On Intellectual Obesity
In America today there are “approximately 127 million adults in the U.S. are overweight, 60 million are obese.” It is also the second leading cause of preventable death. Americans are consumed by food on one end, and a media and society that glorifies the unattainable body. Americans will do anything to stay thin from taking pills that don’t work, to new year’s resolutions that never last, and they’ll even tear other’s down to make them feel better about their own physical stature. American’s are obese, because they are lazy.
While obesity is truly a sign of excess, it is more associated with complacency, a lack of concern for oneself, and an overall lack of control. Intellectually, I believe people beyond just America suffer from “intellectual obesity.” We have hardened ourself to TVs, popular media, and foolish ideals and have turned into lazy and complacent individuals intellectually. All to often humans tend to gravitate towards ideas that make them feel good, and they also tend to listen people that already agree with their pre-conceived ideas. I don’t know many people that actually seek out others to challenge them intellectually.
It’s interesting that Yahweh wanted to reason with Isaiah (Isa 1:18), Jesus was said to have grown in wisdom (Luke 2:40), and the Berean Christians search the Scriptures all day to see if what Paul was saying was true (Acts 17:11). God doesn’t not want us to be intellectually lazy. That doesn’t mean that we need to recite a systematic theology volume, but Jesus did say that we are to glorify God with our heart, soul, and mind (Mat 22:37).1 Christians are not supposed to be all “heady” or all “hearty” (if you will). We need to seek the balance that Jesus taught and exemplified to glorify God with every fiber of our being.
Don’t study anything for studying’s sake. If your orthodoxy (if your theology is indeed orthodox) doesn’t become orthopraxy (which means “to put into practice”) then you have wasted your time. A.W. Tozer wrote a famous line in his work The Knowledge of the Holy that said: “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us.” If we continue to pervade a view of God that doesn’t engage our heart, soul, and mind then that view of God that comes into our minds will be incomplete and useless.
- There is a textual variant in Mark 12:30 that adds “strength” to this list but includes the other three. [Back]
Are you knocking my new years resolution? ;)
This is really interesting because the other day I was reading a book and the author mentioned a concept of “Spiritual Obesity”, very similar to what you are talking about. As Christians we sometimes have a tendency to revert to self-focus, introspection and self improvement that, while beneficial in small quantities, moves us to a place where our hearts become hard to what the bible makes clear is the real passion of God: Sharing the message of Christ with people that need to hear it. We recieve large quantities of spiritual material and immediately we want to gather our friends and have a ‘feast’ with them, instead of sharing with the people who are hungry on our doorstep (of which I am totally guilty).
I just thought it was cool that it tied in so well with your post.
In other news… If you’re reading Chris’s blog and you’re a Wright State student that wants to be intellectually pushed, show up on the first floor of Millet Hall, by the windows around 3:00 on Monday. ;)
On a lighter note, you may be preaching to the choir Chris, there’s a certain level of intellect that’s a prerequisite for reading your blog. ;)
@Ashley: that is a neat connection! What was the resolution? I wasn’t knocking anything. Good luck with the Acropolis, and be sure to get a hold of me so we can meet, do lunch, and fight intellectual obesity together!
Hey Chris!
I liked what you had to say a lot. Good thoughts.
I’ve thought about that Matt. 22:37 verse a lot. I believe it’s a quote from the old testament. What it is quoting doesn’t include the word “mind” which has always bothered me. It was, as far as I can tell, misquoted. Have you ever noticed that? I’ve been very curious about this for a while… but obviously haven’t really looked into it. Either way, your point stands. I am curious to know why/if it was misquoted. I don’t know if you’ve looked at this before…
Anyway, cool post. I liked it!
Amanda,
I’m not Chris, but hopefully you won’t mind if I respond to your observation.
Yes, Jesus was certainly alluding to or “quoting” Deuteronomy 6:5, and he did add “with all your mind” — but I don’t think that indicates any lack of concern for the Old Testament text. He was bringing a text to bear on a normal conversation, and applying it to the situation confronting him. So his primary purpose was not to provide a word for word translation of the passage, but to confront someone with the essential truth that the passage proclaimed, which was that God commands us to love him with every part of our being, with all that is in us. This was just a case of good exegesis, because everything that Jesus said was clearly taught in that OT passage, even if it was taught in fewer words.
I think you’ll find that the other NT authors also “quote” the OT rather loosely in some places — not because they are denying the original text, but in order to bring out more clearly exactly what the text meant in the first place (for a quick case in point, Peter, in Acts 4:11, quotes Psalm 118:22, but adds “you”, to make clear that the Jews standing before him, who had crucified Christ, were the builders being spoken of by David — instead of the literal, “the stone which the builders rejected,” he has, “the stone rejected by you builders” in his quote).
Hope that helps. Blessings in Christ.
Nathan
@Amanda: Nathan answered that better than I could have.
Thanks Nathan! Really appreciate your answer. :-) That did help.
I have nothing constructive to add but since I am nearly to 100 posts I thought I would write something anyway.
@Perry: You would.
:)