Reason as an Act of Worship

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Introduction

            Reason is not something that can readily be removed from the spiritual life of the believer. Below, this line of thought will be further developed but the first and foremost reason for this connection is our direct connection to God himself (Imago Dei). All of mankind/ humanity has been created in the image of God and God being the creator of the orderly, rationally functioning universe has displayed rational capacities which have been imparted to his most precious creation, us (Gen. 1:27 NASB).[1] This is an important initial concept to understand for God has a mind as does mankind, though its functionality has been altered by the fall, it is still called to learn and worship God. With this understanding, we can further develop how the exercise of reason is a believer’s spiritual act of worship to God.

Overview of Reason in Scripture

            Initially, it may be prudent to point out that the Bible is not quiet on the issue of the mind or reason or thinking clearly about God. There are commands within Scripture that call believer’s to love God with all of their heart, soul, and their mind (Matt 22:37; Luke 10:27; Mark 12:30; Deut 6:5). The New Testament (NT) references are Jesus giving the greatest commandment followed by the second (love your neighbor), this is important to understand because Jesus saw the importance of loving God with your mind, but this was not strictly his focus, but he was including all of the person. The Old Testament (OT) reference is a call to Israel to do the same but in this case, it carries a universal truth for all believer’s because it is not bound by cultural norms and Jesus reinstitutes the teaching in the NT for new covenant believer’s.

            A second point to understand is that the use of the mind is tied to eternal life. Jesus said that he is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6) and that we know the one true God and Jesus whom he sent (John 17:3). If Jesus is the truth that means that he is making a universal statement and we must engage our minds to come to the truth because to rightly know that something is true is not a matter of blindly stumbling upon it. Even the biblical concept of faith has the intellect interwoven within it. When dissecting the word faith, we find that it has three aspects: notitia (understanding content of faith), fiducia (trust), and assensus (assent of the intellect to the truth of some proposition).[2] Even faith at its core means to come to God with our minds.

            The last point of understanding is more practical in scope and transitions into applying the “how.” Paul discusses renewing our minds and putting off the old self to put on the new self in the spirit of our minds (Rom 12:1-2; Eph 4:22-24). These imply that our old way of thinking must be replaced by the new way of thinking in Christ. Thinking requires the mind and to fully develop a spirit that is directed or oriented towards God it will take (in part) an act of volition or the will. This is not to say of course that Christians who do not engage their minds are less Christian but rather that to fully develop spiritually requires all of the person, not just faith or the body (as stated above).

Reason as an Act of Worship

            Since we have briefly covered material that introduces the idea of the mind into the life of the believer it is time to formulate or answer questions with regard to the implementation of that reason into a functional aspect of development for spiritual growth. Thinking back to the time just before one accepted Christ one can see that the initial stages of the mind have been present at the outset of the Christian life. Since the person must make an act of the will (choice) to accept what Jesus said as true and then commit one's life to that truth. Though conversion is the beginning the mind should not stop there because the believer enters into a life journey or marathon race where questions, doubts, fears, hurts, joys, and concerns arise and these need to be answered if one is to keep that faith or at least keep it with any veracity. So as the believer walks through life and encounters these things they seek the answers, through the guidance of the Holy Spirit (John 16:13), which will bring that person closer to God and brings glory to God as an effect.

            God, being the creator of the universe, or can be said more indirectly the First Cause, must have a rational and organized mind. Developing reason and the intellect will broaden the scope whereby the believer can perceive the intricacies of this finely constructed universe. Understanding that the intellect is based at a foundational level on “simple seeing” we must move past this idea to perceiving things as “seeing that” which judges things with the mind.[3] This showcases God’s image in us since he judged with his mind not only that what he created was good (functional and served a purpose) but also the actions of people (objective/ universal moral code).

            Unfortunately, in Christendom but more specifically America (since this is the majority of my experience) the mind has been dismissed as a black sheep because of the fall. The noetic effects of sin have proven too great to be overcome which has resulted in Christian schools not providing an educational background in logic, philosophy, and apologetics in its foundational curriculum. This has led to a mass exodus from the Christian faith upon leaving these Christian educational facilities because they have not encouraged the use of the mind as an act of worshiping the creator God.

            But do not lose heart because having a sure understanding that even though the fall has skewed our intellectual faculties they are not so bad that we cannot reason properly but rather the results of that reason (for an unregenerate heart) will be biased away from God. Again, as seen above there is Scripture that tells us that our minds are to be used to reflect God’s glory in us, in the world, and through us and by the renewing of our minds we can be devoted to this aspect of worship towards God.

Conclusion

            Though the scope of this discourse is not properly exhaustive it does provide a brief look into the fact that reason is tied to eternal life (Jesus being truth) and that the noetic effects of sin are not so great that we, as believer’s, cannot use our minds to love God (Matt 22:37; Luke 10:27; Mark 12:30; Deut 6:5). Faith is not simply “blind” but rather has intellectual aspects built foundationally into its historical understanding and we would do well to remember this. God is a rational God who has created the world to be orderly (1 Cor. 14:33) and we need to use our minds to set right the order of our lives so that they reflect the glory of God, the salvation of Christ and the longing of the lost, these are acts of worship towards God through the use of our minds.





Bibliography

Moreland, J. P., and Craig, William Lane. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003.

Moreland, J. P. Love Your God with all Your Mind. Colorado Springs: NavPress

[1] Unless otherwise noted, all biblical passages referenced are in the New American Standard Bible.
[2] J. P. Moreland and William Lane Craig, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2003), Chapter 1. This source is an ebook and does not offer page numbers so all references from this source will be labeled as chapter references.
[3] J. P. Moreland, Love Your God with all Your Mind (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2012), 91.

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