The Mind for Christ: A Biblical View of the Intellect

Growing in Grace

Dr. Craig Brandick

When Mr. Welsch asked me to start writing for the church blog, I immediately agreed. What a wonderful way to deliver hope and Christ honoring change to those who read this. It seems that I will be posting on Tuesdays, so my prep time will be mostly accomplished on Mondays—still fresh and filled from the Sunday services. What will my blog include? Here is an invitation to get a glimpse of the things that bounce around in my head—counseling and discipleship; the biblical languages, theology, and current issues. At any given time of the day, my mind is on one or several of these. My passion as a former pastor and as a counselor is ultimately to capture the mind for Christ. This underscores my theology of Christian Education, not just as it relates to Seminary or Bible College, but where it impacts the professional, the blue collar laborer, the stay at home mom, the retiree, the single parent, the teen, and the child. In short, all of God’s people are called to have the mind impacted for Christ so that they, by the knowledge of Christ, may properly and joyfully glorify Christ. How is this accomplished, though, without producing mere intellectualism? That is the subject of my opening blog,

The Mind for Christ: A Biblical View of the Intellect

“If there is emotion and zeal we must question if it is based upon truth. But if we have truth without emotion and zeal we must wonder if there is life.”

Man’s intellect is the ability to function, decide, evaluate, and create based upon information that he has received. To this day I can remember my fourth grade math teacher “preaching” the basics facts of math. “Once you know your basic facts you will be able to do anything with math!” We learned how to read numbers and symbols and by doing so we could count change, balance a checkbook, and buy groceries. We learned to work with information. Other pieces of basic information also helped us with decisions. When the water is bubbling over the flame it is hot. I choose to let it cool before handling it, or I let it boil for five minutes to kill any bacteria so that I may drink it. If I mix my red paint with my yellow paint I get orange. The shade of orange depends on the amount of either red or yellow. By adjusting the amount and adding blue I can paint a sunset with deepening shades. For most of us, these abilities go beyond the elementary. Our intellect includes the ability to learn, to retain knowledge, to apply that knowledge, to synthesize, and even to create. The intellect is involved in the writing of poetry, and the painting of a bridge; in the balancing of a checkbook, and in the designing of a skyscraper. All of the emoting in the world will not put a single drop of paint upon a canvas—the intellect must be engaged at some level.

A biblical understanding of the intellect is necessary because of the tendency to place it either in subject or contrary to emotions. Indeed, many have viewed the Christian thinker as a cold and unresponsive egghead that is somehow spiritually deficient. John Armstrong has correctly observed that: “The thinking person with an argument is almost always perceived as being in an inferior position to the non-thinking person who has had an experience, especially if the experience is a powerful one which can be communicated movingly to others in the form of a testimony.”[1]

But, as has already been demonstrated, the intellect is as much a part of the inner man as emotion. The mind, which is often associated with intellect, has the capacity for emotion just as the heart has the capacity for reason. Armstrong continues, “We have made a false dichotomy in our time between the “head” and the “heart.” Most seem to reject doctrine and rational thought as appealing only to the “head,” while what is needed, they insist, is direct appeal to the “heart.” This is simply a false antithesis created by shallow and unscriptural teaching.”[2] Intellect and emotion are complementary capacities of the inner man, both are functions of the heart. Both work together.[3]

What, then, is the purpose of the intellect? Aside from the purposes that help us with day to day chores, the priority of the intellect is to think God-ward thoughts and inform the heart of truth so that we may glorify God in obedience, service, and worship. If one divorces the ability to think and to reason from the scriptures from emotion, how will he know if what he is feeling is correct? Likewise, if we cannot think and reason from the scriptures regarding our service or our worship how will we know if it is in line with what God desires? What of heresy? How do we know that what we believe is true unless we are able to evaluate the truth claims of religion, cults, and culture?

Consider how many times the New Testament alone calls the believer to engage his mind to bring about a spiritual attitude or resulting behavior. For example:

• 2 Timothy 3:14-17: “But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them; And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.

• Romans 12:1-2: “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.^”

• Ephesians 4:17-24: “This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, ¹⁸ Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart…But ye have not so learned Christ; ²¹ If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: ²² That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; ²³ And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; ²⁴ And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.

Each of these examples presents the intellect as the human capacity to bring about spiritual results. Proper Christian living, service, and even worship comes first through the engagement of the mind.

