Loving God With Heart and Mind

By Shelly Hobbs

When I first ventured out to write this article, I thought I was taking on a reasonably easy task.  I have always been fascinated by studying the worldviews and philosophies of different cultures and time periods and what implication these worldviews have on the people who possess them in light of a biblical worldview. Because of this passion, I was ecstatic when I first encountered an online database discussing some of the crucial differences between Greek and Hebrew thinkers.  The article talked about how their cultures and worldviews caused them to view truth and interpret scripture.  My original and rather naïve thought was that, by a little research, I would simply break down these two worldviews into basic categories, showing their main strengths and weaknesses, and hope to find that one, without completely ruling out the other, would, in the end, turn out to be the most beneficial of the two.  Seeing that much of scripture was written by and to a Hebraic culture, and that much of our Western culture has been influenced by a Greek mindset, my unspoken thought was that a philosophy based more on an Eastern or Hebraic mindset was somehow the one more honoring and in line with how God wants us to understand Him and His Word.  Yet the more I researched, the more I found that this very underdeveloped idea led me deeper into the nether parts of the unseen iceberg, and I found that any time I attempted to defend one side of the argument, I was in danger of severe radicalism.  So the question presented before my puzzled and bewildered mind was, is there a better way to understand God? Is it through the heart or through the mind?  My new task at this point is to show that preferring one of these parts of our soul above the other is to limit the all-encompassing vastness of who God is and to miss a vital aspect of what it means to be human.  But first, I must go back to the original basics which contrast these two parts of the soul, and look into what each aspect means for our individual lives.

First of all, I’m sure that there is still some curiosity as to what exactly the differences are between a Greek thinker and a Hebrew thinker and how these differences brought about my exploration of the heart versus the mind. Ray VanderLaan, founder of “That the World May Know Ministries” through Focus on the Family and a respected theologian and professor at Holland Christian Schools in Western Michigan, explains some of the basic differences between a Greek or Western thinker and a Hebrew or Eastern thinker. As a basic guideline, Greek thinkers, generally, tend to be more concerned with looking at and expressing “truth abstractly, using words, ideas and logical definitions. They prefer the writing style of prose and like to see outlines, lists and bullet points.”   The Western mindset comes from a Greek culture which held that the mind was the highest form of being and saw “sin as wrong belief or incorrect thinking”, emphasizing “what a person [knew] about faith.”  Seeing faith as something primarily intellectual, “they tend to express faith using creeds and doctrines, listing proof texts to support their beliefs.  The ultimate in truth tends to be more scientific and rational.  When looking at scripture, they focus on how things are done, coming to believe truth as they think it through”. By comparison, Eastern (Hebrew) thinkers tend to “express truth concretely, using word pictures and stories.  They prefer the writing style of poetry and like to use imagery and symbolism” in order to portray their ideas about faith and God.  They see “sin as wrong behavior” and emphasize “what a person does in response to faith.”  Faith is something “relational and personal and expressed in terms of their relationship with God, rather than as a rationalization.”  The ultimate in truth is “religious and experiential, [and] when looking at scripture, they focus on what was done and who did it, coming to believe truth as they experience it.” [1]  VanderLaan, Ray. <http://www.followtherabbi.com/Brix?pageID=1458)

When I explored these two contrasting perspectives, the general conclusion I came to was that the Western mindset was one which sought to try to understand the truths of God logically, using reason as its foundation.  To me, this view seemed dry and lifeless, leaving out the core of who a person is and reducing him down to a being which merely processes data.  The Eastern mindset of viewing truth and scripture, at the time, seemed to be one more suited to understanding the nature and character of God.  Its emphasis seemed to be more focused on the heart of a person’s passions and desires and to place a more child-like faith on a relationship to a God who desires to be known personally by his children.  Being someone who loves stories and images, it seemed to make sense that much of the scriptures would be written using figurative language and images to depict the character of God, for they speak directly to the heart of a person.  Jesus could have chosen to describe himself and the kingdom of heaven using logical definitions and a step by step process of how to reach the Father, but instead He chose to use parables and mental images, because these address a person’s heart.  Ray VanderLaan makes the observation that when Jesus defined God, He referred to Him as Abba.  He never once said He’s omniscient or omnipresent, although there would have been no doubt that he believed it.  When telling the people how they were to relate to God, He called Him Abba.   

Coming off of this insightful observation, my first inclination was to conclude that this way of knowing and understanding God was the best and most reliable way.  But as I tried to solidify this hypothesis, that the heart is central and the mind second, I ran into the problem that although much of scripture is addressed to a Hebraic culture, there still remain portions of the Bible which address other cultures.  For example, in the epistles of Paul, he addresses many differing cultures, including Greeks, who saw reason as being the greatest driving force.  But he did not tell them that reason was wrong.  Instead, becoming “all things to all people”, his words were generally based more on reason, but a reason which is not from man but from the Holy Spirit, and thus he charged them to be “transformed by the renewing of your mind.”  It was at this point that I realized that knowing God could not be minimized to one limited aspect of understanding and that the scriptures were meant to be understood not only by Hebrews but by all people.  To say that God is only known through the heart or through the mind is to reject the fact that he created both, and as I soon learned, as humans created in the image of God, we reflect the fact that God is both mind and heart, and one cannot live without the other.

