A quality college education invites students into great questions of the human condition, the history of the world, and the fabric of creation. It places the questions of current events in the context of questions that persist in human thought and life across generations, across the globe, and across the ages.

One such question emerged two thousand years ago: what does it mean for us to have the mind of Christ? The Apostle Paul raises this question in a letter he wrote to the membership of the church in Corinth with a single statement: “But you have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor. 2:16). What in the world can this mean?

Sound Bible teachers help us understand. Just as the 12-year-old Jesus “increased in wisdom, and stature, and favor with God and man” (Luke 2:52), we who already possess the mind of Christ still must grow up into what is fully ours according to God’s good gift.

So, how can we grow up into lives lived according to the mind of Christ? At Geneva, how do we invite students to join us in pursuing the mind of Christ together? What purposeful entry points lead to lifetime growth of hearts and minds that resonate deeply with Jesus? The answer to this question is not a new idea, method, or process but an inheritance we have received and hold in trust.

We need to cultivate our minds toward engaging every endeavor and relationship of life embedded in the thought-world of Scripture. We have received the mind of Christ from the Lord Himself through Scripture, as recognized by the church throughout time and space. Scripture is completely coherent, self-consistent, and harmonious—integral to sound reasoning and good living. Likewise, as Christ upholds all things by the word of His power, the creation itself is coherent.

The paths through which the mind of Christ is cultivated rest on an order through which students can pursue with passion and curiosity every significant question of faith and life, every question in God’s entire world.

1) The order begins with a commitment to ever-deepening biblical literacy. This means reading the Bible. We never stop reading the Bible. Reading even the best theological books is no substitute. To fully inhabit the thought-world of Scripture, we must become increasingly conversant with the Bible as a whole. We need to meditate on Scripture wholeheartedly by reading regularly, repeatedly, and rigorously. To sit at the feet of Jesus is to receive His Word in all its given forms, starting in the church with public reading, preaching, and hearing; singing God’s Word; and receiving the sacraments with the Word. We must also build the disciplines and practices of personal Bible reading. Such constant practices of biblical literacy are a prerequisite to cultivating the Christian mind.

2) We need biblical literacy to engage a second factor in the order of the Christian mind: considering the whole counsel of God. Just as Jesus Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the Bible is the Word of Christ, from Genesis through Revelation. And on the most important questions, the Scripture speaks in many places and in many ways. Therefore, to know and have the mind of Christ, we must consider the whole of His Word.

Careful consideration of the whole preserves us from common pitfalls. First, considering one or a few Bible verses or passages as definitive, sometimes called proof-texting, leads to error. And conversely, applying an interpretive method framework that claims a wholistic view but negates portions of Scripture also is prone to result in error. Not adding or subtracting from Scripture, we consider the whole to discern the mind of Christ in every matter of faith and life.

3) With biblical literacy and the whole counsel of God in place, we engage the creeds and confessions of the historic Christian faith—the collective works of faithful church councils over the ages, which we receive under the Scripture. Creeds and confessions guide us deeper into biblical understandings on central, recurring, and sometimes difficult questions of the faith. They remind us that God’s eternal truth revealed in Scripture remains constant in every time and place and unites His people across all social and cultural boundaries.

4) The fruit of being rooted in and having a deeper understanding of Scripture allows us to begin to engage the questions, problems, and issues of our own lives in our own day. Anchored in biblical truth, we discover essential biblical presuppositions that provide working knowledge for how to faithfully serve the Lord and our neighbor in the real world.

5) Taken together, as we grow into the mind of Christ, we can orient our lives within a biblical view of life and the world. Taught by Christ our Creator, Redeemer, and King of all nations, we press into life with grace and truth; mercy and justice; faith, hope, and love. Yet, we never lose our first love, always looking first to Christ and following Him in serving our neighbors.

Therefore, we never simply equate the mind of Christ with “how most Christians think,” particularly not how most Christians happen to be thinking according to popular surveys. We can short-circuit our growth in the mind of Christ if we think that means taking the proper position on current events or reacting properly to political issues under the banner of a Christian worldview. The mind of Christ, which is short on arrogance and long on humility, cannot be reduced to slogans and sound bites. It requires us to take seriously the questions in front of us and demands meaningful engagement.

6) And as we grow into the mind of Christ concerning our questions of faith and life within this human condition, we do well to consult others who walked this path and perhaps have finished the race. We should pursue, particularly in our own fields of study and professions, the Christian intellectual tradition, placing ourselves in conversation with the best Christian minds, embedded in the thought-world of Scripture, navigating the intellectual challenges of their own historical moments. Novelty and recency are overrated, and we cannot live in the past. But the best of current Christian thought stands on the shoulders of great Christian minds that preceded us.

Finally, we cultivate the mind of Christ according to an order given to us that is organic, coherent, and integral. All things hold together in Him. And the Spirit of Christ helps us to understand His Word, to consider the whole counsel of God, to learn the biblical starting points for all human thought, and to engage the matters of our own day with wisdom for the glory of God, the good of His church, and the blessing of our neighbors.