Lessons #305 and 306
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+ 1. It is best to use this note after you have listened to the lessons because there are +
+ comments given in the actual delivery not in the note. +
+ 2. The Bible abbreviations are as follows: CEV =Contemporary English version, +
+ CEB = Common English Bible, ESV= English Standard Version, +
+ GW = God’s Word Translation, ISV = International Standard Version, +
+ NAB=New English Bible, NASB= New American Standard Bible, +
+ NEB= New English Bible, NET = New English Translation, +
+ NLT = New Living Translations NJB = New Jerusalem Bible, +
+ NJV = New Jewish Bible, TEV = Today’s English Version. +
+AMP = Amplified Bible, UBS = United Bible Society +
+ 3. Notes have not been edited for grammatical errors. +
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Israel’s Shared Blessings (1 Cor 10:1-4)
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ.
This section that we are about to study is one of the two sub sections that capture the overall theme of learning from Israel’s experiences that is the concern of 1 Corinthians 10:1-13. The second is concerned with the experience of God’s judgment on many Israelites given in verses 5 through 13. The overall theme is concerned not with the entire history of Israel before the Lord sent them into exile but with the specific experiences of the Israelites of the Exodus generation under the leadership of Moses. The experiences of the Israelites given in our passage can be understood as consisting of blessings and judgment. We should learn from both types of experiences, as believers, to guide us in our spiritual race. Of course, our concern at this point in our study is with Israel’s shared blessings described in our passage of study, that is, 1 Corinthians 10:1-4.
The section before us conveys a general message about Israel of the exodus generation which is that Israel under the leadership of Moses enjoyed earthly blessings through Christ. Of course, you may say to yourself that you are not Israel so what does the message have to do with you? You are right that in a sense you are not Israel although there is a sense that if you are a believer you are an Israelite through faith in Christ. Nonetheless, it is a legitimate concern that you do not see how the message of this section would apply to you. Therefore, let us tailor the general message of the section to the message I believe the Holy Spirit wants you to hear and live by. The message for you that is derived from the general message of the section we are considering is this: You should under the right spiritual leadership enjoy God’s blessing through Jesus Christ. The implication of this message is that if you are under the right spiritual leadership, but you are not enjoying God’s blessings then you should examine your spiritual life for there is something deficient in it. The message we have stated will become clearer as we expound the passage before us. For example, you will understand what we mean by right spiritual leadership and blessings that you should enjoy through Jesus Christ.
Be that as it may, we stated that we should learn from Israel’s experiences as believers to guide us in our spiritual race. On a surface reading of our passage, it may not appear to be concerned with spiritual race or spiritual progress believers should be making. However, the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul conveyed to us that the section we are about to consider is certainly concerned with spiritual race or spiritual progress. How is that? You may ask. The answer lies in the first word for that begins verse 1. The word is translated from a Greek conjunction (gar) that here is used either to provide the basis or ground of an action or to provide an explanation of something that has previously been mentioned. The preceding section of 1 Corinthians 9:24-27 as we studied, is concerned with encouragement to be careful to ensure the believer is eternally rewarded because the individual progressed spiritually in accordance with the word of God. To ensure that a believer is rewarded, the believer must exercise self-control, be focused, and be disciplined over the entire person including the various desires that may derail the believer’s spiritual progress. Apostle Paul ended that section with the sentence of 1 Corinthians 9:27:
No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.
The apostle was not content with the statement he made, so he wanted to explain it or provide the reason he could encourage believers to strive to be rewarded spiritually. In other words, the apostle used the word “for” to provide reason for his self-discipline and his fear of being disqualified. His explanation or reason considers the example of Israel of exodus generation who began well, so to say, but for many of them it ended badly as far as experience on this planet earth is concerned. This was because they did not discipline themselves. This being the case, the apostle’s apprehension is justified. So, the use of the word “for” is to connect the section we are about to consider to what the apostle taught in the previous section that is concerned with striving to be rewarded in the eternal state. Therefore, we are correct to state that our present section is still concerned with the spiritual race or progress. Anyway, the message we are expounding is that You should under the right spiritual leadership enjoy God’s blessing through Jesus Christ. We will expound on this message by focusing on three blessings a believer should enjoy in this life through Jesus Christ. The three blessings we are going to consider sum up the totality of God’s goodness to us on this planet. In other words, the blessings we are to consider are comprehensive that if we receive them then we need nothing more in this life. They are the ultimate blessings that a believer can enjoy on this planet. If a believer enjoys these blessings through Christ on this planet that certainly would indicate that such a believer will be eternally rewarded. Before we get to these three blessings the Holy Spirit gave through Apostle Paul, we should consider what the apostle addressed as essential in understanding the blessings we should enjoy on this planet.
