Jesus says the greatest commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).  Let’s think about loving God with all your mind.

There’s a mental reflex that’s especially prevalent in todays’ anxious, polarized society, and it causes all kinds of personal and public harm.  It’s the impulse to pigeon-hole and demonize people who say any­thing that leans the least little bit in the direction of one’s political, philosophical or theological adversaries.  “Heard it from a liberal?  Must be nonsense.”  “A conservative said it?  Must be baloney.”

Of course, we’re not helped when leaders on the right and the left portray each other as imbeciles or villains.  Such rhetoric appeals to the immature desire to divide the world neatly into “good guys” and “bad guys”—as if people holding one perspective were thoroughly virtuous, and those on the other side were, well, just evil.

I’m talking about all-or-nothing tribalism—the attitude that won’t admit “those people” make a valid point about anything.  Like the Republican who can’t acknowledge one good thing said by a Demo­crat, or a Democrat who won’t affirm a single word uttered by a Republican.

Of course, we’re not surprised when unregenerate people act out sinful impulses; it’s human nature this side of the fall (see Genesis 3).  But it’s so disturbing when we, as Christ-followers, are drawn into this reckless, sinful tribalism:  it dishonors the Lord.

Maturing Christians love God with their minds by refusing to play into hurtful, divisive scare tactics and name calling.  They also love God with their minds by being open to the “grain of truth” spoken by someone with whom they may still have profound disagreements.

Trevin Wax notes the example of pastor and author, John Stott:  “He was neither a con­servative warrior trained to spot only the dangers of liberalism, nor a progressive proponent trained to fight only the follies of fundament­al­ism.  His scriptural commitments alerted him to problems he saw coming at the church from multiple angles.”  “Stott went toe-to-toe with those who were watering down the [church’s] mission into social work.  But [he] also faced head-on those who thought the Great Commission was primarily or exclu­sively about evangelism without sufficient attention given to the church’s social ministry,…  In one assembly, he could push hard against a reductionist social gospel, and in another assembly, he could push hard against a reductionist fundamentalism.”

To exercise your mental muscles for loving God, take time to read a series of five blog posts by Trevin Wax on “Multi-Directional Lead­ership” (see links to all five here).  Very good counsel.

Lord, help us to love you with all our minds.  Enable us humbly to learn from those who are very different from us, and happily to affirm the fact that people from every background are made in Your image!  Both in the church and in society, Father, help us say no to the pride that points fingers and won’t listen.