Think

Some Christians think we need not think. Jesus thought otherwise, often urging his listeners to think: “What do you think, Simon? From whom do earthly kings collect tax?” “What do you think? Should a man have 100 sheep and one stray, does he not leave the 99?” “What do you think? A man had two sons. He said to the first, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’” “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is he?”

Isaiah berated idol-makers for muddled thinking: “There is no understanding to say, ‘I have burned half a log in the fire and baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!’” Paul considered Athenian idolators just as bad: “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. Having overlooked the times of ignorance, God now declares that all everywhere should repent.” Both groups missed wisdom from their lack of cogitation, not of revelation.

Thinking is a skill we sharpen, a muscle we flex, in hopes of improving: “When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, think like a child, reason like a child; when I became a man, I did away with childish things. Brethren, do not be children in your thinking; in your thinking be mature.”

God thinks: “Your thoughts are very deep.” As his image-bearers, we also ought to think. God’s goodness is a good place to begin: “We have thought on your lovingkindness, O God, in the midst of your temple.” From there we proceed to how to best interact with others: “The heart of the righteous ponders how to answer.” Messiah’s mother had much to muse: “Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.” Let us increasingly love God with all our ... minds.