Do Christians Think On Their Own?

Many in society today focus on people's ability to think for themselves. This is usually a good thing in the sense that people are not swayed by the popular trend of the moment, but rather they are able to defy the consensus when they see it as foolishness.

But what does God tell us?

"For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written:

'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise;
the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.'

Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." - I Cor. 1:25

Should we reason on our own?

Truly the man who reasons on his own has reasoned faultily, for man was never designed to reason on his own, or to talk on his own, or to work on his own, or to do anything on his own but rather to live out of God, to let God experientially live through him.

Man fell from divine initiative to self-initiative. Jesus did nothing of His own initiative, but only what He heard and saw. He lived out of divine flow. That is why Jesus would not claim goodness as something He was, because Jesus knew what they meant. They meant that He Himself had become good, and He knew that all goodness flowed from the God that lived within and Who lived in heaven. So He would not accept their acclaim that He was good, even though He was good. He was living out of divine flow, so He could have claimed it, but He chose instead not to, as He wanted to teach them a lesson.

The difference between what the world refers to as "thinking for themselves" and what God wants is that society is referring to whether you reason on your own or follow another man's reasoning. As those made alive in Christ we should not reason on our own or follow the reasoning of another man, for man's reasoning (and thus our own) is flawed and foolishness. Instead our reason comes from the Spirit of God and His Word.

Mark Virkler is with Christian Leadership University. CLU is a Christian University and Online Bible College offering Christian education including Christian counseling and Christian theology seminaries and offers certificates, undergrad, Masters, and Doctorates in the various Christian colleges of CLU.