The
Scriptures on Philosophy
The
Christian Scriptures are the standard for the Christian life. They are filled
with history, poetry, letters, and instructions; all pertaining to a life
devoted to God and to holiness. They have a central theme about repentance and
submission to God by faith in Jesus Christ and his death and bodily resurrection
from the grave. Reading these scriptures is a key to continuing in the Christian
life, and they guide all beliefs and create the lens through which the world
must be viewed.
Philosophy
is the study of knowledge or wisdom (literally the love/φίλος of wisdom/σοφία).
In a Christian life, this could be analyzing the text of scripture and using it
to speculate truths possibly not directly revealed through the scriptures
themselves. Whether it is hated or loved by theologians, it is used by them to
understand texts that aren’t quite as clear. In this way it is indirectly
related to exegesis of the scriptures and necessary to an extent. Many
theological concepts that we hold to today can find their origin from
philosophy.
In
Acts 17, Paul goes to the Areopagus to talk with the men of Athens. When he is
here, he talks to them and shows them respect, pointing out that they are very
devoted. He even quotes one of their own philosophers saying, “For we also are
His children”. This shows that, truth can be truth, even if it comes from evil
sources. Paul uses this philosopher to preach the Gospel to the Athenian men.
In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the phrase, “Bad company
corrupts good character”. This is a reference to one of their philosophers.
Paul references this possibly to show them that even their own teachers give an
instruction which they are not obeying. He was possibly using this to shame
them for not even obeying what would have seemed natural to them.
Although
Paul uses some philosophers’ quotes, Scripture can also be very harsh to
philosophy. Scripture in general doesn’t like the idea of a person being a “lover
of wisdom” because it can be an idol before God. Paul talks mainly about the Gnostic knowledge seekers. In his letter to the Pastor Timothy, Paul says, “Avoid
the pointless discussions and contradictions of what is falsely called
knowledge”. He also says to the Colossians, “Don’t let anyone capture you with
empty philosophies and high-sounding nonsense that come from human thinking and
from the spiritual powers of this world, rather than from Christ”. This is a
stern rebuke that philosophy can be a dangerous and idolatrous thing.
In
conclusion, we can see that philosophy can be useful to the Christian life, but
it can also be a wicked idol. We can study philosophies as long as the goal is
to worship Christ and spread his Gospel. When we study philosophy, we need to
be sure not to put any ideas above that of scripture which Christ used to back
most of his statements up with. As Paul said in his second letter to the
Corinthians, “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up
against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the
obedience of Christ”.
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