The greatest threat that any believer or any human, for that matter, faces regarding enjoyment of blessings of God on this planet and beyond is ignorance. There is nothing as deadly as ignorance on this planet both on physical and spiritual levels. Take for example, no one can be at peace that hates another which is often the result of ignorance. I am saying that hatred is often a result of ignorance regarding the object of one’s hate. I am convinced based on the authority of the Scripture that one of the reasons there is so many diseases or sicknesses in this country is hatred. Hatred like envy certainly leads to many bodily sicknesses as implied in Proverbs 14:30:
A heart at peace gives life to the body, but envy rots the bones.
Envy is a sin of passion as hatred is. Here we are told envy rots the bones indicating that the effect of envy on the body is to weaken it and bring diseases on it such as cancer. We are a nation with the best of everything this life offers but we suffer more incurable diseases than most part of the world. This I believe is partly because of the intensity of hate on the part of many in this country. Hate crushes the human spirit and so wherever there is hatred there cannot be joy. Joy is helpful to our health as humans, as implied in Proverbs 17:22:
A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
A cheerful heart refers to a soul free of hate or bitterness at an instant. If you have joyful soul, you will enjoy healing of the body or it helps in healing of the body. But the crushed spirit causes a person to become sicker. Thus, we contend that when you live in hatred you make yourself sick. You cannot truly enjoy whatever material blessings you have if you walk around with hatred in your soul. Each time you see anyone you hate, you get sicker even if you do not realize it. In fact, you become like Haman at the sight of Mordecai or the Jews he hated that despite his material prosperity could not be happy, as we read in Esther 5:13:
But all this gives me no satisfaction as long as I see that Jew Mordecai sitting at the king’s gate.”
The point I am making is that because there is so much hatred in this country, many are sick but that this hatred is usually because of ignorance concerning the object of hatred. There may be someone you hate but if you come to know the person you will change your attitude towards that individual. Hence, ignorance causes hatred and resultant pain due to the sin of hatred. So, ignorance can be a threat to one’s physical wellbeing on this planet. Because ignorance can be a threat to both physical and spiritual wellbeing of a person, let us consider the doctrine of ignorance.
Introduction
You may wonder why we should spend time on such a word as ignorance since every English-speaking person knows what it is. The reason is that one of the greatest problems that face any person in this life is ignorance. Many wars have been started because of misunderstanding and so ignorance. Many marriages have been broken because of misunderstanding between the couples, where for example, one spouse is ignorant of what the other means about what the individual communicates but fails to find out. Many friendships have been ruined due to ignorance of matters between friends that are not discussed. Not to speak of so many murders that have been committed by people because of ignorance. So, ignorance is an important subject matter to study.
What is ignorance anyway? It refers to a state of lack of knowledge. Thus, ignorance as lack of knowledge is implied in the description of Israel’s watchmen in Isaiah 56:10:
Israel’s watchmen are blind, they all lack knowledge; they are all mute dogs, they cannot bark; they lie around and dream, they love to sleep.
The verbal phrase lack knowledge is a reference to ignorance since that refers to a state of lack of information or knowledge about something. Ignorance may be understood as a reference to failure to understand or perceive something as it is implied in the use of failure to understand Jesus’ declaration of His death, to describe His disciples in Luke 9:45:
But they did not understand what this meant. It was hidden from them, so that they did not grasp it, and they were afraid to ask him about it.
An ignorant person is easily deceived, as implied in the Hebrew word translated “ignorance” in Ezekiel 45:20:
You are to do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who sins unintentionally or through ignorance; so you are to make atonement for the temple.
The word “ignorance” in Ezekiel is translated from a Hebrew word (pěṯî) that may mean “naďve” or “simple”, referring to persons that are easily deceived or persuaded, showing lack of wisdom and understanding, yet having some capacity to change this condition. Hence, we should recognize that when we speak of ignorance we are concerned with a state where a person lacks knowledge or information about a specific object or lacks awareness about something. Ignorance then touches both physical and spiritual matters. But our concern in this study is with ignorance as it pertains to God and His word. Consequently, in considering the doctrine of ignorance, we will focus on the reasons for ignorance, general facts about it, its consequences, and our responsibility to words the doctrine of ignorance.
