“Thinking People”
Lou Tiscione, Pastor, Weatherford Presbyterian Church (PCA)
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.” Romans 12:2
God intends for His people to be thinking people. God has chosen men and women to be holy. Christians are commanded to be holy. The means of holiness is God working in us by the power of the Holy Spirit in concert with His word. There are two kinds of Christians of whom people refer. There are nominal Christians. These claim the title of Christian, but have little to do with God. Then there are the genuine Christians. These are those who have been chosen by God before the foundation of the world. God chose those who are His in Christ to be holy and blameless. The genuine “article” is called by God; regenerated by God; converted by God; justified by God; adopted by God; sanctified by God and glorified by God, Romans 8: 29-30.
God chose His people for His glory. Paul wrote that Christians have been chosen to the “praise of His glorious grace,” Ephesians 1:6. Christians are those who are in Christ; all others, including nominal Christians are in Adam. Those in Christ are alive and those in Adam are dead.
When Jesus prayed in the Garden, John 17:15, He asked the Father to keep Christians from Satan but not to take them out of the world. As a Christian Pastor, I am obliged to warn all who are in Christ that the world will continue to grow more and more evil. We will live in tribulation. But Jesus said to “take heart; I have overcome the world,” John 16:33. We know that we will share in Christ’s final victory. For now, we live in the “all ready.” When Christ returns we will experience the “not yet.” We will see Him as He is and we will be like Him, 1John 3:2.
Christians are told to keep their faith to themselves. For we are never to mix things like politics with our faith in Jesus Christ. At least so the secularists tell us. There are even some nominal Christians that have “bought” this lie. Somehow, we are to be spiritual people. Whatever that means in the mind of a secularist. The Bible says that “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned,” 1Corinthians 2:14. The truth is that the spiritual life is all of life. It includes that which we see and that which is yet unseen. We, Christians are spiritual people living in a world that does not see! Nevertheless, as those who live in this world, we are not to be naïve or ignorant of the things around us. We hear nonsense portrayed as wisdom and are expected to simply “wink” at it. Those who claim to be the intelligent elite are constantly trying to sell their folly as wisdom. Sadly, some Christians but it.
God has not called us to be naïve or ignorant of the things around us or the things that we hear. We are to be “as wise as serpents and innocent as doves,” Matthew 10:16. Jesus prepared the disciples He sent out, giving them authority and advice for acting wisely. So often, Christians think that we are to somehow “check our minds” at the door of the church building. I’ve actually heard self-appointed Christian leaders say, “God offends the mind to enter the heart.” What utter nonsense! God enters the mind and changes the heart. We are never to disengage our minds. God has given us our minds so that we can think our thoughts through Him.
Christians think using their minds which are being renewed by God as His Spirit applies His word. “We… take every thought captive to obey Christ,” 2Corinthians 10:5.
Now to my exhortation and conclusion: Christians think within the church; Christians think in the workplace; Christians think as citizens of the United States of America; Christians think in every sphere of life in which God has placed them.
It is thinking Christians who glorify God and enjoy Him forever. There is no other kind of Christian but a thinking one. Think systematically; think in light of observable information; think biblically and make god-honoring choices.