Pastor John, a young man in Korea emails to ask, "Is intelligence required for becoming holy? Smart Christians can have better understandings about God, which gives them better discernment on how to glorify God, and the opposite goes for dumber Christians. I think I'm wrong, but why?" Convince this young man that he's wrong, and explain the connection between intelligence and godliness.

He's on to something, true, and yet you can't draw a straight line from intelligence to godliness. So here's what I would say. The mind, the human mind, is required for becoming holy. It's required for becoming human. The Bible says, "Think over what I say," 2 Timothy 2.7. "Think over what I say, and the Lord will give you understanding." So he's dealing with Timothy as a thinker, as a person with a mind, and so he's calling him, "Use your mind to think over what I say." He says in 1 Corinthians 14, "Be babes in evil, but in your thinking be mature." So he's calling us to mature through our thinking.

Don't let your thinking lag behind. Grow in grace as you think clearly about the things that I've spoken. And he says in Ephesians, "You will know my mystery, my understanding of the mystery, as you read what I have written." Now, reading is a task of the mind. It requires that we teach our kids grammar and syntax, and that they be able to construe lines of thought from one phrase to another, one sentence to another, and therefore Paul has clearly connected acts of the mind with being able to grasp the mystery of God.

So in that sense, this friend from Korea is on to something. Here's the problem with drawing a line from there to, "Oh, well, then all smart people are godly people." There are so many other factors besides IQ that go into deciding whether a person is holiness or not. Those other factors about rebellion come into play and may make a person who is very intelligent very rebellious, very angry, very bitter.

And so I know of zero correlation between intelligence and godliness. In fact, Jesus said in Luke 10, 21 or 20, "God has hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to babes," which I think leads us to this paradox. Yes, use your mind, but use it to become a babe.

Use it to become childlike. I just read this morning in my devotions, "Unless you receive the kingdom of God like a child, you will not enter it," which means that the mind, which is usually considered something that is going to make us independent from the need for somebody else, should be used to show that we are more dependent and childlike when it comes to God and bring us to a place of humility.

Then the mind can serve godliness. We use our intelligence, which is usually considered an instrument of independence, to lead us to be increasingly dependent on God. Well said, Pastor John. I think you should tweet that, actually. Thank you for listening to this podcast. Send your questions to us via email at askpastorjohn@desiringgod.org.

Please include your first name and your hometown. You can find thousands of other free resources from John Piper online at desiringgod.org. I'm your host Tony Reinke. Thanks for listening.