Chip Ingram taught us to be R12 or Romans 12 teachers:
12:2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." This renewal is a purification of the imagination. Notice the discipline.
Ingram related this to a key idea from A.W. Tozer that the most important thing about a person is what comes to mind when you say the word "God." This is the keystone of the imagination. I might add that God at times took more pains to distance himself from idols than to define himself in concrete terms. So we might say that it is equally important what does not come into one's mind when one says the word "God." And, if we are at a loss for an idea of God, remember that God designed and expected that, sending Christ to fill in the imagination where no idol would do.
Worlds of thought compete to define our imagination: Disney, Scientology and self-help, Mormonism, Christ, GLBT Clubs, political parties, ads, and the like.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines imagination "as the action of forming a mental concept of what is not actually present to the senses." That would relate to just about everything we do or ever have done from at least age 2 onward.
Imagination in Hebrew is Yetser which means "form, conception, frame, mind, work." Later, in the OT, the word employed was sheryrowth (sher-ee-rooth) which added the idea of something twisted or obstinate, for the imagination of man had constantly gone awry, and the word was virtually synonymous with deceit and corruption.
In NT Greek, imagination is dianoia which is "deep thought or plans."
Specific Verses
Pre-Flood
Genesis 6: "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually."
Flood (Genesis 8)
Post Flood
Genesis 11 The Tower of Babel: "And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do."
A positive example
King David prays to God over the offering he and his people gave to the building of the temple:
"O Lord God of Abraham, Isaac, and of Israel, our fathers, keep this for ever in the imagination of the thoughts of the heart of thy people, and prepare their heart unto thee"
In the last scriptural instance of imagination Mary recalls the Philistine's imagination when she sings, "He hath shewed strength with his arm; he hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts."
A fine example:
Ecc. 7:29: "Lo , this only have I found , that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions."
More Generally, OT:
There is no place for the imagination to hide from us. What is Eve's sin but a failure to imagine the love of God in his provisions and prohibition? Adam's a failure to recognize his noble responsibility? Yes, of course, fig leaves will hide this! Or Cain, also failing to recognize God's love, failing to imagine that the same fields that soaked in water and received the seeds he planted to make life would not cry out in horror when drinking down the rain of Abel's righteous blood. Yes, of course, my words will hide this: Am I my brother's keeper?
Indeed, every action is wed to the imagination,
Think of Abraham righteously believing that God would bring back Isaac from the dead,
Numbers 13-14: Think of the twelve that Moses sent to spy out the land. Caleb encouraged with Joshua, but the other ten said that they were too weak, and they prevailed with the minds of the people.
Think of Noah building a ship or Rahab throwing in her lot with Israelite spies and their God.
Think of David facing Goliath or Daniel in the lion's den.
These are the very opposite of suicidal men; nor are the blind believers. They truly see with eyes of faith and act faithfully, which in hindsight always appears the only reasonable way to act...think of the Flood...think of wandering the desert. This looks like common sense on this side of it.
They exhibited a true or right or good or faithful imagination.
A sobering thought, is that it seems that while God may endure our failures, provided we turn back to him in repentance, he will not abide a faithless imagination
Think of God's punishment of false worship.
If we honor the image of God divine, we will honor the image around us in man. If we mar the heavenly image, we will deface it among ourselves as well. Thus, the first four of the 10 commandments concern worship and have traditionally been taught as the gate to the further commandments on our neighbor. The imagination needed the primary discipline to understand the secondary duty. It is interesting to note how often God speaks in the OT but how rarely he is seen in any fashion. If an Israelite wanted an idol, he needed to find his own inspiration.
More Generally, NT
In the New Testament, the image of God is given in Christ, and the role of the imagination is no less vital to the believer:
When the Saducees seek to trap Jesus on the question of a woman married to successive brothers, he responds that they neither understand the scriptures, nor the power of God. They failed in their imagination. Jesus publicly derides Nicodemus who, claiming to be a teacher, cannot understand the metaphor of the of New Birth. The disciples fail again and again to rightly imagine the implications of Christ's teaching, even after he explains it. Whether it's what one must do to be saved (sell all) or who will be greatest in the kingdom, the failure is always one of imagination.
