Dwight Fletcher | YOLO Intellectual life - Part II

Many people believe that the church is anti-intellect. Those who share this view believe that when a person becomes a Christian, they leave their brains at the church door and operate as if smart people cannot become Christians. They would even argue that to become a Christian is to disregard reason and intellect.

But, the opposite is true. Christianity is about faith, and it is also a belief system that is based on reason and intelligence. In fact, our faith is the most logical of all the faith streams. We must use both our faith and our reason to honour God.

Previously, we noted the top three ways we can love God with all our minds. One of the things we said was that gaining as much knowledge in our fields as possible is the first way. Let us now look at the other two ways.

1. LEARN AS MUCH WISDOM FROM THE BIBLE AS POSSIBLE

We get our knowledge from many different books according to our field of study, but there is only one book that contains wisdom, and that is the Bible! The Bible is a collection of God's wisdom and it is vital that we add wisdom to our knowledge for two reasons:

i. Knowledge without wisdom makes us proud.

The apostle Paul said it well in 1 Corinthians 8:1 (NIV). "... We all possess knowledge. But knowledge puffs up... ." Other translations say that knowledge makes you arrogant and proud. But the scripture says that God resists the proud. The last thing we want to do is gain knowledge to the point where it leads us away from God. On the other hand, wisdom is the capacity to see things from God's perspective and respond according to scriptural principles.

ii. Knowledge tends to be temporary, but wisdom is eternal.

We want to invest in the eternal while we live in the temporary. Cutting-edge knowledge today is probably going to be outdated 100 years from now. We need to add wisdom to our knowledge because wisdom is eternal and transcends knowledge. It's only when we add wisdom to our knowledge that we are going to be on the path to total success. The best way to become wise is to immerse yourself in God's word. Joshua 1:8 says about studying the Bible, "Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do." This is an active engagement where you take a particular piece of wisdom from the scripture and let it marinate in your mind. You see, you can achieve much with just knowledge, but true success only comes with wisdom.

2. APPLY THE WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE TO LIFE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE

The key word here is 'apply'. It's not just about gaining knowledge or wisdom, it is about applying them to our lives. It may begin with information, but it ends with application because information by itself is not very powerful. The saying knowledge is power is not true. In fact, knowledge used is power. If I gave you a stock tip that would make you a million dollars by Wednesday and you didn't do anything with that tip, that knowledge was powerless. You would have to put it to action. This is true in every area of our lives.

In the same way, knowing a lot about the Bible does not mean you are wise because it must go beyond information. There must be application. So, my question to you today is, what are you doing with what you learn? Jesus said, "Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them" John 13:17 (NIV). Did you get that? Jesus did not say the blessing comes from the information. The information is important. The wisdom is important, but it's the application that brings the blessing.

The apostle James gave us some strong words in James 1:22-25 (NIV) to "... not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves". In other words, if you only hear it, that's deception. "Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom ..." (that's an analogy to the Bible, the perfect law that gives freedom, the Scripture) and continues in it - not forgetting what they have heard but doing it - they will be blessed in what they do. So, it's about doing. It's about application.

I want to challenge you to reserve some time to become a better student of the Bible. Set aside time to study the Scripture and be around someone who can hold you accountable. Then, make it a priority to apply one thing you have learned to your life.

Your intellect is a gift from God. Make the decision today to love God with your mind and use your intellect in the way that honours Him. It's only when we learn to use our mind as he intended that we can fully live out God's best, perfect and highest purposes for our lives.