Part 4: Obstacles to Christian Maturity: Ignorance

Introduction

“The Thinker”

“The Thinker” is a bronze and marble sculpture that was made by the French sculptor Auguste Rodin. 

“The Thinker” is just one of many sculptors that he created in his lifetime in the late 19thand early 20th centuries.

The sculptor, as we can see, depicts a man who is in sober meditation, battling a powerful internal struggle.  Rodin originally called the sculptor “The Poet,” for the reason that he based it on the poem “The Divine Comedy” written by the medieval Christian Dante.  Rodin the sculptor intended for this Thinker to represent Dante as he sat at the front gates of Hell, watching and contemplating those condemned for eternity entering into their punishment.  We obviously also see that The Thinker has no clothes; the reason for this is that Rodin wanted to depict The Thinker as a heroic figure, which follows the tradition of Michelangelo, and he wanted it to represent intellect and poetry.

Over the years since its creation, The Thinker has come to represent philosophy.  And over time it has come to represent more than just philosophy, it has come to represent knowledge in general, esp the pursuit of knowledge.

Knowledge has fallen on hard times

This is especially true in the American church in general.

Many Christians have accepted the cultural idea that faith and knowledge are two different things.

Society tell us that we cannot know that Jesus is God’s Son; you have faith that he is God’s Son. You cannot know that heaven and hell are real; you have faith that heaven and hell are real. You know, however, that the Earth revolves around the sun; you know that water boils at 212 F.

In other words, things of faith have nothing to do with knowledge but science and math do.

Christian philosopher J. P. Moreland Kingdom Triangle puts the problem this way:

“Without knowing it, [conservative Evangelical Christians] accept the claim that religion is a matter of faith and not knowledge. . . . The current definition of faith sees it as a brute decision of the will to believe something without that choice being informed by knowledge or reason” (92).

But the situation is actually even worse. Because many Christians view faith to have no relation to knowledge, the Christian faith they proclaim often becomes like a backpack: it is slung over the shoulder on Sunday but then thrown into the bottom of the closet Monday morning until desired or the next Sunday arrives, whichever happens to come first. As a result, many Christians no longer, or have at least grave difficulty, in approaching life with a thinking Christian mind.

Harry Blamires, writing in the mid-twentieth century, in The Christian Mind: How Should a Christian Think?:

“There is no longer a Christian mind. . . . As a spiritual being, in prayer and meditation, he strives to cultivate a dimension of life unexpolored by the non-Christian. But as a thinking being, the modern Christian has succumbed to secularization. He accepts religion—its morality, its worship, its spiritual culture; but he rejects the religious view of life, the view which sets all earthly issues within the context of the eternal, the view which relates all human problems—social, political, cultural—to the doctrinal foundations of the Christian Faith” (3-4).

Today this is as true as ever. To illustrate the point, ponder just a few questions: How do you as a Christian view and live as a Christian at your job? What does doing engineering as a Christian look like? What does teaching in a public school as a Christian look like? What ought retirement as a Christian look like?

If we have difficulty answering these questions, it’s because our minds have been not been shaped and molded by God and the Christian faith. The difficulty illustrates well that we have compartmentalized our faith and locked it away from the realm of knowledge and the mind.

The development of the mind is one of the most important aspects of Christian discipleship. Everywhere in Scripture, Jesus’ disciples are called to pursue knowledge, not just for the sake of knowing rote facts, but to become like Christ—to think like him and to act like him in all things.

Another way to say this is that ignorance is an obstacle to Christian maturity and spiritual growth. If we do not pursue knowledge and the development of the mind, then thinking and acting like Jesus is made much more difficult and could even lead to death.

One of the best passages of Scripture that exhorts us as disciples to pursue knowledge and the development of the mind is Prov 1:20-33.

1. Wisdom’s Call (1:20-23)

Proverbs 1:20–23 NASB95

Wisdom shouts in the street, She lifts her voice in the square; At the head of the noisy streets she cries out; At the entrance of the gates in the city she utters her sayings: “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge? “Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

Wisdom pictured here as crying out in the busy city streets of Jerusalem, even at the entrance of the city.

