As we come to the New Testament, it should come as no surprise that we find universal continuity with Old Covenant meditation. In the New Testament, meditation remains a practice of deep thinking on a variety of topics, ranging from the Scriptures themselves (1 Tim. 4:13-16) to the believer’s heavenly hope in Christ (Col. 3:1-2), and all true and real things concerning God, self, creation, and circumstances (Phil. 4:8). Of course there are differences in the amount of revelation between the Old and New Covenant eras, and so the range of things that can be meditated on have been increased and become more focused. We can also point out that the Old Testament saint did not have the indwelling Holy Spirit empowering them to live and think rightly. But even with those two—admittedly major—changes between the Old and New Covenants, we will see that the Old Covenant saint and the New Covenant saint share the same fundamental content, goal, and form of meditation.
Meditation for Transformation
To show the continuity between Old and New Covenant meditation, we will do a survey of the relevant passages that address the believer’s thinking. In 1 Timothy 4:15, Paul, speaking of truths, exhortations, and teachings that Timothy had learned from the Scriptures, instructs Timothy to practice, meletaó (μελετάω), those things. While practice is not necessarily a bad translation of the word, it may carry too much of a physical connotation in the English, for meletaó is more akin to turning something around in the mind and is thus translated as the Gentiles plotting against the Lord’s Anointed in Acts 4:25 where Peter quotes Psalm 2:1, “Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples plot in vain?”1 They weren’t physically practicing what they were going to do to the Lord and his Anointed. They were thinking deeply, carefully crafting schemes against the Lord. Likewise, as this is a present active imperative in 1 Timothy 4:15, Timothy is to be about the business of contemplating the teachings of the Scriptures in his mind. Though this is a mental activity, however, we see that the purpose is practical, “so that all may see your progress.” As was true of Old Testament meditation, New Testament meditation ends in application and transformation.
Think On Heavenly Things
Next, in Colossians 3:1-3, Paul tells those who have been raised with Christ to “seek the things that are above where Christ is,” and to “set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” The first word, translated as ‘seek,’ is zéteó (ζητέω) which is a frequently used word that means ‘to seek,’ or ‘to desire.’2 The other verb, translated as “set your minds on,” is translated from the present active imperative form of the Greek word phroneó (φρονέω), which simply means ‘to think,’ or ‘to exercise the mind.’3 Since the Colossians have their identity in Christ, having been raised to new life in Him, their thinking is not to be consumed with the things of this world. They are to think of heavenly realities, and particularly their eternal future with Christ when he returns (Col. 3:4). They are to do this, as the verb’s tense reflects, consistently and frequently.
Dwell on what is Good
Third, in his teaching on anxiety in Philippians 4:8, Paul tells the Philippians to think about whatever is true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, commendable, or anything that is excellent or worthy of praise. The word is logizomai (λογίζομαι) which comes from the root word logos (λόγος) and which means to “account,” “reckon,” or “take an inventory.”4 Rather than being focused on their fears or things that might not be true which is causing them anxiety, the believers are to instead think on the truth and the blessings that they have from God. Paul is not commanding the believer to bury his head into the sand and just think positive thoughts, whether they are reflective of their current situation or not. The believer is not to ignore whatever trial or sin that may be causing their anxiety. The believer may be thinking deeply on their present trial, but instead of speculating on what the trial will bring or when it may end, they are instead thinking about what is true of their present trial—such as God’s faithfulness in hearing the prayers of his saints or of things that they should be thankful of even in the midst of their trial (Phil. 4:6). As with all the thinking that believers are commanded to do, this thinking is not founded upon their subjective opinions or feelings but is rooted in the truth of God’s written revelation.
Consider Jesus
Finally, in Hebrews 3:1 the author commands us to “consider Jesus.” The word used here is katanoeó (κατανοέω), which means to “observe fully,” or as it’s translated in the ESV, to “consider.”5 The content of this observation is Jesus Christ Himself. As their name reflects, Christians are to think often of Christ. As was the case in the Old Covenant, the foundation and guard rails of the New Covenant believer’s meditation is the Word of God. What the New Testament believer has, which the Old Testament believer didn’t, is the revelation of Jesus Christ in His person and work. As the ultimate revelation of the Father, Jesus is to be the focus and goal of the believer’s meditation whereby they are interpreting and correcting their thinking according to Christ’s example and commands for the purpose of their conformity to Christ (Rom. 12:1-2).
As Paul exhorts Timothy and reminds the Corinthians of when he first came to Corinth to evangelize them, all of life is to be interpreted and viewed through the lens of the Scriptures and what it has revealed about Christ (2 Tim. 3:14-17; 1 Cor. 2:1-5). This includes what the believer is meditating on. Again, the topic of one’s meditation may be varied, and the believer’s imagination may be employed in a sanctified manner, but the goal is conformity to Christ, for that is the purpose of our calling (Rom. 8:29). Therefore, any type or form of meditation, even one that may have a Scriptural veneer, that does not ultimately drive the believer’s thoughts toward Christ, enflame their affections for Christ, interpret their surroundings through the lens of Christ, and/or correct their thinking and patterns of living that do not conform to Christ, cannot be considered biblical meditation.
Summary of our Biblical Survey
As has been shown through our survey of the relevant passages and the relevant Greek and Hebrew terminology (see our study of meditation in the Old Testament here), to say that Christian meditation is a filling up of the mind with Scripture is accurate but deficient. Christian meditation is absolutely and fundamentally rooted in the Scriptures, but it is so much more than that. Meditation is not merely reading our Bibles. Nor is it merely the memorization of Scripture, the study of Scripture, or prayer. Meditation is truly a melding of all those disciplines with application added as the cherry on top.6
But we can even go further because, as we’ve seen, the believer does not meditate for better understanding of the Scriptures and application for the sake of better understanding and application—as if those were ends to themselves. No, in whatever the believer is meditating on, he is keeping Christ in his sight and his mind fixed on the Word of God in order to glorify Christ through the believer’s increasing conformity to Christ. Thus, meditation, as defined and used in the Scriptures, is the practice of thinking deeply and richly on the Word of God so that the believer’s thoughts, words, and actions are transformed to become more like Christ’s thoughts, words, and actions to the glory of God. In the next article we will turn to the Christian contemplatives and mystics as well as Eastern religious and Western secular meditative practices to show how incompatible they are with the Bible’s teaching on mediation and the whole Christian life.
NOTES
1Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Bible Hub. Accessed October 25, 2025. https://biblehub.com/greek/3191.htm
2Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Bible Hub. Accessed October 25, 2025. https://biblehub.com/greek/2212.htm
3Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Bible Hub. Accessed October 25, 2025. https://biblehub.com/greek/5426.htm
4Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Bible Hub. Accessed October 25, 2025. https://biblehub.com/greek/3049.htm
5Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, Bible Hub. Accessed October 25, 2025. https://biblehub.com/greek/2657.htm
6Whitney, Spiritual Disciplines, 48.