How do you know you’re following God? Use your brain.

1 John 3.19-22.

More than once, the apostles talk about how we gotta follow our personal convictions. “Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.” Ro 14.5 KJV Don’t just follow the crowd; or in the context of 1 John, don’t just follow the dictates of society; don’t just succumb to peer pressure. Decide for yourself.

Skeptical pagans like to claim that’s the very opposite of what Christians do. Unfortunately these pagans ain’t wrong. There is so much conformity in Christendom. It’s even encouraged.

Peer pressure, as I discovered back when I was teaching middle school, is such a useful way to get the kids to behave! Get the popular kids to do as you want, and most of the rest will fall in line, which is way easier than working on all of ’em individually. Thing is, are the kids who are doing as I want, doing the right thing? I certainly hoped and believed so… but I know I’m hardly infallible; I know better than to not second-guess myself. Other Christians never second-guess themselves. Too many Christians in leadership never second-guess themselves. They could be—and occasionally are—woefully wrong. But, like me, they’re trying to use peer pressure to make their flocks behave as they want, and the sheep are following right along.

And that’s actually not what God wants in his kingdom. He wants us to follow Jesus, not some wolf in sheep’s clothing who’s manipulating us for fun and profit. And how do we know they’re secretly wolves? Well, if you talk to your average Christian, they’re gonna know better because they “felt a check in my spirit”—their gut told them something was amiss, and they know to follow their gut. But if you talk to Jesus, he’s gonna tell us to use our brains, and look at their fruit.

Matthew 7.16-20 KJV

16Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? 17Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. 18A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. 19Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. 20Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.

Following your gut isn’t as effective as you imagine. Your gut usually consists of your emotions, and your emotions are easily manipulated. If an unscrupulous church leader realizes you’re getting wise to him, he’ll quickly pivot to things that’ll trigger your emotions. Fear, usually. Fear’s easy to invoke, and automatically shuts most people down, ’cause they’re too afraid to think, and run on instinct instead—either fight, flight, or freeze, and an unscrupulous leader prefers any of those things to an actual reckoning.

In any event, God didn’t give us our guts so we’d be led by them. He gave us an organ to actually think with. We know it as our brain, though in biblical times people believed it was the heart, which is why I sometimes gotta translate καρδία/kardía, “heart,” as “mind.” He expects us to use our minds—to be wise—and figure out whether something’s legitimately a God-thing, or isn’t. Is it fruitful? Then it’s probably God. Is it fleshly? Then it’s likely not. Does it feel good? Doesn’t matter; that’s your gut, and your gut’s part of your flesh, and stop following your flesh and pretending it’s your spirit. Or worse, the Holy Spirit—you realize that’s skirting blasphemy, right?

John advises likewise. Are you not sure you’re actually following God? Well, use your head. That is why God put a brain in your body. It’s not just to memorize pop songs.

1 John 3.19-22 KWL

19This is how we’ll know

we’re acting out of truth;

how we’ll be persuaded in our mind

before God:

20When the mind condemns us.

God is greater than our mind,

and knows everything.

21Beloved, when our mind doesn’t condemn us,

we should be bold for God.

22Whatever we might ask,

we should receive from God,

for we keep his commands

and we do pleasing things before him.

“But… but my spirit!”

Whenever I teach Christians to use their heads—to practice discernment, including the supernatural type—I get rebuked for it.

Because it’s not what Christians have been taught in the past. They’ve been taught religious discernment is a “spiritual thing”—in which the mind is not involved. It’s even rejected. “You gotta turn off your brain and follow your heart.” They’ll even quote this very 1 John passage, ’cause in the KJV it reads like so:

1 John 3.19 KJV

19And hereby we know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before him.

20For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knoweth all things. 21Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.

“There, right there, it says to be assured by your heart, not your mind.” Because they’re unaware that in ancient times—in Hebrew, Greek, and Roman times—heart and mind are the same thing. The ancients believed they thought with their hearts.

Not feel; they felt with their guts. The word translated “compassion” in verse 17 is σπλάγχνα/splánkna, “intestines.” (The KJV went with “bowels [of compassion].”) When Jesus had compassion, he felt it in his guts—’cause people regularly have a physical reaction in our bowels when we’re emotional, and the ancients figured it’s because emotions come from there. We still refer to “gut feelings.” The medievals later shifted emotion to the heart, and thinking to the brains… and we moderns and postmoderns now recognize all these mental processes are in our brains, although certainly our brains can be influenced by pains and chemicals in the rest of our body.

But Christians are still mixing up ancient ideas with medieval ideas, and interpreting bible wrong in just the way which makes ’em most comfortable. Thinking things through is hard work, and they’d much rather feel their way through things. Makes ’em feel “more spiritual” that way. More like Jedi. And we are not Jedi. We do not trust our feelings. (In fact some of the Star Wars fans among us really oughta watch Revenge of the Sith again, and pay attention to how trusting their feelings worked out for the Jedi at the end of the Clone Wars.)

Again: Trusting your feelings, trusting your “heart” if that’s how you define your heart, is trusting your flesh. Your emotions aren’t to be followed, but controlled. The Holy Spirit is in you to help you learn to control them, and follow him. He’s also renewing your mind Ro 12.2 so you can think like him, and that’s why you should be able to suss out whether something’s of God or not. It’s not complicated! Like Jesus said, lookit the fruit.

And if we’re wrong, there’s grace.

Once we’ve turned over in our mind whether this is a God-thing, and find it’s not, and we’re wanting: “When the mind condemns us, God is greater than our mind, and knows everything.” 1Jn 3.20 When we’re wrong, the Holy Spirit is the corrective.

And he’s a kind corrective. Too often, Christians don’t turn to the Spirit to let him correct us, because we’re afraid he’s gonna act like a human, and yell at us like a furious drill sergeant. That’s not who he is—and drill sergeants do that to break recruits, not correct ’em. The Spirit wants to fix us, not break us! He knows exactly what we need to hear, and that’s what he tells us. He offers us grace and compassion, and we’re meant to learn by his example and be that way towards fellow Christians.

And once we’ve corrected our trajectory and are following the Spirit now, our minds shouldn’t condemn us anymore. Okay yes, some people are mentally unhealthy and their minds might irrationally condemn ’em anyway, and they need therapy. But for most of us, we should know whether we’re on the right path or not—if we’re using our minds, and paying attention to whether our “good works” bear good fruit.

And if that’s so, we can fulfill verses 21-22. If we’re obeying God’s commands, we’re doing as he wants; we should have no problem with boldly asking God for stuff, and getting what we requested. If we‘re following God, he’s gonna help us follow him better. Abide in him, and he in us.