In his Epistle to the Philippians, Paul had to correct some of the attitudes and practices in the Philippian church. There were believers who were not pulling their weight in service, who were arguing with one another, and who were overcome with anxious care. In the first key section of Philippians, Paul told these believers that they should be “of the same mind and of one accord” (2:2). And with humility of mind they were to “esteem other better than themselves.” (2:3). The great example of this was Jesus Christ who—even though he was God—did not consider his deity something that should stop him from being a servant:

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. (2:5-8). [4]

The result of having this mind was that they would do all things without grumbling and complaining, and that they would be innocent and blameless as children of God in the perverse culture that was around them (2:14-16). To what did Paul call these believers? Did he make an appeal to the emotions? Did he tell them that they should become proper servants by feeling like it? No. On the other hand, did he tell them to just do it? Again, no. Paul’s appeal was to the mind. Look at the God inspired choice of words: one mind, humility of mind, consider, regard, esteem, attitude. These words require that the intellect—the engagement of the mind—attend to spiritual matters. The only way that the Philippians would know if their service was acceptable to God would be by an understanding of Christ’s own service. They would properly represent God as image bearers only by first knowing what Christ was like as a servant. Their God-ward service would come as a result of God-ward thoughts.

But what of the intellect and emotions? In our earlier discussion we learned that emotions are subjective responses based upon our perception. How then does the intellect effect our emotions? By informing our hearts of truth so that our emotions are proper responses. Quite often Philippians is regarded as the “joy epistle.” But Paul was responding to believers who were anything but joyful. There were those in the Philippian church who were overcome with anxious care. The tone of his response to them was less of a musical round of “Rejoice in the Lord Always” and more of a firm but gentle rebuke. If you will forgive me for an admittedly contemporary thought translation of the Greek behind this text (my own), Paul was saying,

Start rejoicing in the Lord. I’ll say it again. Start rejoicing and stop being so anxious. Peace will replace anxiety as you make prayers and supplications with thanksgiving to God. If you do that, God will give you the kind of peace that most people just can’t understand; he will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (4:4-7).

But Paul had additional instruction as well. Not only were they to pray and give thanks, they were to engage their minds, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest , whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.” (4:8). Paul told the church that they should pray, give thanks, and think upon better things. If they would do this and obey the things that they had learned, then the God of peace would be with them (4:9).

A final note of caution is due here. We were warned earlier that the Christian who thinks is often looked upon as spiritually deficient. In my own ministry I have heard of seminaries referred to as cemeteries. However, most of the men that I know who work in academia are devoted believers with a passion for Christ and his Word. If there is emotion and zeal we must question if it is based upon truth. But if we have truth without emotion we must wonder if there is life. Christian intellect should not be mistaken for the intellectualism that coldly denies any emotional response. Rather, “The Christian Mind is a biblical, theological, evangelical, spiritual and human way of seeing the world and all that is in it.”[5] The heart will respond to what it believes to be true—whether or not it is indeed true. The heart informed—and convinced—of Truth will respond according to Truth. In this way the capacity of the intellect assists us in knowing not only what service God requires of us, but also of the things that cause us to adore him in loving and, yes, heartfelt communion.

Grow in His Grace

Dr. Craig Brandick

Walnut Creek Baptist Church

Erie, PA

(814) 838-7515 ext. 106

Notes

[1] John H. Armstrong, “Editors Introduction,” Reformation and Revival 3:3 (Summer, 1994), 10. This edition of the journal was devoted to the Christian Mind in an unthinking culture.

[2] Ibid., 11.

[3] Gordon H. Clark, “The Primacy of the Intellect,” Westminster Theological Journal 5:2 (May 1943), 182-83. “A man is not a compound of three things, an intellect, a will, and an emotion. Each man is a single personality. Long ago Plato showed the sophistic, skeptical results of making man a wooden horse of Troy and destroying his unitary personality. Emotion, will, and intellect are not three things, each independent of the other, mysteriously and accidentally inhabiting one body. These three are simply three activities of a single consciousness that sometimes thinks, sometimes feels, and sometimes wills.

[4] Too much is often said of the kenosis when the simplest answer will suffice. There need be no appeal to a metaphysical emptying of deity when none is inferred by the language, text, context, or intent of the message. The question before the Philippian church was, “What assumed excellent position, power, or prestige will keep you from serving others?” It was not Jesus’ deity that was poured out. Rather, he did not regard his positional equality with the Father something that he should grasp hold of in regard to service; but instead he let that go and became a servant. It was not his personal deity that was let go. It was his position that was disregarded. The simple answer, then, is, “Jesus did not let his equality with the Father stop him from being a servant.”

[5] Thomas N. Smith, “The Pastor As a Christian Thinker,” Reformation and Revival 3:3 (Summer 1994), 82.