Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
(2 Timothy 2:7 ESV)
I’m going to be making an attempt to blog more about some of the things I’ve been thinking about recently, and in particular, ideas I’m understanding from the Bible. So this is a start and probably an excellent point from which to start.
Paul gives this instruction to Timothy and I think there’s a lot to be found in it. There’s a place for thinking in faith. That in itself may not seem like a profound thing to say but it’s an important thing to say these days. For one, I’ve interacted with several people recently enough who look down on faith, and see it as something that belonged to primitive times and the “dark ages” before we understood the world around us as much as we do now. It’s as if they see faith or religion as an alternative to thought and intelligence, and a poor substitute too.
And church doesn’t necessarily help either. I have the strong impression that many people in church are taught to fight to believe concepts, and it feels akin to a flexing of a muscle – a straining to lift something. I don’t often hear a strong emphasis on growing in understanding, much less encouraging and teaching people to think. So if the Christian faith does not appear to non-Christians as a particularly thoughtful place, I think Christians are at least partially to blame.
But Paul does a lot more here than authorize or commend thinking. He establishes the relationship between thought and revelation. That’s really important in the post-charismatic environment I’m a part of. I know a lot of Christians who aren’t particularly inclined towards the hard work of thought, but are very interested in revelation. And again there’s this idea floating around in the atmosphere somewhere, that revelation falls from the sky. It suggests that you might drop if you have a particularly good and powerful time with God on your own or a great prayer meeting or worship session. I’m not attacking the value of personal devotions or prayer meetings or worship sessions. I’m attacking the suggestion that how God reveals himself is that you’ll suddenly just “know” – out of the blue (or rather out of heaven) you’ll just know whatever you wanted to know or whatever you’re supposed to know. My problem with this “floating idea” is that it does not seem to suggest a connection between thought and revelation, and rarely even suggests a connection between thoughtfully reading and study of the Bible and revelation. In fact, you might get the impression from it that thought is the enemy of revelation. You might think that thought gets in the way of getting understanding from God.
Hearing what Paul is saying will save us from those kinds of floating ideas. Paul does not pit thinking – the using of our brains – against receiving understanding from God (which is by definition, revelation). Admittedly there’s the potential for a battle here. The Bible teaches us not to rely on our own understanding. It teaches us the insufficiency of our own wisdom. It teaches that the natural mind cannot understand spiritual things. So in one sense it’s understandable why some church-goers and teachers would seem to deemphasize thought in the way they do. At a glance it doesn’t look that helpful and actually seems a to be a threat to our potential to understand God. It doesn’t look like a useful tool in this “spiritual” environment. But Paul in a wonderfully succinct way, shows us how thought and revelation are meant to work together. “Think… for the Lord will give you understanding…” We are to apply our minds to the Bible with the expectation that God will give us insight and understanding. I’m making a big, but entirely reasonable extrapolation of “what I say” to become the scriptures as a whole. If you read more of what Paul says in this letter, the basis for that extrapolation becomes clear.
We are to think about what God says in the Bible. And Paul tells us what that should look like. We’re to think with a posture that is expecting and asking God to show us “wonderful things in [his] word” (Ps 119:18). So Paul, while definitely pushing us to think, leads us away from depending on the sufficiency of our own minds in order to understand the things of God. This is humble thinking, because from the outset, it recognizes that it can’t understand if God does not speak, and it can’t know if God does not reveal. So it must be asking questions about what the Bible says. It knows it’s not supposed just “get it”. I’m amazed how many people read the Bible and have no questions, or suffer under the impression that it is bad thing to have questions. This type of thinking keeps in mind the fact that understanding of God and the things of God is a gift from God. So it therefore must be prayerful because asking and receiving are related.
So Paul has given us a lot but there’s one more spectacular gift here. Hope. Paul teaches us that God will give understanding in everything. Even though this was written to Timothy, the basis of Paul’s guarantee to Timothy is a God revealed throughout the scriptures, who is committed to revealing himself to those who seek him, so this promise definitely extends to all who follow Jesus. So we can read and think and know that God will give understanding. It might take a while and it might be really frustrating at times but God will give understanding. It’s a guarantee. So I’ll end by echoing the Psalmist in Psalm 70:4:-
Interesting thoughts Joe, enjoyed reading. One of St Augustine famous quotes “seek not to understand that you may believe, but believe that you may understand.” It seems to me that understanding is the goal, understanding that definitely comes through thought and reflection something that many christians and people generally don’t do, and therefore growth can never come, hence they are so many christians that are easily swayed. But as St Augustine said, as you have stated and as the word says belief comes first.
Anyway thanks for the thoughts
Bob
That’s an interesting quotation Bob. There’s a lot in that too. I think Augustine is right. Faith is necessary even to receive understanding. We see it in the disciples relationship with Jesus, and the way they had to recognize that he was the one they should ask when they didn’t understand things.
Hope you don”t mind my butting in but had to add my 2 bits since this has been something I have been thinking about myself. Have marked several passages in my bible about just this topic over the last year. Interesting talks by Christians who think, Peter Kreeft, John Patrick, Jay Budziszewski can be found on the web. I have some of their articles and books if you are interested. I was very surprised and very grateful to find them.
Thanks Kay. I’d appreciate that. I had the chance to chat with John Patrick while he was here last year and it was a very good conversation.