God gifted us with both heart and mind, and He intended for us to live and love Him out of both of these faculties in a balanced and harmonious fashion, not favoring one above the other, and thus neglecting a part of our very being.  For through each faculty which God has given us, He is able to reveal a new characteristic of Himself which might not have been understood through the other.  However, as fallen creatures who tend to warp and twist God’s good gifts, our tendency is usually to cling to the mindset which better fits our personalities or circumstances, and shun the other, seeming to feel that it is inferior or inadequate.  Yet, God may reveal his truth to either our hearts or our minds as He sees we need to know Him most at that moment, but He is not limited or contained to one aspect only.

There have been times in my life when it was essential for me to know God through the eyes of my heart, to be able to know Him as my Abba, in a tangible and intimate way.  At these moments, God has revealed Himself to me through ways which speak directly to my soul; through stories, poetry, a painting.  Knowing that I needed Him in this way at this particular moment, He has stirred my passions and desires for Him.  Naturally, God, who created our hearts and the things which stir them, desires to be known through those things which move us, through art, stories and beauty, for He is Beauty Himself.  Yet as fallen beings, where this beautiful gift can go completely wrong is when we take it to its extreme, using the passions and desires of the heart, whether they be noble or not, as a solid foundation without any use of the mind and reason which God has given us to be able to discern truth from heresy.  As a result, we face the danger of falling into a sort of existentialism in which the passions and emotions rule and determine truth.  It is possible to be passionately zealous for something which is entirely false.  As I was learning and discovering these things, I realized that I was on the brink of falling into this trap, that as a result of being weary and burned out on the intellectual analysis of truth, I was desperately hungry for something simple which spoke to that passionate child in my heart and let me experience exhilarating joy and excitement again.  I needed to know God as my Abba, my Daddy.

However, as I examined my thoughts and emotions, I realized that simply because I needed to know God through my heart at that moment, it did not give me grounds to reject the pursuit of knowing Him rationally through my mind.  Looking back, I realized that there were times in my life when I needed to know him through reason, where I needed to come face to face with the Logos, the Logic.  Passionate, gushy emotions just wouldn’t cut it.  I recall facing a time of doubt in which I questioned the goodness and sovereignty of God.  I needed to know that the God I was following was someone rational in whom I could trust.  After reading C.S. Lewis’ book, Mere Christianity, I found myself elated as I read the philosophical and logical reasons he gave of why Christ and Christianity were trustworthy and reliable and how he converted from Atheism to Christianity.  God intended for us to know him through our minds.  I get excited seeing how God can be found even in the intellectual pursuit of knowledge and wisdom, that He did not just leave us with illogical, unanswered questions about His nature, that He is the Logic Himself.  I find confidence in the fact that I am trusting in a God who is not some ethereal contradiction.  Yet there is a danger to this side of the spectrum as well.  Where we can find ourselves as we read of the doctrines and creeds of God’s truth is in a place where our faith and knowledge of God become extremely intellectual.  They are perhaps doctrinally sound, but they cease to stir our desire and hunger for God.  He is no longer a person, but an equation.  This is where I found myself as I was desperately reaching out to know God as my Father, for the fact that I knew about Him, but no longer knew Him, and this is why we need the eyes of the heart combined with the reason of the mind.  G.K. Chesterton once said, “I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been ratified by the mere facts.”  There are times when that fire and passion which once glowed so brightly in us, brought about by those things in life which stir our hearts, become cold, numb and beaten down by mere reason and facts.

In order for us to understand God’s passionate love for us and the immutability of His reason and truth, there needs to be a balance between the two in our own lives, for while at times it seems that one may be in opposition to the other, in reality one cannot live without the other.  An analogy to demonstrate this is the healthy tension between a kite which is aloft and the string which holds it down.  The heart and passions, like the kite, wish to fly high and soar, and at moments they may feel like they are held down or suppressed by the string, or reason and wisdom.  But ultimately, it is both pieces working together which make the mechanism fly, for if the string were to let go of the kite, it would come crashing to the ground.  It is no different when learning to understand and know God through both the eyes of our heart and the eyes of our mind, for He commands that we learn to cultivate and love him through both.

When I began truly examining each of these worldviews with an unbiased attitude, I discovered that there can be truths found within each culture, and each one can learn something from the other.  For me, understanding the mindset of the Hebrews was a lesson in how God desires us to know Him through our hearts, and the worldview of the Greeks enabled me to see that God is also found when we actively pursue Him through the exercising of the minds and reason with which He has gifted us.  It was by exploring these two outlooks that God was able to teach me that knowing him fully through both our minds and our hearts is vital to understanding the vastness of His character.  Through this discovery, God deepened my understanding of who He is by giving me a tangible way to know what it means to love Him with all my heart and mind.

Note from Scott: The greatest commandment is to love God with our hearts, minds, and souls.  I hope this article has encouraged you to take a balanced approach to knowing God.  I hope it will help you see and understand why we need to love God in our hearts and seek understanding of Him there, as well as to strengthen those convictions with our minds as we rationally learn about who God is.