In our present times, Artificial Intelligence is the hot topic. Let’s think about human intelligence. When I first touched a computer way back in the 1980’s there was an expression among programmers that is still true of so much in life: “Garbage in, garbage out.” The author of the Book of Proverbs said virtually the same thing 3,000 years earlier: “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Proverbs 4:23). I shouldn’t have to say it, but we will find a whole lot more wisdom in God’s Word than we will with ChatGPT or Grok from X.
When we each had our own Epiphany and realized that Jesus of Nazareth really was the Messiah who lived a perfect life, died a sin atoning death, rose on the third day and ascended to the right hand of the Father in Heaven as Lord and Savior, we began by repenting. The Greek word used in the Bible for “repent” is metanoeo – literally to “change our mind.”
Let me see a show of hands now – when your mother first brought you home from the hospital after giving birth to you did she lay you down in your crib, smile fondly and say, “Alright, after nine months of pregnancy and nine hours of painful delivery, you need to think about moving out and getting your own place.” I don’t see any hands raised. Well, your heavenly Father, after drawing you into His salvation. isn’t going to kick you out of the nest and tell you to fly either. But we have to work with him to grow up into spiritual maturity. Turns out the Bible has a lot to say on the topic.
Let’s start with Romans 12:2: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind . . .” And in Ephesians 5:26 Paul’s advice for husbands is “love your wives, as Christ loved the Church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” As well, in Philippians 2:5 Paul says “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus.”
What characterized the mind of Christ? Beginning with the temptation in the wilderness immediately following his baptism, Jesus battles Satan by quoting from the Old Testament, from memory. This is 1,500 years before the first printed Bible but Jesus carried in his mind huge swaths of scripture that he could recall instantly. He does that constantly throughout all four Gospel accounts. He doesn’t have a great memory because he’s the Son of God but because he was raised in an observant Jewish family where, from birth, his mind was washed and saturated by the Word of God.
I will be the first to confess that I spend too much time checking my messages on my phone, watching entertainment on television and ‘hope scrolling’ on social media. But I also spend an hour or so every day in prayer and reading of God’s word. If you’re depressed, distracted or despairing, cut way back on the garbage the world is feeding you and crank way up the life-giving stuff of the Word and spending time with God. When Daniel and the other three Hebrew young men were brought into King Nebuchadnezzar’s court, the Babylonians wanted to starve the Jewish out of them by giving them Babylonian names, clothes and foods. They were to be “conformed to this world.” But, young though they were, their Jewish upbringing allowed them to recognize and resist the temptation. They passed on the wines and sweets and settled for vegetables and water and God raised them up to the highest positions in the empire while maintaining their faith and integrity. You think that was tough, try the John the Baptist diet of locusts and honey.
I know it is hard to squeeze out the constant bombardment of garbage that the world keeps pushing at us every minute of the day. But we can’t load up on that stuff and expect that an hour and change in church on Sunday is going to equip us to stand up against the “roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” So pray to God not just to resist the negative, but to increase our desire for the things that God says are best. One more note from Paul: “Finally, brothers, whatsoever is true, whatsoever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8)
Ordinarily I would let Paul have the last word, but I came across a quote from the 19th century writer Henry David Thoreau who had a childhood of loss, sickness and poverty but was raised in church and heard the Word regularly.
Here’s his advice: “A single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a singe thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.” Amen.