How Should We Then Live? (James Montgomery Boice)

As Christians we are not only to know the right worldview…but consciously to act upon that worldview so as to influence society in all its parts and facets across the whole spectrum of life, as much as we can to the extent of our individual and collective ability. (Francis A. Schaffer)

Harry Blamires is an Englishman who has written an important Christian book titled The Christian Mind: How should a Christian Think? He was a student of C.S. Lewis, and his book was first published in 1963. It’s main thesis, repeated over and over in chapter 1, is that “there is no longer a Christian mind.” Blamires meant by this that in our time there is no longer a distinctly Christian way of thinking. There is to some extent a Christian ethic and even a somewhat Christian way of life and piety. But there is no distinctly Christian frame of reference, no uniquely Christian worldview to guide our thinking in distinction from the thoughts of the secular world around us.

Unfortunately, the situation has not improved since Blamires put forward his thesis. In fact, it has grown worse. Today, not only is there little or no genuine Christian thinking, there is very little thinking of any kind, and the western world (and perhaps the world as a whole) is well on its way to becoming what I and many others have frequently called a “mindless society.”

What a challenge to today’s Christians! It is a challenge because we are called to think, even though the world around us does not think or at best thinks in non-Christian categories. The best statement of the challenge is the powerful statement that the apostle Paul provides in the great opening paragraph of Romans 12. He calls it mind renewal:

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer 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.” (Romans 12:1-2)

These two verses introduce what has often been called the “practical” section of Paul’s letter. But I do not like that way of talking about it. What people usually mean by using that word here is that the first 11 chapters of Romans are doctrinal or theological, and that the letter finally gets down to practical matters at this point. But doctrine is practical, and practical material must be doctrinal if it is to be of any help at all. A far better way to talk about Romans 12 through 16 is to say that these chapters contain applications of the very practical teachings or doctrines that Paul presented earlier.

“Application” is the word that John Murray, one of the best modern interpreters of Romans, uses in his introduction to this section: “At this point the apostle comes to deal with concrete practical application.”

Or maybe an even better word is “consequences,” which occurs to me because of the compelling slogan of the Hillsdale College newsletter Imprimis: “Because Ideas Have Consequences.”

Americans are a practical people. That is good! But we are not a particularly strong-thinking people, and that is bad, since what we do practically always flows from our minds and therefore needs to be directed by our thinking.” In other words, if you and I were to examine our lives…our actions and our interactions…these things speak volumes about our thought process, or lack there of, and of our worldview. If we call ourselves by the name of Christ then we must view everything through the lens of Jesus’ teachings in Scripture. To hold views and to act contrary to this, is neither worthy of the name by which we call ourselves or profitable for our lives or the lives of those that we are hoping to influence through the gospel. If it is true that we necessarily do what we think, then my question to the people of the portico is, “What are we thinking?”