What is The Point of "Think" by John Piper?

John Piper:

In spite of all these warnings, the overwhelming message of the Bible is that knowing the truth is crucial. And thinking—eagerly and humbly using the mind God gave us, and using it well—is essential to knowing the truth.

Two passages of Scripture provide the main point of this book. The first is 2 Timothy 2:7, where Paul says to Timothy, “Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.” The command is that he think, consider, use his mind to try to understand what he means. And the reason Paul gives for this think- ing is this: “For the Lord will give you understanding.” Paul does not put these in tension: thinking on the one side and receiving the gift of understanding from God on the other side. They go together. Thinking is essential on the path to understanding. But understanding is a gift of God. That’s the point of this book.

The other passage is Proverbs 2:1–6. I’ll boil it down to two verses to make it easier to see how similar it is to 2 Timothy 2:7. “If you . . . raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver . . . then you will . . . find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.” The point is that we should seek understanding like a miser seeks silver. We should use our minds with eagerness and skill. What is the reason given? The same one Paul gave: “For the Lord gives wisdom.” They go together—our seeking understanding and God’s giving it. Seeking it like silver is essential to finding. But finding is a gift of God. That is the point of this book.

A story about Benjamin Warfield may make the point clear. Warfield taught at Princeton Seminary for thirty-four years until his death in 1921. He reacted with dismay toward those who saw opposition between prayer for divine illumination and rigorous thinking about God’s written Word. In 1911 he gave an address to students with this exhortation: “Sometimes we hear it said that ten minutes on your knees will give you a truer, deeper, more opera- tive knowledge of God than ten hours over your books. ‘What!’ is the appropriate response, ‘than ten hours over your books, on your knees?’”  Both-and. Not either-or. That’s the vision I am trying to encourage in this book.

(p. 26, 27), purchase here.