I am committed to good, sound doctrine about the God of the Bible. This does not mean I am all head and no heart. I chose the seminary where I graduated (Reformed Theological Seminary) partly because its motto is “A mind for truth. A heart for God.” The heart and mind are to work as one. Jesus beautifully summarizes this in Matthew 22:37 when he commands loving the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind. He is saying – Love me with the entirety of your being.
What does engaging God with our hearts and minds look like? First, we must be indivisible in our devotion to God. We must not separate our emotions from our logic. Voddie Baucham explains that when Scripture speaks about our hearts, it is speaking figuratively about an aspect of the mind.
“‘[The Gentiles] are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to the hardness of their hearts.’ How many of you know when [Paul is] talking about ‘heart’ there, he’s not talking about the muscle in the center of your chest that pumps blood. Your heart doesn’t know anything . . . Your heart is a muscle that pumps blood. That’s all it does. It doesn’t know anything. It doesn’t love anything. It doesn’t yearn for anything. It doesn’t seek after anything. It has no passions. It has nothing. It is a muscle that pumps blood, and so when the Bible talks about your heart, it is speaking figuratively. When [the Bible] speaks about knowing something in your heart or loving something in your heart, it’s speaking figuratively about what? An aspect of your mind which is the only knower, lover, feeler, yearner that you have. So ironically, we run away from this whole idea of head knowledge because of what we read in the Scriptures about the heart when in fact, it’s speaking figuratively about an aspect of our mind.”
Baucham explaining Ephesians 4:18 in his sermon titled Romans 12:2 Modern Spirituality and Your Mind
The Bible does not divide our hearts from our minds. When the Bible speaks about our hearts, it is speaking about an aspect of our minds. This is the complete opposite of our current culture that promotes following feelings and expressing individualism. According to Scripture, feelings and expressions are from the mind, not justifications of the therapeutic self getting to do whatever it wants. God requires we follow him with the our whole inner being. Our emotions, feeling, motives, and thoughts all must conform to God.
So, sound doctrine that pervades every aspect of your being (your mind and your heart) matters. Why? Because how you think determines what you believe to be true. Let me use the following lyrics from a current song as an example.
It’s not wrong
To want the world for someone
It’s not a feeling you can run from
‘Cause we love who we love
So let go
You don’t know better than your heart knows
Whether they’re here or long gone
Yeah, we love who we love
Yeah, we love who we loveThe universe has pulled us closer
Who We Love by Sam Smith and Ed Sheeran
I trust whatever’s brought me here to you
You can never lose
If love is what you feel then (the chorus above is repeated)
If you think you are capable of governing yourself, you can trust your thoughts, motives, and feelings. Your heart can guide you and you can follow it. Whatever it feels is not wrong. However, if you know you are a sinner, you know you cannot trust yourself. Sound doctrine from Christ’s teachings brings clarity.
Let’s take the lyrics “if love is what you feel then it’s not wrong.” If that is true then it needs to be consistent about all kinds of loves. What if I as a married woman feel love for a man who is not my husband? According to this song, it is not wrong because it’s what I feel. But Scripture, sound doctrine, teaches me to flee such feelings as someone in a covenantal marriage. Sound doctrine from God’s Word teaches me not to trust my heart because it is deceitful (Jer 17:9). It does not want understanding, it is corrupt, and it does not do good because it is a part of me, a sinner (Rom 3:10-12, Ps 14:1-3, Ps 53:1-3). This song encourages me to let myself go because I cannot control who I love, but sound doctrine teaches me that love is a choice and an action, not a feeling I’m caught up in.
All of this brings me to Paul’s letters to Timothy and Titus where he stresses teaching sound doctrine (1 Tim 1:10, 1 Tim 6:3, 2 Tim 1:13, Titus 1:9, and Titus 2:1). Here is what we are told about sound doctrine from God in these verses:
- Sound doctrine is the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Tim 6:3)
- If we do not agree with Jesus’s words and teaching, we are puffed up with conceit and understand nothing, have an unhealthy craving for controversy and quarrels and constant friction among people (1 Tim 6:4-5)
- There is a lot that is contrary to sound doctrine. It is listed in 1 Tim 1:9-10. It is a description of our culture, and since it names unholiness, disobedience and sin, it is also a description of my heart, but my gracious Shepherd pulls me back to truth with his voice.
- We are to follow and guard sound doctrine (2 Tim 1:13-14)
- Church elders (and all believers) are to teach what is in accord with Jesus’s words and rebuke those who contradict him (Titus 1:9, 2:1). This is a call to live for the approval of God and not man (Gal 1:10). A call to boldness and not shrinking back (Heb 10:39), not a call to be jerks.
The Holy Spirit gives great wisdom for our hearts and minds in 2 Timothy 4:2-5. “Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry.”
We are definitely in a time where people are not enduring sound teaching. Instead they are finding other teachings that tell their itching ears what they want to hear. Jesus doesn’t work that way. He speaks sound words and wants his people to conform their hearts, souls, and minds to him, not to ourselves. Why would I want to conform to something broken, deceitful, finite and corrupt rather than the One who is whole, perfect, infinite, and holy? Between my two options, he is the better choice.