“Ignorance Ain’t So Bliss” 

Dear Faith Family, 

As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, (1 Peter 1:14). 

With your finger, scroll up from the bottom of the screen on an apple watch.  Up pops any number of icons.  Like how much battery life is left, flashlight, airplane mode.  And there in the midst is a phone icon with radiating parenthesis.  Touch that icon and your connected iPhone will beep notifying you of its location.  It’s my favorite. 

So, hypothetically, for the sake of illustration, let’s just say (hypothetically) that I couldn’t find my phone.  “No problem”, you say.  Just click on the icon and your phone will beep.  And so, I did.  And so, it did.  Now, sometimes it’s actually hard to identify the direction of the beeps. 

Again, not a problem.  It’s a matter of elimination.  Stand in the doorway and listen.  Is it coming from inside the room or outside.  But was it upstairs or down?  The more I clicked on the icon the more confused I became.  Don’t judge!  The sound was coming from every room.  Well, all the rooms that I checked. 

Who knew that cargo shorts have side pockets and that a phone was capable of hiding in one of those pockets?!  Funny how it seemed to beep wherever I was!  I know what you’re thinking: that’s ignorant.  Keep in mind that I told you this hypothetically. 

The point?  Ignorance.  Problem is that we don’t even know what we don’t know.  Peter was certainly unabashedly willing to display his ignorance.  Even as late as the scene on the Mount of Olives when he tried to decapitate the servant of the high priest, (Luke 22). 

Isn’t it interesting that this man penned the words of 1 Peter 1:17. It is there that he instructs us not to take the form of the passions of our former ignorance.  In other words, truth ought to govern our behavior.  Ignorance, on the other hand, will cause us to wander aimlessly through this life from room to room clicking on an icon and trying to find our phone (so to speak). 

If we choose to believe lies, like the lies that people are basically good, or that all roads lead to heaven, we will choose not to concern ourselves with sharing the good news about Jesus.  We certainly won’t waste time praying for our neighbor who doesn’t know Jesus.  On the other hand, when we know the truth of God’s Word, we will intentionally look for opportunities to make disciples even as we pray for our neighbor to come to know Jesus.  Truth informs obedience.  Ignorance misleads us. 

Educating ignorance with Truth, 
Pastor Karl