Ignorance is Bliss….Or Is It?

Here is a saying that is believed by many to be true. If you don't know, how can you care? For example, if you are not aware people are saying negative things about you , then it doesn't affect you….thus, ignorance is bliss, or another popular proverb….what you don't know can't hurt you. Is it really true? Really?

No. Ignorance is a very bad thing. Think of all the ways ignorance causes problems. It is used as a tool to avoid responsibility…i.e. "I didn't know that was a rule". It is used to avoid taking on challenges… "I don't know enough to make a decision". It is also used as an excuse to avoid caring for someone else….. "I didn't know he was in the hospital." Not knowing isn't sin, but it provides the opportunity for sin. It is easy for one to "deliberately forget" as Peter might say. 2 Peter 3:5

Jeremiah put it this way. Jeremiah 17:9 (NLT)

⁹ "The human heart is the most deceitful of all things,

and desperately wicked.

Who really knows how bad it is?

Perhaps this is one reason David prayed for God to "create within me a Clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" Psalm 51:10

The Scriptures are full of encouragement to learn, seek, discover and long for truth. In fact, Jesus encouraged the disciples that the Holy Spirit would be a guide into all truth. Wow. The Holy Spirit is a Guide into Truth. (John 16:13) No doubt the early Pentecostals insisted that the only true work of the Spirit would draw attention to Christ. Whoa. That's a whole other blogpost.

The world seems to think Christians are anti-intellectual. Maybe we give them reason to think so way too often. The Bible celebrates wisdom, learning, and the search for truth! I read a Proverb today that prompted this thought. It's Proverbs 19:8.

Whoever gets sense loves his own soul;

he who keeps understanding will discover good.

May the Lord bless all your efforts as you "get sense"