Heart and Mind

DR. JERRY ESHLEMAN
Superintendent of Cornerstone Christian Schools

To say that coming to know Christ and serving Him is an “experience” is perhaps the understatement of the century. However, it seems at times, through our actions, we too narrowly define the limits of that experience. In particular, we often tend to define our experience by our emotions. Those same emotions then become what we “know” about God. We essentially say, “Because I felt ‘this,’ I just ‘know’ that God must think ‘that.’” However, in God’s Word, we see that loving God and getting to know Him through our feelings and emotions, while completely valid, may actually limit all we can know about our Creator. Are our emotions the only way we can know God?

Serving God ought to affect the totality of all we are. Matthew 22:37 defines that totality when he quotes a passage originally found in Deuteronomy 6 and states, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Based on this, we see it is possible to not only love God with our feelings and emotions, but also with our mind.

The following are just few passages about the significance of our minds, our intellect and thinking:

Colossians 3:2
Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.

Proverbs 23:7
For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he…

Colossians 1:21
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.

Ephesians 4:23
…be made new in the attitude of your minds…

Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing and perfect will.

In one way or another, each of the above passages discuss the role of thinking and reason. At Cornerstone Christian Schools, we believe true worshippers of Christ ultimately know Him in His fullness by embracing both the richness of our emotions and the strength and stability of our intellect. A great example of this is found in Acts 17, when Paul preached to the Bereans. Let’s take a look at verses 11 & 12, “These [the people of Berea] were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the Word with all readiness [i.e. eagerness which is an “emotional” response…] and searched the Scriptures daily [shows use of the intellect…] to find out whether these things were so. Therefore many of them believed... [thus showing the ultimate goal]”

Let us make sure we model loving God with our hearts and minds. Make sure we challenge our children to use both what they learn about God through their feelings and what they know about God through their intellect, to impact the world! This is our desire, passion and mission at Cornerstone Christian Schools!

By the way, for an excellent discussion on the need for both feelings and intellect I recommend reading a classic. You can find it by searching on the internet for J. Gresham Machen’s address on, “The Scientific Preparation of the Minister,” delivered September 20, 1912.