Friends, I’m not thinking about Halloween, I’m thinking about intellectual life in Christ … and it is a real treat.  See the column below ...

And … Aiden Joseph Walters (7lbs 13oz, 20in) was born to younger son John and wife Jeni at 7:50 a.m., Monday, Oct. 30, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Their first. My brother is John’s Uncle Joe, and I see “A.J.” in that name. He is grandchild #3; #4 is on the way in February in Utah. Now … let me collect myself …  the column …  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #885

October 31, 2023

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Do You Mind?

By Bob Walters

“‘For who has known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct him?’ But we have the mind of Christ.” – Paul, 1 Corinthians 2:16 NIV

My longtime Christian mentor Dr. George Bebawi made a frequent point of the fruitlessness of arguing scripture with a non-Christian, non-believer, or “other” believer.

Whether with an atheist academic, an agnostic scold, or practitioner of a non-Bible faith, George noted the uncrossable gulf of scriptural obliviousness present in the non-Christian mind.  One has to believe scripture to truly understand it, and an intellect dismissive of God, Son, Spirit, and scripture is unlikely to be lured into faith by mere words that one’s “intellect” does not consider to be capital T Truth, i.e., God’s truth, objective truth, eternal truth.  Only the mind of Christ – the Spirit – fords that barrier.

That is why the way we live as Christians – our “life’s witness” – speaks louder to the outside world than our words.  Early Christians drew others to faith both with the first witness of Jesus Christ resurrected, but also and importantly, by the lives of the Christian believers who loved and took care of each other.  Prior to the arrival of scripture, sophisticated Christology, and church doctrines, it was fellowship and community – and the simple light of the Holy Spirit – that attracted and held first-century new believers in a faith heretofore unknown.

On an intellectual level, it is also why the apostle Paul, cited above, plainly says that prior to Jesus, no one knew the mind of God. This scripture passage, 1 Corinthians 2:6-16, is subtitled “The Wisdom of God” and is worth reading for anyone thinking that catching converts is a matter of spouting scripture. That is for believers, and what a comfort!  But only the Spirit of God has the Wisdom of God, and Jesus is the one who sent us the Spirit of God. Many, then and now, want to instruct God; it is a fool’s errand.

Are we as smart as Jesus?  No, but that’s the secular world’s primary anxiety that we “think we’re so smart.”  What we are is faithful, and that’s why “we get it,” thusly:

“This is what we speak, not in words taught to us by human wisdom, but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:13-14). Then, in the Spirit, we either get it or we don’t.

It is the Holy Spirit’s job to light the lamp of spiritual knowledge in a person’s soul.  Until that happens, all we can reasonably do is live a consistent Christian life (harder than it sounds), abide by and testify to Christian truth, pray, and especially be a 24/7 witness to the Big Two: Love God and love others. Then do the hardest thing: trust God.

Maybe the great surprise to the outside world about entering into Christian faith is that Jesus is a thinker’s realm.  Paul talks about “wisdom of this age” (v6), i.e., Paul’s era, and is referring to the Greek philosophers, Roman justice, and the Hebrew religion.  Paul then cites God’s “secret wisdom … hidden for our glory before time began. (v7)

As the world scrambles for definitions and debates, the mind we have through God’s Spirit – the mind of Christ – unlocks God’s words and shines an otherwise unknown light onto the straight path toward and narrow gate into God’s kingdom.

Stay in that light, share scripture as the Spirit leads, and keep your mind sharp.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) reminds all: pick your battles carefully, and pray.

 Friends,

Here is Common Christianity column #823 (8-23-22), “Brain Scan.”  We talk so much about behavior in Christianity; today let’s talk about God’s intellect and our thinking.  See the column below.  Have a great week!  Blessings, Bob

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Spirituality Column #823

August 23, 2022

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Brain Scan

By Bob Walters

“But we have the mind of Christ.” – 1 Corinthians 2:16

I was surprised to learn that the word “brain” does not appear in the Bible.  “Mind,” “soul”, and “spirit” show up a lot.  “Heart” is mentioned more than 800 times. 

But “brain”?  Evidently not a Bible thing.  Let’s talk about that.

This is one of those scriptural tidbits I stumbled upon while looking for something else.  I was searching commentary on Paul’s powerful “mind of Christ” verse.  My mission was to refute the behavioral overkill that is the focus of the modern church and explore the too-light treatment of the intellect of God as it manifests in humanity; i.e., the church of “feeling” vs. the church of “thinking.”  And … “brain” isn’t in the Bible?  Huh.

To me, brain power is the real power of God with which mankind is gifted through faith in Jesus Christ: an intellectual synergy with the Creator of the universe.  I truly do believe that faith in Jesus initiates as a matter of the heart (more in a minute), but the massive payoff for our creative intellectual existence – gifted by Christ – can be stated simply as this: knowledge that God truly exists, Jesus truly lives, the Spirit animates our multi-pronged connection with the divine, the Bible can be trusted, and we are loved.

For all the endless Christian therapeutic chatter about “doubt,” once the human heart lands on Jesus and opens the corresponding human brain to God’s intellect, human existence grows into the great heavenly realm of thinking with Christ.  

Mankind, as a matter of worldly pride and a false sense of self-sufficiency, too often – maybe overwhelmingly often – imagines a self-inflicted intellectual “depth,” assessing of knowledge: “I’ve got this; No God Needed.”    

It’s as if to say: “On my own … in my brain … I am sufficient.  I neither can nor desire to prove God exists, but am assured a god cannot broaden my mental acuity.  I’m already smart enough.  I can do clever things.  Give me a few minutes and I’ll invent a gadget, or work up a philosophy that explains to my satisfaction who God is supposed to be.  Give me a few more minutes and I’ll fashion a treatise on the truth of good, evil, right, wrong, and an overarching thesis on the way things ought to be.  God?  No need.”

That is too-common, worldly, human philosophy – spanning the ages, we might add – that ditches Godly relation and is ultimately – shall we say eternally – useless.

If there is one “worldly thing” (1 John 2:15-17) that God’s wisdom would indicate and recommend not attaching to our minds, it would be “wisdom” that does not include Jesus Christ. That empty wisdom goes nowhere beyond the finite dimensions of this material existence and its inescapable death.  And it steers nowhere near the heavenly realms: that ineffable but unmistakable experience of divine presence and truth in the here and now – for fleeting, precious, profound moments – when we touch God.

Our brains will not – cannot – be right with God until our hearts are right with Jesus. We have “the mind of Christ” when our hearts, in the conscience of Christ, are able to resist worldly, impermanent, and intemperate temptations, and to think anew.

“Repent,” at its Greek basic, means “to change ones thinking.” Paul’s mission at Corinth is to secure their hearts truly for Jesus so they may grasp the wisdom of God.

Heart change speaks to behavior and joy; Godly wisdom hastens the Kingdom.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) figures “Godly smart” is the best kind of smart.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) sees the Bible more as a how-to-think book than a rulebook.