How Can a Christian Think in This World?

Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. – Colossians 2:8–10

In Colossians chapter two we have the great warning not to be cheated by philosophy and empty deceit. This warning has always been an interesting one to me. I have always read it or heard it in a way that philosophy in general is a dangerous category that is competing with theology—that philosophy is in some way a devilish replacement for God’s word. And I suppose in some ways it has become that, but not categorically.

Philosophy is simply the study of knowledge or reality itself. As Christians we shouldn’t be afraid at all to study reality or knowledge or ask the deep questions about where knowledge or reality come from or how they work. The issue we run into is that there are many schools of philosophy that do not answer the pressing questions correctly. Paul in the book of Colossians wasn’t making an anti-intellectual appeal with his warning; rather, he was anchoring these pressing questions inside of Christ. Scripture is teaching a deep truth here—you cannot understand reality or its purpose if you divorce it from the Creator and from whom it was made for.

While these points may be easy to accept at face value for the majority of Christians, I believe there is a deeper layer or two that we can peel back and perhaps find some disagreement with the culture, secular and Christian, at large. While disagreement and conflict have become taboo for Christians, and especially pastors today, I believe it is necessary that we find clarity in an increasingly murky world—and clarity always brings conflict before it gives birth to coherence.

We Can No Longer Think Today

As you go through life, I think it is natural to look around you and see some of the foolish decisions that are made by those you observe and say to yourself, “Do they even know how to think?” This at times can be said with humor in your mind and at others with deep tragedy, but this is not exactly what I mean when I say that we can no longer think today. I am aiming not at mere outcome or common sense, but the actual process—or better put, the structure—in which people think today.

Today both Christians and secularists tend to structure their thinking after the famous philosopher René Descartes and his well-known statement, “Cogito, ergo sum” — “I think, therefore I am.” With this short phrase Descartes flipped the structure of thinking on its head. He started with himself, moved to revelation, and finally landed at a state of being.

To be more technical with what Descartes did: he started with epistemology, moved to metaphysics, and tacked on an ontological reality.

Let’s Define These Categories

• Epistemology: The study of knowledge—how we know what we know. Epistemology asks questions like: What counts as truth? How do we gain certainty? Can we trust our senses? It is the system in which we work inside of.

  
  

• Metaphysics: The study of reality—specifically first principles. Metaphysics asks what must exist for reality to be here. It goes deeper than what we sense and answers what must logically exist for us to sense at all. It is the foundation upon which all systems must rest.

  
  

• Ontology: The study of being—what it means for something to exist. It asks: What does it mean to be or to be real? It is the structure within which all systems must be held in order to function.

  
  

Descartes argued that the system is the beginning, it moves us to the foundation, and finally lands us on a structure. The problem is that when we start with the system, or epistemology, it is by definition floating and flat. Put in a simpler fashion: “How do you even know you’re thinking? And how do you know something foundational must exist in order to know your being?” These two questions have driven much of our postmodern thought and both affirmed and criticized Descartes, bringing weird conclusions like transgenderism—does gender really exist? And, “I think I am a boy/girl, therefore I am.”

These confusing conclusions are not surprising, as Descartes’ question was not logical in its formation at all. And while he tried to use his system to argue to God, he quite clearly missed the mark on something incredibly simple. What was missing was the questioning of what is self-sufficient: revelation or perception?

The Chicken or the Egg: Revelation or Perception?

Descartes and most of modern thought argue that perception (epistemology) is primary in existence and precedes revelation (metaphysics). “I think” comes first in their minds. But all we have to do is ask if either one is dependent on the other in order to exist, and we completely debunk this assumption.

By its very nature, perception is dependent upon something being revealed, as even self-perception or self-awareness is logically dependent on something creating us—unless we are the first cause. There is no possible way to perceive if there is nothing to perceive. On the other hand, revelation can exist without someone perceiving. This is proven every time something “new” is discovered. While Isaac Newton may have discovered the laws of gravity, they were constantly being revealed long before he was born.

This simple disordering of epistemology (perception) and metaphysics (revelation) opened up the floodgates to wrong thinking and disembodiment from reality itself. What it did was reorder the way man thinks to place us at the center of reality and move outwardly to the world around us. It is a micro-scale version of what ancient astronomers got wrong when they thought the sun orbited the earth. This disorder in thinking has trained society and the church to think in such a way that the world revolves around them—not literally, but in purpose.

Philosophical Selfishness

Self-centric thinking leads to selfish ethics and idolatry. This is exactly where Descartes’ philosophy has led our modern world—both secular society and the church. When we start with perception as our foundation it subtly implants the idea that we are the first cause, or to put it plainly, that we are god. This may not be outwardly verbalized, but it is how the modern man nearly always lives his life.

We can see this plainly in the world where abortion is a sacrament to the god of self, given on the altar of convenience. Where fornication and instant gratification have become not only rights (wrongly so), but have become the social norm. Marriage itself has become a contract in the modern mind that is about what I can get out of it, instead of a covenant before God and man that commits to give your all even if there is sickness, poverty, and pain.

In nearly every institution and major decision the world cries out with a thought process that is centered around the false god of “me.” This is why the prophets of today are self-help gurus and why “me time” has become a sacred pilgrimage to travel weekly. When we start with “me” in our thinking it only leads to setting ourselves as god in our ethics.

The church has tried to sanctify this thinking instead of correcting it. They do this through love ethics that ask the question, “What is the most loving thing to do?” instead of asking the question, “What is right?” While love is of course good and true, this is only the case when love is in alignment with God—revelation must precede perception.

This confusion of order has made a church that is a friend to sin instead of a church that is a friend to sinners. Many churches today have bought into the lies that same-sex attraction is not a sin or that the mother who kills her child in the womb is a victim instead of a perpetrator. Nearly all churches today believe that we must be friends with the world in order to win the world or love the sinner to the Lord.

All of this thinking is rooted in perception preceding revelation, or a self-based thinking. We have disordered our thinking, and it has elevated feelings—our feelings—above the authority of God and His word. This is all because we have disordered how we are to think today.

How Can a Christian Think Today?

If Descartes began with “I think,” the Christian must begin with “In the beginning, God.” The proper order for thinking is not epistemology first but metaphysics, then ontology, then epistemology.

• Metaphysics: We start with God, the self-existent One, the first cause upon whom all things depend. Without Him there is no foundation, no reason, no reality.

  
  

• Ontology: We move to Christ, the eternal Logos, in whom all things hold together and from whom all creation takes its meaning. He is the Mediator of being, both through creation and incarnation.

  
  

• Epistemology: Only then do we come to knowledge. We know because God reveals. Revelation is the ground of perception, not the other way around. Our thoughts, our systems, our judgments must all be ordered by what He has spoken.

  
  

This order is not abstract philosophy; it is the house we live in. Descartes built a home that floats in the clouds of self-perception, always shifting, never stable. The Christian builds on the Rock—revelation first, Christ as cornerstone, thought as the structure that rests securely on Him.

When this order is recovered, our ethics change. We no longer ask, “What do I feel?” but, “What has God revealed?” We no longer enthrone the self as god but bow before the living God who alone is I AM. This frees us from sentimental “love” that excuses sin and restores us to true love that fulfills the law, abhors evil, and clings to what is good.

To think as a Christian, then, is not to abandon philosophy but to redeem it. It is to order our minds as Scripture orders reality: God first, Christ central, revelation foundational, perception dependent. Anything less makes us prey to the empty deceit of this age. But when we think according to Christ, we find both clarity and courage, for “in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge” (Col. 2:3).

How can a Christian think in this world? By starting with God, continuing in Christ, and completing every thought in Him.