Wisdom is calling out in a very strategic place in order to get the attention of everyone.  No one is to be left out of this message that Wisdom has to deliver. Just as the poor as well as the rich enter the city, so Wisdom is talking to both.  Just as both the strong in mental strength and the weak in mental strength enter the city, so Wisdom is calling out to both.

What is her cry? It is two-fold:

Knowledge

First, Wisdom accuses the people of hating knowledge: “How long, O naive ones, will you love being simple-minded? And scoffers delight themselves in scoffing And fools hate knowledge?”

The text calls these people “naïve,” “simple-minded.”  They are people who have no inclination to obtain knowledge. In fact, they are people who love (“delight”) being simple-minded. In other words, they love being ignorant.

They are described as scoffers of knowledge. Those who deem the mind as unimportant or insignificant often scoff at or mock those who do pursue a life of the mind.

What kind of knowledge does personified Wisdom have in mind here?

Knowledge of God: Proverbs 1:7 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; Fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

Other knowledge: Note it says that the fear of God is only the beginning of knowledge. We are not to be satisfied with simply knowing God. We are also to obtain knowledge in general.

Proverbs 1:5 “A wise man will hear and increase in learning, And a man of understanding will acquire wise counsel.”

2 Corinthians 10:5 “We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”

It does not say just “religious” or “moral” thoughts—it says every thought.

Knowledge in general certainly includes why we believe what we believe, knowledge of Christian doctrine, and knowledge of the basic beliefs of our American culture so we may interact with unbelievers to lead them to Christ.

Wisdom is not only calling out for the simple-minded to turn to knowledge, but to turn to her for correction:

Correction

Proverbs 1:20–23 NASB95

“Turn to my reproof, Behold, I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.

“Reproof” is correction or a rebuke. We must be open to the rebuke that we do not seek knowledge.

We must be humble enough to admit that we have not loved the Lord with all our minds.

We also must be open to the fact that what we think we know we may, in fact, not know. We may be wrong in what we take as fact. We need to be open as disciples of Jesus to be corrected.

This can be difficult, can’t it? It takes courage and humility to pursue knowledge and be corrected about our false beliefs. It’s especially difficult in the culture we presently live in. Our culture’s belief system is one that says no one’s beliefs can be judged or criticized or told they are wrong.

But this is not the Christian view of knowledge. We must be open to correction of false beliefs. We see here in v.23 that when we are open to correction, Wisdom “will pour out” her spirit on us and give us wisdom and knowledge.

Do we hear Wisdom’s call to gain knowledge and wisdom? Are we open to correction?

Application

It may be tempting to think we already know about God.

We have been a Christian for 10, 20, 50 years or more. We have been to Bible studies every week of our lives. But remember what Proverbs tells us: the fear of the Lord is only the beginning of knowledge.

Just knowing that God exists and ought to be worshipped is just the beginning: we are to continually increase our knowledge of God. When we don’t, our spiritual growth suffers. The transformation of our mind becomes more difficult or ceases altogether.

We miss out on the richness of Christian truth. More foundationally, how can we have faith in Jesus if we do not know who Jesus is? How can we have a relationship with Jesus if we do not know what he says about himself? It would be like a husband saying he has a relationship with his wife but has no idea what she is like, how she likes to do things, where she likes to go, and what she really cares about.

Perhaps one of the best ways to test ourselves if we are gaining knowledge of God is to ask whether we are daily reading the Bible and noting the descriptions and actions of God.

We have noted in other venues and messages that the majority of Americans view God as a distant, far off God who is concerned only about our happiness, mental health, and getting us out of hardship. If we see God in this way—if our concept of God is that he has no part in our daily lives—then our discipleship is sorely suffering.

But it is not just about knowing about God. We are to seek knowing him in a personal sense as well.

