Christian Thought: Know, Believe, and Do (or Not)
Descartes' famous statement: "Cogito ergo sum" (I think, therefore I am) is considered to be a foundational element of Western philosophy.
The idea is that the exercise of thought proves one's existence.
Cognitive activity tells me I'm alive, but how are my thoughts related to the quality of my life? Another famous thinker wrote: "As he [a man] thinks within himself, so he is.
" King Solomon's statement in Proverbs 23 refers to the connection between thought or belief, and behavior or identity.
So our sense of identity, and ensuing behavior, flow from what we believe.
Not the other way around.
A variation of my original question is, "Do you really believe what you know?" For example, if you have any church background at all you know that Jesus loves you.
But in your heart of hearts do you truly believe it? Do you fully embrace the fact that you are entirely lovable by God? To summarize Merriam-Webster, a belief is "conviction of the truth of a statement, being, or phenomenon...
based upon evidence.
" It seems feasible to give cognitive assent to an idea or concept without experiencing the evidence needed for it to become a conviction.
Put another way, we behave what we believe, not what we know.
Christians have many "knowings" that we don't necessarily accept as being true for ourselves (or for each other).
Jesus said we would know the truth, and that the truth would set us free, but many of us don't live freely because we won't accept the truth.
For example: "Jesus loves me this I know...
", but we still perform for him in hopes that he'll somehow allow us to sneak through the Pearly Gates.
For that matter we sing a ton of hymns and worship tunes that we actually live out.
New Testament writers define us as righteous, holy, accepted, and blameless, yet we insist we are still "sinners saved by grace" who practice and promote one of churchianity's favorite mantras: "What a worm am I!" No surprise there, though, because we are well-versed in Worm Theology.
We recite Christ's words about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, yet we worry to the point of developing a wide array of stress-related illnesses.
Do you ever wonder why rigid religionists look so unhappy and seem so unhealthy? Easter Sunday finds us celebrating the once-for-all forgiveness and removal of our sins, still we maintain a death-grip on the chains that bind our own personal Sin Meter to our weary backs.
Just more pious churchianity that no one outside the four walls ever get to see.
Nope.
Many of us flatly do not believe much of what we know.
There is little joy in our hearts.
Plenty of superficial, "Oh, I'm just doing great!" A general absence of proof in our pudding.
Have you noticed the frequent schism between your Christian thoughts and your actions? So even though we are free indeed, our words and actions are often marked by the bondage of faulty beliefs.
Because we believe God's love is won through measurable behavior, we are unable to love without condition - especially ourselves.
Much of my life was lived in perpetual self-performance only so I could feel good about myself.
Of course it rarely worked, so I was seldom at peace with "me".
When I finally arrived at the end of my self-dependency rope and embraced Christ's unconditional love for ME, not only did I come to peace with myself, but I found it surprisingly easy to accept others more readily as well.
How about forgiveness? Because we struggle to receive Christ's forgiveness for our own sins, we find it difficult to forgive ourselves AND anyone else that has been hurtful or disappointing.
Similar to the love issue, I was so impressed with the magnitude of my own screw-ups that accepting God's forgiveness was near to impossible.
Truly forgiving anyone else was out of the question.
Still, I loudly and regularly proclaimed the joys of walking in forgiveness (what a hypocrite!).
Then in a season of intense brokenness, by God's grace I somehow found myself accepting the work Christ accomplished on the cross for me.
At last I was free from my self-condemnation! As my attitudinal "behavior" changed toward the guy that stares back at me in the mirror, I found that forgiving my perpetrators happened quite naturally.
The list of belief/behavior and attitude/action dualisms goes on and on, but I think you see the picture.
However, if we don't believe what we "know" by God's indwelling Spirit (he never lies to us), what do we believe? This is where our thoughts get ugly and following Jesus becomes a burdensome drag.
As I already pointed out above, the Spirit tells us we are holy, righteous, blameless, and perfect in God's sight.
That's what we actually know, but our flesh-conditioned minds can't accept it, so instead we believe what our enemy tells us: "You're just a sinful loser who will never measure up to what God wants!" "God gave you his very son, so you better work your tail off to repay him!" "Sure God saved you, but you have to keep yourself saved!" "God will only bless you if you get your act together for him by tithing, going to church, memorizing scripture, giving all you have away to the poor, getting people saved by witnessing every day...
and that's just the beginning!" The lies are endless, and we keep right on believing and acting upon them.
Such is the nature of religious deception.
So, do you really believe (embrace) what you know (from the Spirit) about God's view of the true you and your identity in Christ? If you're not sure, take a quick (too much behavioral introspection only leads to depression) scan of your actions and behaviors.
