Latest / Chapel Talks / Loving God with All Your Mind | Mark 12:28-31 | Mike Gilbart-Smith

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Loving God with All Your Mind | Mark 12:28-31 | Mike Gilbart-Smith · Chapel Talks

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  Well, do you keep that passage open? We are not
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  looking at that whole tremendously long passage.
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  Over the summer, we had a sermon series where
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  we took six weeks to look at that passage. And
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  so I thought the week that would be most appropriate
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  for a theological college is for us to think
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  what it means to love the Lord our God with all
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  our mind. It was Shakespeare who first said,
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  love is blind. I think he was the first to say
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  it. And when he said it, he meant love can look
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  beyond externals, like the clothes that Jessica
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  was wearing in The Merchant of Venice, to see
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  the real person. Love is able to see more than
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  what is visible. But as a culture, we've taken
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  that quote and run with it, haven't we? Dickens
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  used it like this, but love is blind and Nathaniel
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  had a cast in his eye and perhaps these two circumstances
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  taken together prevented his seeing the matter
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  in its proper light. Love is blind doesn't mean
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  we can see more, it means we can see less. So
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  that Abhijit Naskar, a neuroscientist, writes,
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  love that doesn't turn you stupid is no love.
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  It shows that to a large degree, our culture
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  separates love and thought. Love and the mind.
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  Elvis Presley probably put it most famously.
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  Wise men say only fools rush in, but I can't
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  help falling in love with you. I know it's stupid.
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  I know it's foolish, but I can't help it. That's
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  how we tend to think of love. And so our culture
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  is surprised by at least two things in the commandment
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  that Jesus says is the greatest. And if it's
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  the greatest commandment, it means that it defines
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  who we are. This is what it means for us to be
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  made human, is that we are to love the Lord.
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  Firstly, our culture... Thinks we cannot be commanded
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  to love. Doesn't love just happen to you. I can't
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  help falling in love. And in particular. The
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  very idea that we could love with our minds.
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  Is bad enough but that we must love with our
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  minds. Well it's tremendously counter cultural
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  isn't it. And yet this. When asked what the greatest
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  commandment is, Jesus doesn't begin by saying
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  love. No, he starts earlier in Deuteronomy chapter
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  6 with the word hear. Hear, O Israel, the Lord
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  our God, the Lord is one. Love is a response
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  to truth. It's why we've been singing about the
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  gospel on which we stand. It is when we discover
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  who God is in our minds as we hear and believe
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  the gospel that we are able to respond with our
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  hearts and our soul and our strength to love
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  him. So very briefly, four ways in which we must
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  love the Lord our God with all our minds. Number
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  one. We need a posture of worshipping the Lord.
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  A posture of worshipping the Lord. We're not
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  told love the Lord. We're told to love the Lord
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  your God with all your mind. Different loves
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  in relationship are shaped differently. I have
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  the blessing of having a wonderful wife and six
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  children. And it's wonderful to observe the way
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  in which my wife loves my children and my children
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  love my wife. And that develops over time. But
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  think about a newborn baby. If you can't think
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  without singing, turn around. See a fairly newborn
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  baby at the back of the hall. Imagine if you
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  confuse the way in which a mother is to love
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  the baby and a baby is to love the mother. A
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  mother loves the baby by, yes, looking at a baby
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  thinking, aren't you cute? But also providing
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  for that baby, sustaining its life through food
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  and care and affection. Imagine if the mother
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  thought that they should love the baby in the
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  way that the baby should love the mother, by
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  depending upon the baby for everything. Now it
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  is true that the Lord is declared our friend.
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  And that friendship is a symmetrical relationship,
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  isn't it? I've got a friend called Freddie. He's
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  my friend. I'm his friend. It's the same both
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  ways. But almost all the ways in which our relationship
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  with the Lord is defined are asymmetrical. Yes,
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  he is our friend. We are his friend. But it is
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  not a friendship of equals. He is our friend.
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  We are his subjects. He is our savior. We are
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  those he has saved. He is our God. We are those
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  who are to worship him. And so in a theological
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  college where much of our time is spent with
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  God as an object of our study, We cannot have
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  him an object of our study until we first have
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  him as an object of our worship. And everything
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  we learn about God and what it means to be God's
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  people should lead us to worship. It's why it's
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  a great way to finish a lecture with a prayer
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  of praise or even a hymn. Because we've learned
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  more about our God. The Lord, our God, the one
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  with whom we are in covenant relationship. And
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  we should not do so without praising him. A posture
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  of worship. Secondly, a pursuit of his word.
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  Jesus says, quoting Deuteronomy, Hear, O Israel,
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  the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is a...
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  A tradition in Hinduism where Krishna says to
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  his disciples, I am whomever my lover wishes
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  me to be. So if you want me to be this, I'll
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  be this. If you want me to be that, I'll be that.
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  That is not how the Lord presents himself. He
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  says, I am who I am. He declares, the Lord your
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  God, the Lord is one. He is one Lord who in his
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  amazing mercy has revealed himself to us in his
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  word. And principally in his son. Where we learn
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  that the one is three and the three are one.
