at a time or a package of lifesavers to be dissolved on the tongue of my soul one at a time, but rather the Bible in its writings, most of them, forges a chain of arguments connected by words like because and therefore and although and in order that, and he expects us to do the reading and the reasoning.

So for example, flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but sexually immoral person sins against his own body, or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit within you, which you have from God? You are not your own.

You were bought with a price, so glorify God in your body. Now, those are five arguments for why you shouldn't have sex before marriage. One, it's a sin against your own body. Two, your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Three, you're bought with a price. Four, therefore you're not your own.

Five, so glorify God in your body. So when the listener who wrote that question says, "Isn't life more about embracing the moment "rather than thinking through every life situation?" My answer is that if you embrace the moment of temptation to fornication without having thought with deep conviction about these arguments that God has given us, it may not just be the moment that you embrace.

Here's my third response, and this again is by way of affirmation. Most of life not only should be spontaneous, it has to be. I mean, we cannot stop every five or 10 seconds and come up with three or four arguments like John Piper does on "Ask Pastor John" for whether the next word coming out of my mouth is gonna be a harsh word or a gentle word.

My arms and my legs and my facial expressions and the words coming out of my mouth, they flow like a river. They don't flow in little chunks with nice thinking in between them. Life simply doesn't work that way. Life is a spontaneous, reflexive action to what's happening around us.

Maybe, I don't know, it's probably an exaggeration to say 10% of our life is seriously reflected over in the moment before we do it to try to come up with the ideal behavior that's gonna come. So yeah, you'd go insane trying to argue yourself into every next step that you take.

You'd turn into some kind of impersonal robot and you'd alienate everybody around you by acting in an idiotic way. And besides, it's impossible. So yes, yes, yes, if you try to turn all of life into an "Ask Pastor John" moment, (laughs) you go insane. - Exactly. - It's crazy, I would too.

Goodness, we only do these every week or two. (laughs) And record them. But here's my argument. My argument is that regular, periodic, disciplined thinking like John and Tony do every now and then, and people do maybe once a day with us, that periodic, disciplined effort to think about an issue is all for the sake of the 90% of life when you're not doing that.

It's building a structure of biblical thought into your mind. It's building structures of right affections into your mind so that when the 90% of your life that has to be lived unreflectingly, that is without any long effort to think through reasons, you will act more spontaneously in accord with God's Word.

And maybe the last thing I should say is that there are a few people who are given to overthinking life. My guess is that 99% of the people in the world, and Christians included, are not guilty of that problem. You may have met two or three of them, but far greater concern is that most people are wired for a kind of coasting in life without thinking, and what it produces is not authentic freedom and spontaneity, it produces going with the flow of the culture.

So Tony and I, Tony and I will press on in our little effort to grow in grace and in thinking clearly about the Christian life. Come along if it seems helpful. Amen. Strategic thoughtfulness leading to godly spontaneity. That's great, Pastor John, thank you. And thanks for listening to the podcast for all of our 900 episodes.

Many of you listen every day, and I wanna thank you for making us a part of your daily routines, your daily commute. This podcast does not happen without you, without your questions, your listenership, and of course your financial support is behind it all. And I know many of you who listen also support the work of Desiring God and make it all happen.

So thank you for partnering with us up to this point of episode number 900. And every one of those episodes can be found, of course, at our landing page online at desiringgod.org/askpastorjohn. I am your host, Tony Reinke, and I will see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)