Reasons for ignorance
We indicated that we are concerned with ignorance as it relates to God and His word. Bearing this in mind, we can state that the first reason for ignorance is the fall of humankind to sin. In other words, we can trace ignorance to the fall of mankind. When Adam and Eve sinned, they immediately entered a state in which they hid from God, as stated in Genesis 3:8:
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the LORD God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the LORD God among the trees of the garden.
The hiding of Adam and Eve from God revealed a basic ignorance of God. The Lord had interacted with them prior to the fall. We do not know the form by which He appeared to them, but they certainly knew of His presence when He comes to them. They would have realized that God sees them wherever they were in the Garden of Eden but once they sinned, they lost that basic understanding of the omnipresence of God and so of the nature of God, so to say. Hence, the fall is responsible for human being’s ignorance of God. In effect, sin darkened human’s understanding so we do not have an adequate knowledge of God or seek to know Him as implied by the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul in Romans 3:9–11:
9 What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! We have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under sin. 10 As it is written: “There is no one righteous, not even one; 11there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God.
The apostle indicates that no one understands God’s truth or what is right. This is because of sin that controls humans. If we do not understand because of the effect of sin, then it is proper to assert that the fall into sin became the beginning point of ignorance of God and His person among humans. Since the fall, sin has continued to darken human understanding as it relates to God. This is implied in a passage we will cite also later in this study; I am referring to Ephesians 4:18:
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
Anyway, the first reason for ignorance is the fall of humanity into sin.
A second reason for ignorance is failure to learn about God through His word. A person who fails to learn is in a very pitiful state. There is always hope for those who learn in any area but more importantly in the spiritual area of life. That it is failure to learn that leads to ignorance is proven right with the spiritual condition of Israel in the time of most of their kings after David. Israel repeatedly fell into idolatry and its related practices because they were no longer knowledgeable about what is the Law or they were ignorant of the content of the Law. The ignorance of the people of Israel in the time of their kings was evident in the surprise and response of King Josiah after the book of the Law was discovered and read to him, according to 2 Kings 22:8–13:
8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of the LORD.” He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. 9 Then Shaphan the secretary went to the king and reported to him: “Your officials have paid out the money that was in the temple of the LORD and have entrusted it to the workers and supervisors at the temple.” 10 Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a book.” And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. 11 When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes. 12 He gave these orders to Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam son of Shaphan, Acbor son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary and Asaiah the king’s attendant: 13 “Go and inquire of the LORD for me and for the people and for all Judah about what is written in this book that has been found. Great is the LORD’s anger that burns against us because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book; they have not acted in accordance with all that is written there concerning us.”
The knowledge of what is in the book of the Law led to the spiritual awakening of the time of Josiah. Thus, we can state that when there is no learning then people fall into ignorance. This truth is also confirmed in the charge of the Lord to Israel through Prophet Hosea in Hosea 4:6:
my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. “Because you have rejected knowledge, I also reject you as my priests; because you have ignored the law of your God, I also will ignore your children.
Israel’s lack of knowledge is the same as being ignorant of God’s word that would enable them to develop the right relationship with their God instead of being involved in idolatry. Furthermore, they rejected whatever is taught to them hence the destruction the Lord brought on Israel. The point is that a second reason for ignorance is failure on the part of people to learn the word of God. We are today facing great ignorance of the word of God because believers are failing to learn the word of God. Of course, I am convinced that we are witnessing a fulfillment of what the Lord communicated through Prophet Amos in Amos 8:11:
“The days are coming,” declares the Sovereign LORD, “when I will send a famine through the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD.
The famine of hearing the words of God includes lack of teaching of the word of God and obedience to it that we are facing today. Many believers do not want to be taught the word of God in detail and accurately; consequently, we have few teachers of God’s word. This is in keeping with what the Holy Spirit conveyed through Apostle Paul about people in the later days, as we read in 2 Timothy 4:3–4:
3 For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.
Many believers do not want to be taught the truth of God’s word. It is because of this situation that there is a general ignorance of the word of God among many Christians. Some are content to live in their prejudices and superstitions than to be taught the word of God. The truth is that when people refuse to learn the word of God then ignorance of God’s word reigns supreme.
