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The Pitfalls of Being a Thinker · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Well, thinking is essential in the Christian life. It's essential
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  Speaker 1: to Bible reading, and we've spent time looking at how
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  Speaker 1: much we need to focus our minds to trace the
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  Speaker 1: logic flow of Paul's thought as we read his letters
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  Speaker 1: a dynamic. You have shown us, Pastor John, using text
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  Speaker 1: like romans Ie verses fifteen to seventeen and one Corinthian
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  Speaker 1: six verses eighteen to twenty as great examples to show
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  Speaker 1: how the Bible assumes that we will read it, and
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  Speaker 1: for that see the APGA book, page twenty seven for
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  Speaker 1: those examples. Informative and inspiring. But there are pitfalls to
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  Speaker 1: being a deep thinker too, and Sarah, a thinker, wants
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  Speaker 1: to avoid those pitfalls. Here's our email, Pastor John, Hello
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  Speaker 1: to you, and thank you for taking my question. She writes,
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  Speaker 1: I've learned a lot from ask Pastor John over the
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  Speaker 1: years and I listen every week. Thank you and thank
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  Speaker 1: you Tony for all your work on making it and
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  Speaker 1: for compiling the new APJ book. You're welcome. It's all
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  Speaker 1: very helpful to me. Question for you is about thinking.
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  Speaker 1: I'm a thinker. It's one reason why I love this podcast.
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  Speaker 1: You are a thinker too, However, I've noticed that some
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  Speaker 1: thinking is very dangerous. Paul warns of the dangers of
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  Speaker 1: thinking in one Corinthians eight versus one to four, and
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  Speaker 1: yet he also says that thinking is indispensable in Romans
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  Speaker 1: ten versus one to four. Can you explain how knowledge
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  Speaker 1: is both indispensable and dangerous and how you manage this
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  Speaker 1: balance in your own thinking? Thank you.
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  Speaker 2: I think that's an excellent way to say it. Knowledge
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  Speaker 2: is both indispensable and dangerous. That's good. Sarah doesn't make
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  Speaker 2: a distinction between thinking and knowing, So let me make
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  Speaker 2: that distinction. Thinking is the activity of the mind by
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  Speaker 2: which we gain knowledge. So I would add the statement
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  Speaker 2: knowing and thinking are both indispensable and dangerous. The process
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  Speaker 2: and the product are both indispensable for the Christian and dangerous.
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  Speaker 2: So let's start with the danger. I think the number
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  Speaker 2: one danger that the Bible warns against when it comes
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  Speaker 2: to thinking and knowing is pride qualification. That does not
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  Speaker 2: mean that people who don't think, who don't know much
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  Speaker 2: are automatically humble. There is just as much pride among
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  Speaker 2: ignorant people as there is among smart people. There's just
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  Speaker 2: as much pride among people who don't know much as
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  Speaker 2: there is among people who know a lot. But the
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  Speaker 2: people who don't think they boast in other things besides
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  Speaker 2: thinking and knowing, physical strength, sexual alluring, powers, ability to cook,
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  Speaker 2: play sports, sing, make music, make money, fight, be funny.
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  Speaker 2: The things we can boast in are endless. The possibilities
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  Speaker 2: of pride and boasting are endless, both for the ignorant
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  Speaker 2: and the intelligent. So the point is not that intelligent,
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  Speaker 2: knowledgeable people are more proud than ignorant, unthinking people. The
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  Speaker 2: point is the greatest danger about being intelligent and knowledgeable
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  Speaker 2: is pride. That's the greatest danger that a person has
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  Speaker 2: if they are thoughtful and know a lot of things.
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  Speaker 2: And there's something about thinking and the skill you have
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  Speaker 2: in it and knowing much that tempts us to exalt
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  Speaker 2: ourselves over others and think of ourselves more highly than
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  Speaker 2: we ought to think. So Sarah refers to First Corinthians eight.