Three different ways to understand “knowledge”:

Knowledge that something is true; knowing about something.

Knowledge of how to do something; having a skill/ability

And then there is knowledge of personally experiencing someone. God does not just want his disciples to know things about him; he want us to have a personal experience of him—a friendship, a relationship.

A.W. Tozer in Pursuit of Christian Maturity: “To become acquainted with God is one thing, but to go on to experience God in His richness and unfailing love is something far more” (70).

Tozer wrote in a time when there was much emphasis upon the text of the Bible and learning it. And so he rightly stressed that one must also experience God and not just have knowledge about him.

But we live in an age now that we care more about subjective experience than we do about the text. We want a spiritual experience and so-called benefits that God doles out, but we do not want the biblical text. We would do anything at times than read God’s Word.

You can have a knowledge of the Bible/God without ever experiencing God—really knowing him; but you cannot really know God and experience him without knowledge of the Bible and who God is.

Illustration

God saw to it that we could get to know him in every way

He had his apostles and prophets and others commit his words to written form—Scripture (the Bible).

Providentially, God had these writings preserved through tens of thousands of copies for thousands of years.

God providentially raised up Johann Gutenberg in the 15 century to engineer the first printing press. Gutenberg effectively rung in an “information revolution.” The printing press led to the mass printing and distribution of the Bible, one of Gutenberg’s most prized published book—now known as the Gutenberg Bible.

The printing press helped lay the foundation of others to translate the Bible and distribute it into English.

John Wycliffe (c.1330-1384)

Wycliffe translated the Latin Vulgate version of the Bible into English for the first time. And he did this not without persecution from the Catholic church. Because of his work translating the Bible and his views that differed from the Catholic church, years after his death and burial, his bones were dug up and burned for being a heretic.

William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536)

Converted in 1522 and began to translate Bible from original languages into English.

Printer betrayed him to the Roman Catholic authorities, but Tyndale fled before captured.

Completed the translation in 1526. 3000 copies printed. Declared heretical by King Henry VIII, and it was banned from England. But his NT was smuggled in bales of cloth.

He completed a new edition in 1534, and a pretended friend betrayed him and turned him over to the Church of England. In Oct 1536 he was strangled and then burned at the stake.

The point: just like Wisdom cries out for us to gain knowledge and wisdom, esp of God, it’s like all of human history is crying out to us, pleading with us to read, study, listen to, and learn God’s Word, and by extension God himself.

America is so blessed. We have one of the most literate populations in the world. We spend millions and billions of dollars on education. We have such easy access to books and reading material: libraries, online, e-books, audio books, but what is a common sentiment we hear: “I don’t like to read.”

This is a tragedy, esp among Christians. God has providentially secured for us his message and the means to read and understand it, study it, but we don’t want to spend time with it.

We refuse to go to Sunday school or Bible study to gain knowledge and develop our minds. Just about anything else will take priority, especially music and program activities: and it doesn’t matter what style of music—the most traditional to the most contemporary. Satan has successfully persuaded us to take our eye off the ball, what is the most important: Jesus and His Word. And this is a detriment to our spiritual growth—a very large obstacle to being Jesus’ disciple.

But what is the constant response of mankind to the call to develop the mind, to be a disciple who thinks and learns? Refusal! Neglect!

2. Man’s Response (1:24-25)

Proverbs 1:24–25 NASB95

“Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; And you neglected all my counsel And did not want my reproof;

Refusal

Wisdom cries out to us but we refuse to accept knowledge. She even stretches out her hand, and we do not pay attention.

Neglect

We not only refuse, but we neglect the knowledge and wisdom provided for us. We neglect the opportunities provided by the church; we neglect the mountains of resources that can help us renew and develop our minds for Christ.

Application

And why do we do this? Why is this our typical response?

No. 1 reason: faith has become based upon experience and feelings rather than anything intelligible and the mind.

Michael Horton in Christless Christianity: “[The] characteristically American approach to religion, in which the direct relationship of the soul to God generates an almost romantic encounter with the sacred, makes inner experience the measure of spiritual genuineness” (p.169).

