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Ask Pastor John

“Piper Is Too Intellectual”

Ask Pastor John

Desiring God

John Piper, Unknown, 163859, Pastor, Ask, Theology, Desiring God, Religion & Spirituality/christianity, Christianity, Religion & Spirituality, Questions

4.83.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2014

⏱️ 7 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Bible often makes high demands of our minds. Believers must therefore work hard to understand and teach God’s word.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Here's another question from the Passion Conference we received from a podcast listener.

0:09.1

Pastor John, I was at the Passion Conference where you spoke.

0:12.4

I heard many people, college students mostly say things such as,

0:15.7

Piper just talks right over my head, or he is too hard to understand.

0:20.5

Why do you think so many people respond that way to your teaching?

0:24.4

Oh, dear. Well, let's just be honest. It could be that I'm confusing.

0:30.4

It could be that I'm a muddleheaded. I don't really know what I mean.

0:33.9

I mean, people can't help others understand what they mean. If they don't know what they

0:37.8

mean, it could be that I don't take the time necessary to make things as simple and understandable

0:43.8

as they ought to be, that I'm unprepared, unclear. So yeah, that's possible.

0:50.0

I will let others be the judge. I certainly work hard to be clear and to be

0:58.4

coachinged and to be interesting. I don't aim to be hard to understand.

1:02.5

That's not one of my goals. That would be a bad goal.

1:06.8

I want to be hard to understand. I can reputation of being unintelligible.

1:12.0

No, that's not what I'm after. But here's another possible explanation.

1:18.4

And it's probably a combination.

1:20.7

I think the main reason is that the educational bar has been set so low for children

1:30.4

in elementary school and high school and at home there's no great premium put on thinking.

1:40.8

Thinking is work. It really is. In a sense, the mind is a muscle.

1:48.4

Like the biceps or a muscle, your arm will just lie there,

1:54.7

all right? Just lie there in your lap until you make the mental effort to say bicep,

2:03.6

lift my arm. And then the bicep does what you say. Isn't that amazing? It does. But you have to

...

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