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  And so we must study God's word in order to love
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  the Lord with all our mind. I used to be a pastor
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  on Capitol Hill in Washington, D .C., and we
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  had weekly evangelistic lunchtime talks, and
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  I gave a talk from God's Word to which one of
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  the staffers, which basically means young people
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  who are very bright who do photocopying for senators,
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  said to me, that was very interesting what you
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  shared for the Bible, but I like to think of
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  God as being like this, and then described how
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  he liked to think of God, to which I said, well,
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  I hope you understand that what you like to think
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  of God tells us an enormous amount about you,
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  and it tells us absolutely nothing about God.
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  Because God is who he is, and we need to listen
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  to his revelation to find out who he is. And
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  it's not enough to make God the object of our
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  study so that we can worship him by using the
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  minds of others. Perhaps you have a favourite
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  theologian and you like to love the Lord your
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  God with all Bavinck's mind or Turretin's mind,
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  or insert favourite theologian, or a favourite
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  pastor and you love to love the Lord your God
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  with John Piper's mind or whoever it might be
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  for you. Or instead... Yeah, the essay comes
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  and, you know, you've got that AI policy, but
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  you just have a little look at what AI says about
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  the question. Because, let's be honest, it can
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  probably answer it better than you. Certainly
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  it can answer it better than me. But the Lord
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  says, love the Lord your God with all your mind.
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  I think one of the great blessings of AI is it
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  tells us how thick we are. It can do things that
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  we could never do in 100 years in 12 seconds.
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  And that is a blessing. Because the Lord didn't
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  tell us to love him with all our minds because
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  he's in awe of our intelligence. No, from the
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  very beginning, he created beings with intelligences
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  far beyond us. And one of the great things about
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  AI is it's challenging our very idea of what
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  it means to be human. I've really enjoyed Christopher
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  Watkins' podcast on AI, on the Gospel Coalition.
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  It's called Silicon Spiritualities. This is one
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  of the things he said from a recent episode.
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  There are two worlds in which you can live in
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  the world of AI. There's the world in which you
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  are your performance, you are your metrics, you
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  are your intelligence. Good luck living in that
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  world today because AI is coming for you. It's
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  going to outthink you, outcreate you. If that's
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  what you build your identity on, it's not looking
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  good for you. But let me invite you into another
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  world where you aren't what you think or what
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  you create or what even you produce relationally,
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  but your identity is a wonderful gift bestowed
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  on you, not because you are the greatest, but
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  because the greatest God has loved you. And we,
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  in response to his love, are to love the Lord
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  our God with all our minds. Number three, a practice
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  of remembering. We are constantly to remember
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  how he is lovely and to be loved. How do you
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  think about exams when they're coming up? I hope
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  you think about exams at Theology College not
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  in the way maybe you thought about GCSE physics.
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  Where you think, I've got to cram the knowledge
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  and praise God, when I get to the end of the
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  exam, I never have to do physics ever again,
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  or insert least favourite subject. No, think
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  of it much more like the driving test. You are
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  learning these things about the Lord so that
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  you can put them into practice in the rest of
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  your life. Imagine thinking, thank the Lord I've
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  got through my driving test, I never have to
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  remember what to do behind the wheel again every
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  time I drive. No, we are to learn about the Lord
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  so that we can remember who he is and live in
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  love towards him. Number four, a patience in
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  maturing in love. Love of the Lord with our minds
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  is to be a lifelong pursuit. We are to love the
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  Lord with the mind we have today, though not
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  the mind we hope we will have by the time we
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  graduate. Not the mind we wish we still had,
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  now that some of us are beyond 50 and the mind
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  is getting worse. No, the mind you have today,
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  love the Lord with that mind, looking forward
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  to the day where your mind will be fully renewed.
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  That great chapter of love, on love, in 1 Corinthians
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  13, the Apostle Paul writes, for now we see only...
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  a reflection as in a mirror, then we shall see
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  face to face. Now I know in part, then I shall
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  know fully, even as I am fully known. And now
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  these three remain, faith, hope, and love, but
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  the greatest of these is love. Faith will give
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  way to sight, hope will give way to reality,
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  and love will remain forever. And one day the
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  object of our love we will know fully, not I
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  think because we'll suddenly become infinite
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  and omniscient, but because there will be no
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  barriers to us exploring more deeply how he is
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  worthy of our love as our minds know who he truly
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  is and express that love in worship forever.
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  Will we not love the Lord with all our minds?
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  Let's go to the hymn in prayer now. Father, we
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  praise you that you have given us minds and we
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  confess that they are not infinite like your
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  mind. They are not unconfused like your mind.
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  But we pray that with growing clarity. We will
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  read your word so we will know who you are, so
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  that we will love you with our minds, and that
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  love from our minds will flow into our hearts
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  and our soul and our strength, that you might
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  be the sole object of our worship. Father, we
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  thank you that when we find it hard to love you
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  with our minds, you hold up to us your Son, the
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  Lord Jesus Christ. We come and see him, the king
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  of love who died for his subjects, the God who
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  became human because of his love, that he might
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  be an atoning sacrifice not only for our sins
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  but for the sins of the whole world. Cause us,
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  Lord, to meditate upon his cross. that our response
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  to you would always be love. And we pray this
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  in Jesus' name. Amen.