1 Corinthians 14:20 Brothers, be not children in understanding: however, in malice be you children, but in understanding be men. This text directly encourages the cultivation of intellect, and supposes that Christianity will exert a practical and helpful influence on such cultivation. I. CHRISTIANITY WILL HELP TO MAKE US INTELLECTUAL MEN. Christianity recognizes no model, ideal man, save one whose whole circle of faculties has been duly developed, and certainly that noble part, the mind. It presents to us its ideal man in the person of Jesus Christ; there we see what it proposes to bring all men up to, and behold, in the very beginnings of Christ's life we read that "he grew in wisdom and in stature," exhibiting a surprising intelligence, which astonished the great doctors in the temple. A willingly ignorant Christian is an anomaly, a strange being, an imperfection, essentially incomplete; he has not felt, or he has resisted, the full force of the Christly principles and requirements. 1. Christianity comes into the world to rescue man from his fallen condition. Man's self willed fall involved his mind as well as his will, and the restorative applies to the fallen mind. The mind suffered sadly, lost its guiding truth, lost its harmonies, lost its place of rule, which was usurped by the passions of the body. 2. History confirms the relation of Christianity to intellect. Illustrate times of Wickliffe and Luther, etc. 3. The Christian services and duties help the intellect. Other religions are mostly ceremonial, making only routine demands. Christian services are essentially spiritual things, applications of mind to God's written Word, contemplations of Divine and heavenly realities, ordering of the thoughts so as to fashion them into prayers; these, and many other things, actually, by their own direct influence, storing and training the mind. The public Christian worship is intelligent. Its praises are expressed in the words of cultivated poets. Our Bible is the utterance of learning as well as of inspiration. Our preaching is the product of study and thought, and its appeal is made to the understanding as well as to the heart. 4. Christianity, with its revelations and doctrines, provides the very best food for the mind. It is the highest of sciences. It is the philosophy of the Infinite and the Absolute - it is the science of God. 5. Christianity makes the cultivation of the intellect a matter of direct counsel. It bids us "with all our getting get understanding," and assures us that "wisdom is to be chosen rather than riches." And the apostle complains that the believers do not mentally grow as fast as they should - that he has to feed them with the milk of first principles, when they ought to be able to take the strong meat of the Christian mysteries. If this be the relation of Christianity to mind, then two things are manifest. (1) Those men are utterly wrong who sneer at religion as a weak thing, and affirm that there is an antagonism between reason and revelation. (2) We are quite in the spirit of the religion which we profess, when we do our utmost to take our stand honourably among the intellectual men of our day. Our very religion helps us "in understanding to be men." II. CHRISTIANITY PREVENTS OUR BECOMING INTELLECTUALLY PROUD MEN. It does so: 1. By announcing mysteries that are at present unfathomable by the human intelligence. 2. By making clear the distinction between speculation and knowledge. 3. By setting forth prominently its teaching of man's entire dependence on the Divine help. If we know anything, we know it only as God's revelation to us. III. CHRISTIANITY KEEPS US FROM BEING ONLY INTELLECTUAL MEN. The mind may be cultivated and the morals neglected, so that a man may become dry, and cold, and hard, and unlovely. Men may be mentally vigorous and morally weak; intellectual giants, but slaves to passion. Christianity keeps men from this (1) by proposing to harmonize man's whole nature by beginning with the regeneration of his heart; and (2) by carefully developing the character and the moral qualities. Asking the love of the soul for God manifested in Jesus, it quickens and strengthens and nourishes every moral good, every moral power, and helps a man to grow healthily on every side of his nature, so as to develop into the "stature of the perfect man." - R.T. Parallel Verses KJV: Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.WEB: Brothers, don't be children in thoughts, yet in malice be babies, but in thoughts be mature. |
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