A third reason for ignorance is related to the first which is because of the specific sin of bitterness or hatred. If you have bitterness and hatred in your soul, then it will be difficult to remove ignorance in a person’s life. That ignorance goes with bitterness of the soul is what the Psalmists alludes to in Psalm 73:21-22:
21 When my heart was grieved and my spirit embittered, 22 I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
The psalmist because of his bitterness or even hatred of the wicked because of their apparent prosperity was in a state he did not know God’s character as he questioned in his mind why the wicked would prosper and the righteous suffer. Without bitterness, he might have thought otherwise but bitterness enhanced his ignorance of God’s character. Many people because of the bitterness in their soul are not willing to expose themselves to truth. Anyway, hatred or bitterness of soul would keep a person ignorant of God’s word, especially if a person hates the teacher of God’s word. Thus, a third reason for ignorance of God’s word is the specific sin of bitterness or hatred directed towards a teacher of God’s word.
A fourth reason for ignorance is lack of humility or pride or fear that causes a person that hears something the individual does not understand to fail to ask question for clarification. This reason was particularly true of the disciples of our Lord Jesus that on several occasions they heard Him declare about His death on the cross and subsequent resurrection. They did not understand Him but because of fear refused to ask questions, so they remained in their ignorance. A good example of this fact is recorded for us in Mark 9:31-32:
31 because he was teaching his disciples. He said to them, "The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of men. They will kill him, and after three days he will rise." 32 But they did not understand what he meant and were afraid to ask him about it.
You see, the disciples did not understand our Lord’s prediction about His death and resurrection, but because of fear they remained ignorant. This is the problem with many of us. We become so arrogant that we are afraid to let people know that we are ignorant. The way I see it, there is nothing shameful about admitting that one does not know something. It is worse to pretend to know when in fact a person is ignorant. Anyone willing to remove ignorance must be ready to humble self. We are very ignorant in many ways but that does not mean that we should like it, only that it shows that we are human beings with limited knowledge. We should remember this when we deal with others. You may have knowledge in a particular area and very ignorant in others. This should help us to be patient to answer questions people ask who are ignorant of the subject in which we possess knowledge. When I used to teach in the university, there were three important rules I enforced in my classes that I tell the students the very first day of class of a semester. These rules were: no lateness; no talking in class; and no laughing at another student because of a question he/she asks. I was particularly concerned about this last rule because many students out of fear of being ridiculed would not ask questions. My point is that if you do not know and do not ask question then this is the worst condition a person can be. The best thing you should do if you hear information that is not clear to you is to ask question to clear any ignorance you may have. Daniel when he received information from an angel that he did not understand, he asked question for clarification as we read in Daniel 12:8–10:
8 I heard, but I did not understand. So I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?” 9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are closed up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.
The Ethiopian eunuch did not understand what he read from the book of Isaiah and was not afraid to admit he did not understand, so he sought help from Philip the evangelist, as recorded for us in Acts 8:30–31:
30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked. 31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
Anyway, we contend that lack of humility or pride or fear could lead to ignorance even after a person hears an information. This brings us to consider general facts we should know about the subject of ignorance.
General facts about ignorance
There are five facts that we should remember when we deal with the subject of ignorance. A first fact is that ignorance on the part of an individual does not excuse sin before God. In other words, that you do not know that an action is a sin does not mean that God excuses you from being guilty of sin. We know this because God did not excuse an individual, a nation, or a national leader from guilt because of sin committed in ignorance. This we learn from what the Lord instructed Israel regarding sin committed in ignorance. The instruction for dealing with the sin of ignorance of an individual in Israel is given in Leviticus 5:17–19:
17 “If a person sins and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though he does not know it, he is guilty and will be held responsible. 18 He is to bring to the priest as a guilt offering a ram from the flock, one without defect and of the proper value. In this way the priest will make atonement for him for the wrong he has committed unintentionally, and he will be forgiven. 19 It is a guilt offering; he has been guilty of wrongdoing against the LORD.”
