We are called to love God with the totality of our being. That is the point of the Great Commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matt. 22:37). Mark’s gospel adds “strength” (Mark 12:30, see also Deut. 6:5). We should not overly stress the subtle distinctions between heart, soul, mind, and strength. Collectively, they refer to the whole person. That said, given your calling as a student, let’s unpack some of what it means to love God with all our minds.
Take Every Thought Captive
By the Holy Spirit’s power, we are to “take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5). Sin begins in the mind with the belief that our greatest good lies outside the bounds of God’s commands. Sexual sin begins with lust. Murder flows from anger. Gossip arises from pride. We indulge in practice what we first nurture in our minds. Conversely, we mortify sin and grow in grace by dwelling on what is true and pushing out the lies that tempt us toward things that can’t satisfy—cisterns that hold no water (Jer. 2:13).
It is not enough to reject evil thoughts. We must cultivate godly thoughts. Thomas Chalmers once explained in his sermon “The Expulsive Power of a New Affection” that superior affections have the power to displace inferior ones. It’s easier to say no to extra French fries if you remember that a great dinner is coming, provided you don’t ruin your appetite. Similarly, when intrusive thoughts of self-pity or anger wash over us due to some slight, it’s easier to push them out by recalling how good it is to be clothed in Christ’s righteousness (2 Cor. 5:21), to know that vengeance is the Lord’s (Rom. 12:19), and that all things must work together for our good (Rom. 8:28). It puts the affairs of our life into perspective. We must require that our thoughts submit to Christ’s lordship.
To this end, Scripture intake and prayer are excellent protection for daily battle. Ask the Lord to continually renew your mind so that you’re bringing a distinctly God-centered orientation to your responsibilities and circumstances. You will thereby grow in resilience to deal with the setbacks of student life, which can feel all-consuming in the moment. A bad grade, a souring relationship, an internship that falls through—these will still sting. But we need not grieve as those without hope, if we take every thought captive.
Grow in Discipline and Attentiveness
We live in an age of shortened attention spans. The College Board has reduced the reading and writing portions of the SAT exam by up to five-hundred words.1 Professors who used to assign whole books now require mere chapters, excerpts, or articles. Time-use studies of college students point to fewer hours per week spent cracking the books and more time spent on leisure.
The Christian student seeks to be a good steward of the opportunity to grow intellectually.
But the Christian student seeks to be a good steward of the opportunity to grow intellectually. The brain is like a muscle. It can be strengthened by regular use. Apply yourself with diligence to your studies. Turn off your phone for lengthy periods of time to facilitate concentration. Whether reading a chapter, writing a paper, or completing a problem set, the greater the focus, the greater the quality of the work produced.
Don’t let fear of a bad grade be your motivator. Instead, aim for the joy of discovery, of nurturing whatever level of academic talent the Lord has entrusted to you. When love of the learning process replaces anxiety about the grading process, the results often take care of themselves. If faithfulness is your aim, the grade can never determine the final impact. The B- of a faithful student is more praiseworthy in God’s eyes than the A- of a lazy or unethical student. The former will also make a better employee. Christian character is often the seedbed of professional success.
Make Intelligent Use of Artificial Intelligence
It’s the elephant in the room: How does using AI relate to loving God with our minds? First, we will not be loving God with our minds if we resort to AI to flee the mental strain that education requires. Don’t outsource the mental or creative work to the detriment of your own learning. If it helps, outsource the busy work. But the development of critical thinking, and the ability to connect ideas together, these skills can only come from deliberate practice. This article was written because I was willing to first stare at a blank page. And I’ve cut twice as many words as I’ve included. Similarly, don’t let AI do your math or science problems for you without doing the necessary learning that math and science require. Instead, you can use AI to write math or science problems for you, or to check your solutions, or have the chatbot quiz you about whatever it is you’re trying to master.
Loving God with all our minds means leaning into the intellectual growth process. It means that to the extent we use AI, we use it as a tool to help us think, write, and solve complex problems better. We make AI our tool and we don’t let the tool become our master.
Dear Christian student, join me in the lifelong process of learning to love God with all your mind. It won’t always be easy, but it’s a journey filled with reward.
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Michael Torres, “The SAT’s Trust Fall: Legacy standardized-testing firms are cutting rigor to please students,” The James G. Martin Center for Academic Renewal, June 18, 2025, https://jamesgmartin.center/2025/06/the-sats-trust-fall/ ↩