Again, the way of obedience, according to Christ, springs from the imagination. We are first to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, and strength. We love the Lord with our entire imagination.
This will guide us (as in the commandments) to love our neighbor as ourselves. Notice how obedience begins in the mind. The imagination must be fixed in the right direction, and then we have no longer the need for thousands of lines of law. Conversely, one sin that Christ says will not be forgiven is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, an offense not of murder or theft, but of the imagination. In the context of Matthew 12 and Mark 3, we see this judgment comes immediately after the scribes witness against Christ that his healing miracles are performed by Beelzebub; that Jesus is a devil worshipper: Thus they would attribute Christ's work to Satan, a deliberate effort to corrupt people's imagination concerning God's true Image. Isn't that interesting. So it is that while we are to bravely fight wickedness in high places, there are things, Paul tells us, we are not even to mention among ourselves, lest our imaginations become tainted. The imagination is the key to our heavenly and earthly lives.
Basic Applications:
First, let's teach our classes recognizing the important role that the imagination plays in this life and the life to come. Apologetics, math formulas, poetry, grammar, periodic tables...are all in a certain sense fictions, ideas related to but removed from sense experience. Ideas that help us recognize truth about the world that God has made. A kind of discipline for the mind. A discipleship of the mind. Jesus is the Good Teacher; consider his style, his method, his depth.
God is patient, warning us often, like the Israelites on the way to the Promised Land. Many say, Lord, Lord, but are we honoring God in our imagination or simply imagining that we honor God? Are walking faithfully now, so that when the larger challenge comes, we will not doubt, turn back, or fail; we will enter the good land with Caleb and Joshua? Are we trusting God to make things right, even when they don't seem to go right for us? Can we stomach the plot curve that God likes to draw in our lives...in others' lives? I have a hard time. Our imaginations need discipline, need courage.
Furthermore, are we ever content to simply meditate on, imagining--for rest, for grace--the things God has written for us to know in his Word, or do we constantly harken after the next task or scheme or work or distraction, filling our time with "many inventions" (Ecclesiastes 7:29). What does this teach our families and students? Abraham believed God (for he imagined)....Without faith (a directed imagination) it is impossible to please God.
12:2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
Lord, grant us disciplined imaginations. Amen.
End of regular plan.
Should I have extra time:
A More Subtle Applications: C.S. Lewis isolated so-called Scientific Materialism as perhaps the mightiest opponent to a healthy imagination. Once one goes along with this philosophy, that all we can know is what we can sense, then the battle is already lost, the imagination largely amputated.
Anthony Esolen (Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child): Historical Sense as an Antidote to Materialism; Remember what God has done.
Consider naming: Absolve those interested: Sailor House vs. The Office of Institutional Advancement and Development. Santa Cruz.
2. Jacques Barzun (Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning):
The abandonment of the arts as arts.
Teaching is an art, not a science. Science invents cooler devices, and we all want in; however, we need to beware of losing the inheritance we have for a promise that never materializes. We win a great deal of abuse when we imagine our role incorrectly.
Jacques Barzun: "In the name of progress and method, innovation and statistical research, educationists have persuaded the world that teaching is a set of complex problems to be solved. It is no such thing. It is a series of difficulties. They recur endlessly and have to be met; there is no solution...Teaching is an art, and an art, though it has a variety of practical devices to choose from, cannot be reduced to a science."
Today, I think we sometimes seek to wrest more reputation and authority for ourselves by claiming to be scientifically validated, data-driven and the like. Of course, we want to consider and improve, but that unchecked spirit results in death, for dead bodies are easiest to analyze and manipulate. Many of our marvels owe much more to the educational processes of Marx or Dewey than the dialogue of Socrates or Aquinas, more to the spirit of the assembly line and Henry Ford than the spirit of Christ.
Those are just a few subtle illustrations. For more, see their excellent essays and books. You can find resources (and this devotional) on the same blog site I sent yesterday.
So, fellow Christians, let us put on the mind of Christ, and purify our hearts and minds in and for his service as we are transformed by the renewing of our minds to have a good and faithful and disciplined imagination.
