Does AI help or hurt your walk with Jesus?
Your choices shape your destiny so choose wisely.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a wonderful tool. It gives you access to almost unlimited knowledge. You can use it to broaden your knowledge on such a wide spectrum of topics. It is only natural that a Christian would use AI to ask biblical questions while seeking to understand biblical topics.
So does AI help or hurt your walk with God?
It all depends on how you use AI. If you use it to give you quick answers and don’t do any searching, meditation, questioning outside of the summaries / answers AI provides, it will be harmful.
Early studies have shown that AI is making people worst at critical thinking. God intends for you to exercise your will to make good judgment calls. Critical thinking is crucial to living a moral life and a life that is well pleasing to God. Therefore, if you actively hurt your critical thinking skills, it will hurt your ability to live morally long-term.
Bible knowledge alone isn’t enough. There are plenty of people in the world who know a lot about the Bible but who do not follow it nor believe in Jesus. Satan himself quoted the Bible to Jesus in Matthew 4 during the three major temptations he hurled against him. There are lots of people who are atheists and yet are Bible scholars, former pastors, long-time church members.
Resist the urge to reach for quick Bible answers. The Bible is meant to be savoured. It is meant to be meditated on. Its transformative power comes as you allow yourself to marinate in its teachings and principles. In this age of instant answers, most don’t have the patience for this slow approach but it is crucial if you want to grow in your relationship with God.
Our Short Attention Spans
The social media age has caused most of us to have short attention spans. We want a quick word so we can be on to the next distraction. Growing in wisdom requires time. There are no shortcuts. Character isn’t built in a day, a week, or a month. It is built over the long term.
The AI age is hot on the heels of the Social Media age. Both of these ages has shortened our attention span and our ability to wait and be bored. Anything that takes a long time seems like a waste of time.
Never mind the fact that any professional athlete of any sport never got to where they were by working on their sport for just a few months. Typically, it takes many years of dedication, special exercises, special diets, and extreme discipline.
Isn’t it interesting that we understand this about professional sports but not about doing something meaningful for the Kingdom of God?
Slow down and take your time.
AI can speed up an ever larger number of mundane tasks. What it can’t do is replace your critical thinking skills. It can’t really teach you wisdom either. It is great at spitting out knowledge but knowledge and wisdom are not the same. Wisdom is something that is earned through constructive failure. We gain wisdom by seeking mentors, learning from others who have succeeded at what we want to do. Difficult circumstances produce great people if they will learn the lessons found while walking the valley of the shadow of death.
“He who corrects a scoffer gets shame for himself, and he who rebukes a wicked man only harms himself. Do not correct a scoffer, lest he hate you; Rebuke a wise man, and he will love you.” — Proverbs 9:7-8
Learn to welcome criticism. Seek out those who can correct you when you are off course. Welcome accountability from others who are more spiritual mature than yourself. That is the path to wisdom.
Learn to Wrestle with the Problem First
There are times when I seek a quick answer from ChatGPT. I can give the AI a complicated explanation that is dense and difficult to understand and ask it to make it simpler. It does that really well. I do have to be careful to take the time first to try to understand the paragraph first. It is too easy to reach for the explanation without first wrestling with the problem.
There are times when you are in a rush and you need a quick answer. No problem with that unless it becomes a habit. Otherwise, be sure to schedule some quality time with the Bible and do some research. I have invested heavily over the years in quality, conservative biblical commentaries for just that reason. Before consulting AI or commentaries though, be sure to read the text yourself and let it marinate a bit. Doing so will help your mind develop and grow. Once you have some idea of what the text means, then you can turn to tools like commentaries or AI.
Does AI help or hurt your walk with Jesus?
At the end of the day, spending more time in God’s Word will always be fruitful. It will certainly help you grow closer to Jesus. If your relationship with Jesus is always hurried and consists of only quick snacks on God’s Word or worse, regurgitated spiritual food from AI, your relationship with Jesus will suffer.
Life is a series of choices. Your choices lead to habits, those habits form your character. Your character will determine your eternal destiny. Make wise choices.
Joseph Duchesne writes to help Christians think and act biblically using Artificial Intelligence. He is the author of a couple of books, The Last Crisis and Discover the One, both available on Amazon.