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  Speaker 2: Now concerning food offered to idols, we know that all
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  Speaker 2: of us possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, love builds up
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  Speaker 2: if anyone imagines that he knows something he does not
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  Speaker 2: yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone
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  Speaker 2: loves God, he is known by God. Now I find
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  Speaker 2: those verses really puzzling. But how do they fit together?
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  Speaker 2: And I've written a lot about them, So let me
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  Speaker 2: just give you my interpretation best I can. I think
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  Speaker 2: what it means is this, how do we know that
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  Speaker 2: we know as we ought? Answer? We know as we ought?
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  Speaker 2: If our knowing produces love, not boasting. If our knowing
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  Speaker 2: puffs up over others, it's not right knowing. But if
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  Speaker 2: our knowing builds up up in love, then our knowing
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  Speaker 2: is right knowing. And when Paul adds a reference to
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  Speaker 2: loving God verse three, if anyone loves God, he evidently
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  Speaker 2: implies that the love which builds up other people by
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  Speaker 2: the way we use our knowledge for them and not
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  Speaker 2: to boast over them, is rooted in love for God,
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  Speaker 2: which he says originates in being known by God, that is,
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  Speaker 2: being chosen by God and loved by God, so that
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  Speaker 2: we are able to love Him and thus be full
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  Speaker 2: of love for other people and thus use our knowledge
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  Speaker 2: rightly lovingly. It's a profoundly God centered understanding of human
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  Speaker 2: thinking and knowing in those verses. So the first and
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  Speaker 2: foremost danger of thinking and knowing that Paul focuses on
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  Speaker 2: is that knowledge puffs up unless it is under the
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  Speaker 2: control of God given love. It's going to make us proud.
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  Speaker 2: Jesus has a similar warning, I think for the wise
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  Speaker 2: and understanding, He says in Matthew eleven twenty five, I
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  Speaker 2: thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and Earth, that you
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  Speaker 2: have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and
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  Speaker 2: revealed them to little children. Now, I think little children
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  Speaker 2: there signifies humble people, lowly people, simple people who are
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  Speaker 2: not boasting in their wisdom and their understanding, but are
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  Speaker 2: looking away from themselves to God the way a child
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  Speaker 2: looks to his parent and are willing to receive whatever
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  Speaker 2: he says that's true. If God says it, I'll believe it.
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  Speaker 2: I'm going to look to God for my wisdom. So
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  Speaker 2: the great danger of being self reliant, self exalting in
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  Speaker 2: our understanding is that we cut ourselves off from God's revelation.
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  Speaker 2: Dependence on revelation from God for wisdom is a humbling thing.
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  Speaker 2: We don't like to depend on somebody else having total
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  Speaker 2: wisdom and telling us what reality is like. Humans don't
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  Speaker 2: like it to be utterly dependent on God's revelation of
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  Speaker 2: himself in order to have a true knowledge of life.
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  Speaker 2: One last illustration about the connection between pride and the
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  Speaker 2: right use of the mind is the vivid example of
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  Speaker 2: nebuicud Nezar. When he boasted in his power and intelligence
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  Speaker 2: to build a great kingdom. God struck him down, made
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  Speaker 2: him like an animal who ate grass. And here's the
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  Speaker 2: way nebuicud Nezar describes his recovery from that bestial, animal
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  Speaker 2: like loss of his mind, his right use of his brain.
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  Speaker 2: He said, at the end of the days, I Nebuchadnezzar
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  Speaker 2: lifted my eyes to heaven, and my reason returned to me.
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  Speaker 2: And I blessed the most high Daniel. Four thirty four
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  Speaker 2: years ago, I put that verse on my office door
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  Speaker 2: at church, the verse that says I lifted my eyes
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  Speaker 2: to heaven and my reason returned to me.
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  Speaker 1: I love it.
