20/06/2020
What people say out of conceptual inadequacy
In the book of Prophet Joel, God says “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children” (Hosea 4 verse 6: RSV). In an attempt to express how much they want their worship to please the Lord, Christians have established certain adages and habits, both deliberately and inadvertently. Some of these adages and habits, if well scrutinised, are in stark contrast with the law of God, and as such, may incite the wrath of God.
Many Christians (not all) think that if one is well educated, he or she necessarily knows God. The flip side of that notion is that those who have received little education of this world are, on one hand, perceived as people who are potentially ignorant of the mind of God, or, on the other hand, say about themselves “We can’t do much ourselves, because we are not educated.” Nothing cannot be further from the truth. Paul, one of the obedient servants of God, had this to say to the Corinthians “But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God. Which God decreed before the ages of our glorification. None of the rulers of this age understood this; if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory (1 Corinthians 2 verse 7 – 8: RSV). And we regard rulers as educated people. The idea, therefore is, let us not presume that if one is educated, he therefore knows God, or vice-versa.
Of course, Paul himself was educated. We know he had attended the University of Tarsus, although not much is known about his area of specialisation. He said he was one of the Pharisees, a group which was not highly educated. He also said he was a Sadducee who had been under strict guidance of Gamaliel; therefore highly educated. His disparity with the latter group was that he believed in resurrection, which the group did not (Acts 23 verses 7 – 8). To the Corinthians he wrote that it is the Spirit of God that “searches everything, even the depth of God (1 Corinthians 2 verse 10). When he taught, he used words not used by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who possessed the Spirit (verse 13).
Our education which we received in this world should only be handled in such a way that we glorify the Lord through it. If it is ‘our’ education, then it is worthless in the eyes of God just as Greek Philosophy, according to Paul, was nothing to God.
Another baffling extent of man’s lack of knowledge is his quest for identity. It is rather folly for individual Christians or church denominations strewn around our residential areas to ardently seek visual identity at the expense of true Christian identity. This visual identity is in the form of unique uniforms or a well-rehearsed church ‘litage’ or doctrine. These are so emphatically observed that an offender can face the full wrath of the leadership for what is perceived as tarnishing the ‘church identity’. The reproach can be more drastic compared to when one has contravened the law of God.
The Lord may view this with anger. However, it is categorically documented that the Lord is slow to anger and always gives man another chance to seek true wisdom and knowledge. But he always warns people not to rebel against his statutes. Psalms 2 verses 1 – 5 says “Why do nations conspire, and people plot in vain? … He who sits in heaven laughs; the Lord has them in derision. Then he will speak to them in wrath and terrify them in his fury.”
The quest for visual identity is as old as the church itself, but it is surprising how man fails to take a leaf from the same old misconception. I am referring to the church that was founded by our Lord Jesus Christ (which was one). When new converts were found at Antioch, some unidentified men approached church leaders and said that unless Gentiles were circumcised according to the custom of Moses, they would not be saved (Acts 15: 1). It was not until the Spirit of the Lord used James to explain that the true perspective of salvation and was put down in black and white. That is, letters were written to clarify the issue – that we should not trouble those of the Gentiles who turn to God by putting unbearable yokes on them (verse 19). For that reason, many church denominations have stopped outward-bound preaching missions. New converts, they say, will contaminate their identity.
To the Corinthians, Paul said the question is not about whom you follow or who you are identified with (1 Corinthians 3 verse 4). He saw people spending a lot of energy in strife about denominations, a case which could result in them side-lining the key issue of serving the Lord. Paul rests the issue saying himself, or Apollos or Cephas do not possess any heaven. They never resurrected to save anyone as Jesus did. The identity Corinthians should have sought is that of Jesus Christ. Only Jesus Christ has the power and authority to recommend each one of us to pour Father who is in heaven.
Identity in the form of mountain shrines, temples, uniforms, badges or any other, do not help much to identify us with Christ. There can, in fact, be positive and negative attributes which go along with the foresaid forms of identity, the details of which require a lengthy explanation. Jesus Christ said we only need to worship him in truth and Spirit (John 4:23).
Again, you hear people saying they have been blessed by a certain preacher’s delivery. Is the right word to use ‘blessed’ or ‘touched’? I will; not give a ruling here, but what I want to drive at is that if there are people who might have thought that they would be changed by simply ‘hearing’ the word, and that the more they attend such services, the more they are blessed, they need to know that they should take an additional dimension: doing what the word says. Only then can they be blessed.
To say a sermon was absolutely blessing, for a good majority of Christians, implies that they know someone or other who should be the culprit of the ills being preached against. Never would it be them. If it is, the sermon is not ‘blessing’. That is where I come in with the word ‘touching’. The sermon was touching. If the sermon was touching, what does it mean for the hearer? Repent from your bad doings. Do as the word of God says you should do.
Jesus Christ clearly demonstrated the folly of someone who does not do what the sermon says when he said (Matthew 7: 26): “And everyone who hears the words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat against the house, and it fell. AND GREAT WAS THE FALL OF IT.”
I often watch myself and others in the praise-and-worship team reach a point of ecstasy, singing and praising the Lord ‘with all our hearts’. Good for us, it seems, because we have had something to divert our attention from the husband, the wife, the neighbour, or the in-law we hate very much. At the same time while we say we are being moved by the singing, what does the lord say about what we should do about those we dislike? “If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there …. First be reconciled to your brother and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5 verses 23 - 24).
This is only one example of many things Christians ignore. To the best of their knowledge, they love God. If they have savoured ties with those people, they can still maintain their relationship with God. But the scripture read above shows that what one is doing is merely pretence. Seek redress and reconciliation first. Important knowledge of God, therefore, is that the acceptance of our worship by God is dependent on our relationships with other people. Those we hate have it to stop us from entering the glory of God.
One other area where Christians profess ignorance is on the issue of a husband or wife non-believer. The husband-and-wife is the most sanctified of all relationships among people. The Lord himself made it sanctified because, on one hand, he is the one who founded it; and on the other, all other relationships stem from it. Ceasing a marriage relationship is not optional. Some other relationships are optional. Esau sold his birth right to Jacob, but when Abraham lied to Pharaoh that Sarah was his sister, he caused much affliction to Pharaoh (Genesis 12: 17). What a Christian ought to know today is that what the Lord has put together, no man should put asunder (Mark 10 verses 7 – 8). Only marriage makes two people one, no other relationship does so. In fact, God dislikes divorce (Malachi 2: 16).
The bone of contention on the matter of marriage here is the despising which is usually shown to the non-believer husband or wife. The correct knowledge about this ought to be sought. Paul says in 1Corinthians 7: 12): “… if any brother has a wife who is an unbeliever, and she consents to live with him, he should not divorce her. If any woman has a husband who is an unbeliever, and he consents to live with her, she should not divorce him. For the unbelieving husband is consecrated through his wife, and the unbelieving wife is consecrated through her husband.
If that is the case, where does despising each other come from? Actually, with little knowledge, which is dangerous, a believing partner should be the light that shines upon the non-believing one to receive the light. And there is no reason to look down upon what God puts at stake as your duty to draw towards him.
