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Colossians 2:8 "See to it that no one makes a prey of you by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ."

 

This just fits so perfectly with yesterday's post it's hard not to see the Holy Spirit at work! We love to think (or at least we should, I'm not so sure about many people these days!). Our intelligence makes us God-like, but when we forget where it came from, and think that it is all us, we can go down twisting rabbit holes of distorted truth. We can't actually know the full Truth, it is too much for us, we can only know what God has chosen to reveal thus far in salvation history, or to us directly, or in our time.

 

Jesus Christ is the Truth, as Paul reminds us. If we engage in thought with that in mind, things go well, understanding is often opened to us. But when we either don't know that or forget it, our human ego can take over and we end up with a secular philosophy or empty deceit that is in accord with human tradition, so it sounds right, but is lacking the one thing our minds should actually be seeking. Thinking we've discovered something elemental on our own, we can become so wedded to our ideas that it becomes more and more difficult for the Truth, God Himself, to break through our ego.

 

Thinking is wonderful and to be highly encouraged, but it should always be done with the understanding that God is Truth in mind. It can then lead us to unbelievably expansive places, while also consoling us that the things we don't yet understand are better not understood right now. Jesus wants us to be "carried away on the flowing current of [His] grace", not to fight the current while trying to figure out where it is taking us, and whether we want to go.