Please stop using “head knowledge” as if it is A disease!

One of the plagues of the present time church is anti-intellectualism. The idea that mind and reason are to be shunned. You keep hearing that we should not spend time on doctrines and theology, that we should not discuss and argue about theological issues, that it creates division, etc...You keep hearing that “oh that is merely head knowledge! we should focus on the heart!"

Knowledge by definition is relational. You may know a lot of facts about your favorite actor/singer/sportsman. You may know their age, number of children, their hobbies but you do not “know” them. You can only “know” someone when you are in a relationship with them.

Bible even uses the word “know” to refer to sexual intercourse between a man and his wife (Adam knew his wife) because that is the most intimate way that two human beings can relate to one another. If you do not know God, you cannot love Him. You can never love someone you do not know! It is absurd!

A Christian friend of mind once told me: “When it comes to God, we should leave the mind aside!”

I told him: “Jesus says the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and strength. So you are saying we should love God with all our mind by not using it?!?!?!”

Without head knowledge, you cannot love God. You cannot be obedient to Him because you do not know what to obey! You cannot even know who you are obeying! You cannot distinguish between true and false teaching! You can not identify the heresy which is being preached from the pulpit! Head knowledge is not only important. It is indispensable.

Romans 12:2

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your *mind*, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

It is the fault of Christians that the world outside thinks of “faith” as blind. By using “head knowledge” as a derogatory term, we have reduced faith to mean how one “feels” about something! It must be true because my heart tells me so!

If you want to grow in maturity as a Christian, and want to help your brothers and sisters to grow as well, embrace and cherish “head knowledge”, challenge one another to find the reason why you believe what you believe, and never stop asking questions. That way you would have a more solid foundation for your faith. That way the storms of life cannot shake you that hard.

At one point in time people used the term common sense because a large group of people knew it to be reasonable. Therefore it was “common” sense. Nowadays there is so much irrational talk going on (sadly even within church) that we need a new term: “common nonsense!”

Bible never separates the head and the heart and neither should we. Let us think of Christian faith as what it truly is: A Reasonable Faith!