This narrow way

Our world is awash in information. In the palm of most of our hands there is a device with access to more information than has ever been available to mankind in the combined history of the world. One estimate puts the amount of information we possess at 300 exabytes. That’s 300 followed by 15 zeroes. And that number is from 2015 so you can just imagine what it would be in 2023. We have information coming out of our ears, or our palms if you will.   

This explosion of information has unfortunately not been accompanied by a coinciding boom in knowledge and/or wisdom. The reason is simple. 

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and discipline.” Proverbs 1:7.

Hosea lays out the progression in verses 1, 6, and 14 of Chapter 4:

“There is no faithfulness, no love, no acknowledgement of God in the land…my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge…a people without understanding will come to ruin.”

Amos describes a coming famine:

“The days are coming, declares the Sovereign Lord, when I will send a famine throughout the land—not a famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the Lord.” Amos 8:11.

America is smack dab in the middle of such a famine. It’s not that we don’t have access to the words of the Lord—85% of US households own a Bible—it’s the hearing part where we fall short. The reason is pretty simple, we’re too smart and too sophisticated, or we think we are anyway.

“For the message of the cross is foolishness (unreasonable) to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise; the intelligence of the intelligent I will frustrate.” 1 Corinthians 1:18, 19.

A savior who was born of a virgin in a stable in a little town, Bethlehem, who was a carpenter, not a scholar or a philosopher, who claimed to be God, was rejected by his own people, killed by the Romans, and rose from the dead? The wisdom of the world calls that unreasonable, unscientific, foolish. But Paul said:

“Where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believed.” 1 Corinthians 1: 18-21.

So, to the world the message is unreasonable. It’s also brought by unremarkable people, further confounding the wisdom of the world.

“Brothers, think of what you were when you were called. Not many of you were wise by human standards (no Ivy League professors or scientists); not many were influential (no political leaders, or members of the World Economic Forum); not many were of noble birth (nobody named Gates, Bezos, or Zuckerberg). But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast before him.” 1 Corinthians 1:26-29.

An unreasonable message presented by unremarkable people in an unattractive way.

“Jews demanded miraculous signs and Greeks looked for wisdom.” 1 Corinthians 1:22.

Give us a show, something to get social media likes and attention. Sounds familiar:

“The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread…The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down from here. For it is written; He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.” Luke 4:3, 9-11.

Now there’s a show. That’s a viral video if there ever was one. Jesus wasn’t having any of it. “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.”

Paul relied on the power of the Holy Spirit for the only knowledge necessary:

“When I came to you, brothers, I did not come with eloquence or superior wisdom as I proclaimed to you the testimony about God. For I resolved to know nothing while I was with you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. I came to you in weakness and fear and with much trembling. My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power.” 1 Corinthians 2:1-5.

Amen.