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  Speaker 2: We will use our minds rightly when our eyes are
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  Speaker 2: lifted godward. If we turn in on ourselves and begin
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  Speaker 2: to boast, our reason will become bestial and destructive. Now,
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  Speaker 2: let's shift gears and turn to the fact that knowing
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  Speaker 2: and thinking are not just dangerous, they're indispensable. The prophet
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  Speaker 2: Hoseiah said, my people perish for lack of knowledge chapter four,
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  Speaker 2: verse and he pleaded let us know, let us press
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  Speaker 2: on to know the Lord. So the faculty of knowing
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  Speaker 2: is first and foremost essential for knowing God. Let us
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  Speaker 2: know God, let us press on to know God. And
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  Speaker 2: I think Jesus made that plain when he said about
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  Speaker 2: the Great commandment in Matthew twenty two thirty seven. You
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  Speaker 2: shall love the Lord your God with all your heart,
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  Speaker 2: with all your soul, and with all your mind. Now
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  Speaker 2: I take loving God with your mind to mean use
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  Speaker 2: your mind, use your thinking faculty, your capacities for knowing,
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  Speaker 2: use your mind in order to stoke the fires of
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  Speaker 2: love for God in your heart. If the heart burns,
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  Speaker 2: the kindling is thrown by the mind, the mind works hard.
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  Speaker 2: It goes in, and he finds the truth, the kinning
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  Speaker 2: of truth, and it throws it on the furnace of
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  Speaker 2: love in the heart. Put your mind at the service
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  Speaker 2: of your heart in loving God. That's the ultimate purpose
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  Speaker 2: for having the capacity to think and know. Again and again,
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  Speaker 2: I am bowled over by the sheer reality that the
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  Speaker 2: creator of the universe has communicated himself to us in
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  Speaker 2: a book. We have a book, and the book is
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  Speaker 2: the very word of the creator of the universe. One
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  Speaker 2: of the reasons that bowls me over is because it
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  Speaker 2: implies that the main way we know God is by
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  Speaker 2: reading or listening to someone who has read. If you're
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  Speaker 2: preliterate and you have to depend on orality someone speaking
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  Speaker 2: to you, they have to read the book, or somebody
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  Speaker 2: has to read the book. So reading and listening are
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  Speaker 2: fundamentally processes of thinking. To read is to think God
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  Speaker 2: has ordained to make himself known and to make a
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  Speaker 2: relationship with impossible through a book, which means we have
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  Speaker 2: to learn how to read, and learning how to read
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  Speaker 2: means learning how to think, which makes thinking indispensable. So
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  Speaker 2: I conclude with exactly what Sarah said. Thinking is not
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  Speaker 2: just dangerous, it is indispensable.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, thank you Pastor John, and thanks for joining us today.
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  Speaker 1: Speaking of thinking, if you come across a question you
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  Speaker 1: can't seem to resolve in your own mind, ask Pastor John,
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  Speaker 1: find a link to email us, and even find our
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  Speaker 1: complete episode archive at askpastor John dot com. Every single
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  Speaker 1: episode with audio and full transcripts available twenty four to seven.
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  Speaker 1: We've been doing this a long time, and someone recently
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  Speaker 1: asked me to venture an answer to a quest question.
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  Speaker 1: The question was this, What's the most common question we
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  Speaker 1: get on the podcast, and I don't know the answer exactly,
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  Speaker 1: so this is just a guess, and my best guess
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  Speaker 1: based on my experience, I would say the most often
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  Speaker 1: asked about question is about the unpardonable sin. And by
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  Speaker 1: that I mean in the broadest sense of the term,
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  Speaker 1: not just what the unpardonable sin is as is defined
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  Speaker 1: in scripture. But have I committed a sin that is
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  Speaker 1: so ugly, so gross, so heinous, so premeditated, so repeated,
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  Speaker 1: so high handedly evil that God will surely refuse to
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  Speaker 1: forgive me for it? That was my answer. Will God
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  Speaker 1: forgive my very worst sin? That's the exact question. Up
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  Speaker 1: next time, I'm Tony Ranky. We'll see you on Thursday.