fools

Here’s an observation from our last 18 months of politics: there are a lot of very earnest people who want to do good and get things right, but have widely different ideas. It seems like we as a people can fight about anything. Yet one thing that seems to cross every political and ideological boundary is the fact that non-Christians collectively don’t understand Christians.

The more benign response is simple head-shaking, but a lot of folks think we’re out-and-out nuts.  A notable recent example is a relatively mainstream broadcaster declaring that anyone who claims they can hear Jesus is mentally ill. Too many in public life jumped on that bandwagon.

It kind of surprised me, but it wouldn’t have surprised Paul. Paul told us the truth about this centuries ago in his first letter to the Corinthians, specifically in chapter 2:12-14: “What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.”

This basic truth - that non-Christians will never get it when it come to spiritual stuff - reminds me of a couple of things. The first is, I won’t ever convince them on social media or any other public forum no matter how witty or mocking or snarky my brilliant posts might seem to the rest of my tribe. Without the Spirit, those people aren’t equipped at the most basic level to even understand what I’m saying, assuming I’m speaking spiritual truth. (And if I really am, it shouldn’t ever be snarky or mocking.)

The second is that the most responsible civic activism I can engage in on any issue, be it gender fluidity, marriage, immigration, taxes, health care, gun control or governmental ethics, is to live out my calling to spread the Gospel. Good policy calls for people who understand Godly wisdom, and that only comes with the Holy Spirit. It’s impossible to help this country with my logic and passion and energy until the ones I’m trying to persuade are able to understand. The person without the Spirit, as Paul says, will consider any Godly answer to be foolishness.

Another example of Jesus’ wisdom is that the last thing he told us to do - go and make disciples - is also the very thing that most directly address the world’s problems.