spiritual disciplines book quote 12

From Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life, by Donald Whitney, on learning...

...contemporary Christian thinker R. C. Sproul wrote, "God has made us with a harmony of heart and head, of thought and action... The more we know Him the more we are able to love Him. The more we love Him the more we seek to know Him. To be central in our hearts He must be foremost in our minds. Religious thought is the prerequisite to religious affection and obedient action" (p. 227, emphases mine).

How is it that we are to be transformed into Christlikeness? The Bible indicates that one of the crucial elements in the process is learning when it says, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2, emphasis mine). Growth in Godliness involves a mental renewal that cannot happen without learning. And the alternative to transformation via learning is conformity to the world (p. 227).

We will not become more like Christ if we don't know more of what Christ is like (p. 227).

The late London preacher Martyn Lloyd-Jones reminded us, "Let us never forget that the message of the Bible is addressed primarily to the mind, to the understanding." No one is changed by an unread Bible. No one grows into a Godliness he or she knows nothing about. The Word of God must go through our head if it's going to change our heart and our life (p. 228, emphasis mine).