You might be in for a surprise.
The idea is that the exercise of thought proves one's existence.
Cognitive activity tells me I'm alive, but how are my thoughts related to the quality of my life? Another famous thinker wrote: "As he [a man] thinks within himself, so he is.
" King Solomon's statement in Proverbs 23 refers to the connection between thought or belief, and behavior or identity.
So our sense of identity, and ensuing behavior, flow from what we believe.
Not the other way around.
A variation of my original question is, "Do you really believe what you know?" For example, if you have any church background at all you know that Jesus loves you.
But in your heart of hearts do you truly believe it? Do you fully embrace the fact that you are entirely lovable by God? To summarize Merriam-Webster, a belief is "conviction of the truth of a statement, being, or phenomenon...
based upon evidence.
" It seems feasible to give cognitive assent to an idea or concept without experiencing the evidence needed for it to become a conviction.
Put another way, we behave what we believe, not what we know.
Christians have many "knowings" that we don't necessarily accept as being true for ourselves (or for each other).
Jesus said we would know the truth, and that the truth would set us free, but many of us don't live freely because we won't accept the truth.
For example: "Jesus loves me this I know...
", but we still perform for him in hopes that he'll somehow allow us to sneak through the Pearly Gates.
For that matter we sing a ton of hymns and worship tunes that we actually live out.
New Testament writers define us as righteous, holy, accepted, and blameless, yet we insist we are still "sinners saved by grace" who practice and promote one of churchianity's favorite mantras: "What a worm am I!" No surprise there, though, because we are well-versed in Worm Theology.
We recite Christ's words about the birds of the air and the lilies of the field, yet we worry to the point of developing a wide array of stress-related illnesses.
Do you ever wonder why rigid religionists look so unhappy and seem so unhealthy? Easter Sunday finds us celebrating the once-for-all forgiveness and removal of our sins, still we maintain a death-grip on the chains that bind our own personal Sin Meter to our weary backs.
Just more pious churchianity that no one outside the four walls ever get to see.
Nope.
Many of us flatly do not believe much of what we know.
There is little joy in our hearts.
Plenty of superficial, "Oh, I'm just doing great!" A general absence of proof in our pudding.
Have you noticed the frequent schism between your Christian thoughts and your actions? So even though we are free indeed, our words and actions are often marked by the bondage of faulty beliefs.
Because we believe God's love is won through measurable behavior, we are unable to love without condition - especially ourselves.
Much of my life was lived in perpetual self-performance only so I could feel good about myself.
Of course it rarely worked, so I was seldom at peace with "me".
When I finally arrived at the end of my self-dependency rope and embraced Christ's unconditional love for ME, not only did I come to peace with myself, but I found it surprisingly easy to accept others more readily as well.
How about forgiveness? Because we struggle to receive Christ's forgiveness for our own sins, we find it difficult to forgive ourselves AND anyone else that has been hurtful or disappointing.
Similar to the love issue, I was so impressed with the magnitude of my own screw-ups that accepting God's forgiveness was near to impossible.
Truly forgiving anyone else was out of the question.
Still, I loudly and regularly proclaimed the joys of walking in forgiveness (what a hypocrite!).
Then in a season of intense brokenness, by God's grace I somehow found myself accepting the work Christ accomplished on the cross for me.
At last I was free from my self-condemnation! As my attitudinal "behavior" changed toward the guy that stares back at me in the mirror, I found that forgiving my perpetrators happened quite naturally.
The list of belief/behavior and attitude/action dualisms goes on and on, but I think you see the picture.
However, if we don't believe what we "know" by God's indwelling Spirit (he never lies to us), what do we believe? This is where our thoughts get ugly and following Jesus becomes a burdensome drag.
As I already pointed out above, the Spirit tells us we are holy, righteous, blameless, and perfect in God's sight.
That's what we actually know, but our flesh-conditioned minds can't accept it, so instead we believe what our enemy tells us: "You're just a sinful loser who will never measure up to what God wants!" "God gave you his very son, so you better work your tail off to repay him!" "Sure God saved you, but you have to keep yourself saved!" "God will only bless you if you get your act together for him by tithing, going to church, memorizing scripture, giving all you have away to the poor, getting people saved by witnessing every day...
and that's just the beginning!" The lies are endless, and we keep right on believing and acting upon them.
Such is the nature of religious deception.
So, do you really believe (embrace) what you know (from the Spirit) about God's view of the true you and your identity in Christ? If you're not sure, take a quick (too much behavioral introspection only leads to depression) scan of your actions and behaviors.
You might be in for a surprise.