The idea of ignorance in committing a sin by an individual is given in the clause of verse 17 even though he does not know it. That ignorance is no excuse for sin is indicated by the state of the one who sins in ignorance as in the sentence he is guilty and will be held responsible. When a nation sins in ignorance the culpability of the nation is stated in Leviticus 4:13–21:
13 “‘If the whole Israelite community sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the LORD’s commands, even though the community is unaware of the matter, they are guilty. 14 When they become aware of the sin they committed, the assembly must bring a young bull as a sin offering and present it before the Tent of Meeting. 15 The elders of the community are to lay their hands on the bull’s head before the LORD, and the bull shall be slaughtered before the LORD. 16 Then the anointed priest is to take some of the bull’s blood into the Tent of Meeting. 17 He shall dip his finger into the blood and sprinkle it before the LORD seven times in front of the curtain. 18 He is to put some of the blood on the horns of the altar that is before the LORD in the Tent of Meeting. The rest of the blood he shall pour out at the base of the altar of burnt offering at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. 19 He shall remove all the fat from it and burn it on the altar, 20 and do with this bull just as he did with the bull for the sin offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for them, and they will be forgiven. 21 Then he shall take the bull outside the camp and burn it as he burned the first bull. This is the sin offering for the community.
The fact that a community that sins in ignorance is still guilty before God is given in the clause of verse 13 even though the community is unaware of the matter, they are guilty. This truth may explain the reason Israel as a community was punished by God because of the sin of Achan although the community was ignorant of his sin. The same fact that ignorance does not excuse from being guilty of sin is stated in connection with a leader as we read in Leviticus 4:22–26:
22 “‘When a leader sins unintentionally and does what is forbidden in any of the commands of the LORD his God, he is guilty. 23 When he is made aware of the sin he committed, he must bring as his offering a male goat without defect. 24 He is to lay his hand on the goat’s head and slaughter it at the place where the burnt offering is slaughtered before the LORD. It is a sin offering. 25 Then the priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering with his finger and put it on the horns of the altar of burnt offering and pour out the rest of the blood at the base of the altar. 26 He shall burn all the fat on the altar as he burned the fat of the fellowship offering. In this way the priest will make atonement for the man’s sin, and he will be forgiven.
Thus, ignorance on the part of an individual does not excuse sin before God. We often hear the slogan that ignorance is not an excuse before the law. That slogan is indeed rooted in God’s word.
A second fact about ignorance is that sin committed in ignorance incurs a lesser judgment than a sin that is not out of ignorance. This fact is a recognition of God’s character. God is righteous and just so He could not ignore sin, hence He will punish sin when it is committed. However, God is also merciful and so in His mercy, He would not punish a person fully when the person sins in ignorance. This truth that God punishes less severely, sin committed in ignorance, is derived from the declaration of the Lord Jesus, as recorded in Luke 12:47–48:
47 “That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. 48 But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked.
The concept of lesser punishment for sin committed in ignorance is stated in the clause of verse 48 the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. This fact of lesser punishment was illustrated in how the Lord dealt with Abimelech when he acquired Sarah, Abraham’s wife, into his harem. The Lord inflicted him punishment although he was eventually healed, as we read first in Genesis 20:3–6:
3 But God came to Abimelech in a dream one night and said to him, “You are as good as dead because of the woman you have taken; she is a married woman.” 4 Now Abimelech had not gone near her, so he said, “Lord, will you destroy an innocent nation? 5 Did he not say to me, ‘She is my sister,’ and didn’t she also say, ‘He is my brother’? I have done this with a clear conscience and clean hands.” 6 Then God said to him in the dream, “Yes, I know you did this with a clear conscience, and so I have kept you from sinning against me. That is why I did not let you touch her.
When Abimelech returned Sarah as God instructed him, Abraham prayed for him and he was healed as stated in Genesis 20:17–18:
17 Then Abraham prayed to God, and God healed Abimelech, his wife and his slave girls so they could have children again, 18 for the LORD had closed up every womb in Abimelech’s household because of Abraham’s wife Sarah.
God was measured in His dealing with Abimelech but not so with David who committed adultery and murder. The Lord brought upon him severe judgments. The son that was a result of his adulterous affair died. His son, Amnon, raped Tamar, his half-sister, resulting in Absalom killing him. Absalom rebelled against his father including having sex in broad daylight with David’s concubines, as a humiliation to his father. Finally, Absalom died in the battlefield. These series of judgements David experienced were because his sins of adultery and murder were not in ignorance. Of course, the punishment did not affect his salvation. Anyway, the second fact we have stated is that sin committed in ignorance incurs a lesser punishment than a sin that is not out of ignorance.