He continues: “Instead of being concerned that our spiritual leaders faithfully interpret Scripture and are sent by Christ . . . we are more concerned that they exude vulnerability, authenticity, and the familiar spontaneity that tells us that they have a personal relationship with Jesus.”

In short, “The unassailable authority in the American religion is the self’s inner experience” (p.170).

The result? One is that we care more about the sermon being 15 minutes so we can beat the Baptists and Methodists to lunch.

My friends, we cannot have a genuine experience of God while ignoring the transformation of the mind.

Romans 12:2 “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.”

You cannot live according to God’s will if you do not know God’s will. You cannot know God’s will if you do not form your mind through the learning of God’s Word and other important works that can help us formulate the mind.

Illustration

“The great grief of heaven is that we want God’s gifts but we don’t want God.” (Tozer, 161)

If we continue to refuse and neglect the forming of our minds as disciples, eventually it will be too late to do it.

3. Wisdom’s Response (1:26-31)

Proverbs 1:26–31 NASB95

I will also laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your dread comes, When your dread comes like a storm And your calamity comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you. “Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord. “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof. “So they shall eat of the fruit of their own way And be satiated with their own devices.

Mockery

When hard times comes—life’s pressures, stress, anxieties, frustrations, crises, difficult decisions—you are going to need knowledge and wisdom. And what will you do because you have disregarded them all along? You will have a mind that is void, a bucket with no water, riding through the desert on a horse with no name.

And Wisdom, personified here in this text, is just going to mock you and laugh at you. Why? Because you were a fool for refusing and neglecting the forming of your mind.

Fools deserve to be mocked.

Proverbs 19:29 “Judgments are prepared for scoffers, And blows for the back of fools.”

Proverbs 26:3 “A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, And a rod for the back of fools.”

Proverbs 26:5 “Answer a fool as his folly deserves, That he not be wise in his own eyes.”

Not only this, but wisdom and knowledge, when you finally look for it, will not be found

Silence

Proverbs 1:26–31 NASB95

“Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently but they will not find me, Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord. “They would not accept my counsel, They spurned all my reproof.

There comes a time that God will finally let you go because of your obstinate neglect and refusal to accept knowledge and wisdom.

You may cry out for wisdom and desiring to have knowledge, but there will be none. Primarily because, you were not really a disciple (learner, student) of Jesus.

A disciple is a student.

Conclusion: You Have Two Choices (1:32-33)

You can either seek knowledge and wisdom and be transformed by the renewing of your mind as Jesus’ disciple, or you can face death.

Death

Proverbs 1:32 “For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, And the complacency of fools will destroy them.”

Why is this the case? Because you are left wide open to destructive ideas and belief systems, which will guide you like a boat without a rudder, propelled by the currents of a storm-driven sea into a rocky shoreline.

As the title of a book says, “Ideas have their consequences.”

So, first option: be a disciple who is complacent when it comes to developing the mind. You can continue as you always have: coming to church, going through the motions, trying to be “good,” focus upon the things you enjoy at church, etc.

OR you can choose life:

Life

Proverbs 1:33 “But he who listens to me shall live securely and will be at ease from the dread of evil.”

As a disciple, knowledge and transformation of the mind leads to life.

You begin to discern evil better

You come to know God and his will better

You can navigate life better

You become more like Christ

Conclusion:

There is nothing more important than knowledge, wisdom, teaching, and learning in the Scriptures. Not outreach activities, not fellowship meals, not church buildings, not music, nothing.

God and the Scriptures consistently teach that knowledge, wisdom, teaching, and learning are the most important for the people of God.

Deuteronomy 6:1–6 “Now this is the commandment, the statutes and the judgments which the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, that you might do them in the land where you are going over to possess it, so that you and your son and your grandson might fear the Lord your God, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. O Israel, you should listen and be careful to do it, that it may be well with you and that you may multiply greatly, just as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.”