Mind Your Worship: Loving God with All Your Mind

Why are Christians known for sloppy thinking, devaluing education, and glorifying ignorance?

Perhaps this characterization surprises you. Yet this is the impression we make on many outside our church and truthfully, many intellectuals within. That we’re known for this deeply bothers me. I see none of these attitudes promoted in Scripture yet I sometimes find them applauded in church. Why the chasm between Scripture and practice?

Jesus says:

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. 

-Matthew 22:37

Scripturally, your mind is a critical aspect of your worship. So why are we lax in, even afraid of, engaging our full mind in worship?

I think it stems from us seeing the dangers of over-valuing the mind. Many hold knowledge and the pursuit of it as the highest value. We’ve seen the truth of the Scripture “knowledge puffs up” (1 Corinthians 8:1). For some, the mind is an object of worship.

Yet surely the correct response to overvaluing the mind is not a knee-jerk undervaluing of it. We must assign the mind its proper place and proper value. To see the mind as Scripture sees it, is to view it not as an object of worship but as an instrument of worship.

What does it mean to love the Lord with all your mind?

That is the question that should inform our view of the mind. Our faith has a rich legacy of valuing the mind and I would love to see our generation reengage with that legacy for one simple purpose: that we may better love our God.

Let us echo the prayer expressed in this favorite hymn:

“Take my voice, and let me sing always, only, for my King.

Take my lips, and let them be filled with messages from Thee.

Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.

Take my intellect, and use every power as Thou shalt choose.”

September 2, 2015