A third fact about ignorance is that sin committed in ignorance if repented, brings forgiveness. It is this truth that is the basis for Peter’s invitation to the Jews he spoke to after the healing of a crippled man. Thus, he said to them what is recorded in Acts 3:17–20:
17 “Now, brothers, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders. 18 But this is how God fulfilled what he had foretold through all the prophets, saying that his Christ would suffer. 19 Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, 20 and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus.
The command Repent implies that if there is repentance by those who heard Peter’s message that they would receive forgiveness although they acted in ignorance in crucifying Jesus Christ.
A fourth fact about ignorance is that ideally, there are some kinds of ignorance that should not exist in the church. Let me mention some of these. The church should not be ignorant of the secret truth about Israel in God’s plan. This revealed truth is that all Israel will be saved after the number of Gentiles that would be saved has been reached as implied in Romans 11:25–27:
25 I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, so that you may not be conceited: Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of the Gentiles has come in. 26 And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: “The deliverer will come from Zion; he will turn godlessness away from Jacob. 27And this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.”
Believers in the church should not be ignorant of spiritual gifts the Holy Spirit has given to the church. It is for this reason the Holy Spirit through Apostle Paul provided information about spiritual gifts as introduced in 1 Corinthians 12:1–6:
1Now about spiritual gifts, brothers, I do not want you to be ignorant. 2 You know that when you were pagans, somehow or other you were influenced and led astray to mute idols. 3 Therefore I tell you that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus be cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. 4 There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. 6 There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.
Believers should not be ignorant of the nature of the death of their fellow believers. Their death is not like that of unbelievers because they would receive a resurrection body and will accompany the Lord Jesus Christ in His return as stated 1 Thessalonians 4:13–18:
13 Brothers, we do not want you to be ignorant about those who fall asleep, or to grieve like the rest of men, who have no hope. 14 We believe that Jesus died and rose again and so we believe that God will bring with Jesus those who have fallen asleep in him. 15 According to the Lord’s own word, we tell you that we who are still alive, who are left till the coming of the Lord, will certainly not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.
To ensure believers are not ignorant of God’s truth, He provided the church of Christ teachers of God’s word whose primary function should involve combating ignorance in the church as implied in Ephesians 4:11–13:
11 It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up 13 until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
Anyway, the fourth fact about ignorance is that ideally, there are some kinds of ignorance that should not exist in the church.
A fifth fact about ignorance is that because of human finiteness, not every ignorance can be overcome or dispelled. There are some things that we may not know or may not understand fully. For example, we will never fully know God in this planet. It is this truth that is conveyed to us in Ecclesiastes 11:5:
As you do not know the path of the wind, or how the body is formed in a mother’s womb,
so you cannot understand the work of God, the Maker of all things.
Apostle Paul conveyed the same truth when he declared how unsearchable are God’s judgments in Romans 11:33:
Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Similar truth is implied in 1 Corinthians 13:9–12:
9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. 12 Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
It is not only that we will not fully know God in this life, but we cannot know the future as it is declared in Ecclesiastes 8:7–8:
7 Since no man knows the future, who can tell him what is to come? 8 No man has power over the wind to contain it; so no one has power over the day of his death. As no one is discharged in time of war, so wickedness will not release those who practice it.
It is because we are ignorant of what will transpire in the future that we must be careful when we make plans, to recognize that the next day is not guaranteed to us. Thus, the Holy Spirit through James warned us about boasting regarding the future in James 4:13–16:
13 Now listen, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.” 14 Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. 15 Instead, you ought to say, “If it is the Lord’s will, we will live and do this or that.” 16 As it is, you boast and brag. All such boasting is evil.
By the way, it is because of our limitation of knowledge that we should continue to live as if there is no tomorrow since we do not know when we will leave this planet by death or through the return of the Lord Jesus. Anyway, we should recognize that not every kind of ignorance can be eliminated because of our finiteness as human. This brings us to consider consequences of ignorance.
Consequences of ignorance
Ignorance has serious consequences, but we mention three consequences or dangers of it in the spiritual realm. First, ignorance can lead a person to become a religious fanatic. This is implied in the statement of Proverbs 19:2:
It is not good to have zeal without knowledge, nor to be hasty and miss the way.
