Reasoning Includes God

by Doy Moyer

Reason has been granted to us by God as those made in His image. When we try to reason without acknowledging God, we become our own idols by assuming that we do not need God. This leads to futility in thinking (Romans 1:21; Ephesians 4:17). In doing this we are relying on our own wisdom and we will not understand God and His purposes, since the world through its wisdom cannot know God (I Corinthians 1:21).

Reason and logic are an undeniable part of who we are. Try making an argument for denying logic and you will come across as senseless and self-defeating, for you will be appealing to reason even as you deny it. By using our reason appropriately, however, we are glorifying the God who gave us our minds and set in order the way facts, reason, and faith function together. We ought to learn to do it well because it is the Lord whom we serve and we are to love Him “with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind” (Matthew 22:37).

I have seen criticisms of logic as applied to Bible study. This is often in conjunction with arguing that we ought not to try to interpret the Bible; we just read it and do it with no interpretation at all. This sounds noble, but it is naive, erroneous, and dangerous because it unwittingly makes a person’s own perceptions into another idol. “This is what the Bible says” can become code for, “This is what I think it means and I cannot be wrong.” And doing this will inevitably lead us into contradiction.

While there are places where “that’s what it says” is appropriate, making blanket statements like that without first doing the contextual homework can lead to misapplications of God’s word and lend support to false doctrine. We shouldn’t just say, “That’s what it says” without first making sure that’s what it really says in its context. After all, the devil was crafty at using Scripture to test Jesus. He quoted Scripture. It’s “what it said,” but his application was malicious (Matthew 4:5-6). Let us be diligent and careful to avoid that devilish pitfall. Do the homework. Reason well. Apply appropriately.

“Be diligent to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who doesn’t need to be ashamed, correctly teaching the word of truth” (II Timothy 2:15).