Ignorance and zeal can be a deadly combination. An ignorant religious person is an extremely dangerous person. For you see, such a person is convinced that he is right, and others are wrong. There is no flexibility to allow such a person to recognize that it is possible that his views could be wrong even when he thinks that the Bible or other religious book that religious people rely on as source of their authority supports him. Because an ignorant person has zeal that person is convinced that he/she is right, so the individual is willing to harm others by justifying his/her action. This was the case with Apostle Paul prior to his salvation as he recounts later after his conversion in 1 Timothy 1:13:
Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
The apostle was convinced he was fighting to maintain the traditions of his fathers’ instead of the truth. Consequently, he had no qualms persecuting believers in Christ. Political violence is usually a good example of what ignorance and zeal with arrogance can do.
Second, ignorance can lead to blasphemy. When we think of blasphemy, we should think not only reviling God but violation of His character. So, a believer who acts in ignorance to indicate, for example, that God is not all powerful has in fact blasphemed. Let me illustrate. When we worry, we are in effect blaspheming because we are saying to God that we have encountered a problem that He is not capable of handling. This thinking is a result of ignorance of the true omnipotent God. For the unbeliever, however, his blasphemy is mostly that of speaking ill of God and things that he does not understand. This is the reason Peter describes evil men who do not understand God as being blasphemous in 2 Peter 2:12:
But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
Third, and the deadliest consequence of ignorance is eternal destruction as stated, for example, in 2 Thessalonians 1:8–9:
8 He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. 9 They will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power.
Eternal destruction comes because a person does not know that salvation is only through faith in Jesus Christ as stated in Acts 4:12:
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”
A person who does not know that salvation is obtained through Jesus Christ seeks to establish right relationship or the personal righteousness through works because the person does not know that righteousness is obtained through faith in Jesus Christ. Thus, Apostle Paul could speak of those who are trying to establish right standing with God by their own works as ignorant of how to obtain God’s righteousness by faith in Christ as he referenced in Romans 10:3:
Since they did not know the righteousness that comes from God and sought to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness.
It is because ignorance of what Christ has done for us on the cross and a person’s effort to establish relationship with God on the individual’s works that is included in the darkening of a person’s understanding Apostle Paul used to describe those who are alienated from God in the passage we cited previously, that is, Ephesians 4:18:
They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.
There is no doubt that ignorance has the disastrous consequence of eternal separation from God for the unbeliever, but it still has an unpleasant consequence for a believer. Ignorance of truth on the part of a believer leads to living a lifestyle that is incompatible with truth. As a believer lives that kind of lifestyle, the person remains without the filling of the Holy Spirit. This is the situation with many Christians; ignorance keeps them down from recognizing that they are not controlled by the Holy Spirit because of their lifestyles. This was the concern of Apostle Peter in his epistle that he cautioned believers not to live a lifestyle of ignorance in 1 Peter 1:14:
As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance.
If you do not live according to the truth because of ignorance, you will lose eternal rewards. It is not only that ignorance leads to wrong lifestyle for a believer, but it also causes such a person to live in slavery to Satan as it pertains fear of death as the human author of Hebrews stated in Hebrew 2:14-15:
14 Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death-- that is, the devil—15 and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.
Anyway, we should recognize that ignorance has disastrous consequences on both unbelievers and believers. This brings us to our responsibility regarding the doctrine of ignorance.
Our responsibility
Our consideration of the doctrine of ignorance leaves us with two responsibilities towards ourselves and towards unbelievers. Our responsibility to ourselves is to do everything in our power to dispel ignorance within human limitation. There is only one way to do this, it is to study the word of God. For it is learning the word of God that dispels ignorance for that is implied when our Lord chided the Jews that they are in error because they do not know the Scripture as stated in Matthew 22:29:
Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
It is by studying the word of God that we will grow in the knowledge of God as we are instructed in 2 Peter 3:18:
But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
This being the case, we should strive to ensure that we keep learning the word of God to dispel ignorance that besets believers without sound knowledge of the Scripture. Our second responsibility is related to the first in that we should be agents of helping to dispel ignorance from unbelievers regarding the way of salvation. It is as we give the gospel that they would come to faith as it is through learning truth that anyone will come to faith in Christ as the Holy Spirit conveyed through Apostle Paul in Romans 10:14–17:
14 How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!” 16 But not all the Israelites accepted the good news. For Isaiah says, “Lord, who has believed our message?” 17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.
In any event, we have considered the doctrine of ignorance because it has relevance to the passage of 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 that we are studying. So, we will continue with our study next time.
04/02//21 [End of Lessons # 305 and 306]