The destructiveness of a lack of knowledge …

Does lack of knowledge in a Christian’s life really make much difference?

It can ruin relationships and leave impotent the service of a disciple of Jesus.

Ray Comfort captured a bold example of the destructive affects of a lack of knowledge in his book, “Hell’s Best Kept Secret”:

“Let me tell you a true but tragic story: A woman was once walking along a riverbank with her child. Suddenly the child slipped into the river. The mother screamed in terror. She couldn’t swim, and besides, she was in the latter stages of pregnancy. Finally, somebody heard her screaming and rushed down to the riverbank. The utter tragedy was, when they stepped into those murky waters to retrieve that now dead child, they found that the water was only waist deep! That mother could have easily saved her child but didn’t because of a lack of knowledge.”

Tonight I watched first-hand the real world affects of two Christian Millennials who lack knowledge due to being undiscipled and unequipped. I was sharing a common table with them at a coffee shop as I worked on my laptop, and the two of them launched into conversation together. It quickly became obvious that one of the guys had received some discipleship because he has some knowledge you would expect a Christian to have. It would become obvious the other fellow had little to no discipleship, as he was unable to communicate much of anything about his faith.

As these two professing Christians went deeper into conversation, a conflict arose among them, but neither of them had the skill from discipleship to be able to navigate well, with grace and love for one another, the course of the conflict. The more undiscipled fellow became angry and withdrew, the other fellow attempted to use the terms “grace” and “love” but was clearly frustrated, barely contained his own anger, and finally fell quiet.

The lack of discipling and equipping had a direct negative impact on the relationship between these two professing Christians.

Before their conflict arose, they had a brief discussion about a mutual non-Christian friend they were hoping to influence for Christ. That friend would later join them at the table, but because of the conflict, the more discipled fellow remained aloof in watching videos, leaving the undiscipled fellow to engage in conversation with their non-Christian friend. In spite of a Muslim upbringing, this friend was happy to delve right into a conversation thick with the topics of religion and philosophy, but the undiscipled believer was thoroughly unable to make any Christian contribution due his gross lack of knowledge.

When the friend left, the two fellows had a conversation about their friend. The more discipled fellow confessed they were both lacking in the knowledge he knew they needed to have an effective conversation with a non-Christian about Jesus Christ and the kingdom of God. The mostly undiscipled Christian talked about how their pastor seemed to have no interest in teaching him, even though he had sought discipleship.

The real world outcome was that here were two Christians who nearly harmed their own relationship with conflict they couldn’t navigate, and completely missed an opportunity to share the Gospel with a non-Christian interested in talking about spiritual things. Here’s what was blatantly missing …

“Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ. Then we will no longer be immature like children. We won’t be tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching. We will not be influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth. 15 Instead, we will speak the truth in love, growing in every way more and more like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church,” Ephesians 4:11-15.

Christians who see their lack of discipleship and equipping need to boldly take the initiative and seek out discipleship among their spiritual leaders and other more mature Christians. And Christian leaders need to be far more responsible about making sure every Christian in their flock is fully discipled and equipped to live for Jesus and be able to effectively share the Gospel with non-Christians.

A lack of knowledge can be destructive to relationships, and render the service of a Christian useless. This is something none of us in the family of God should find acceptable.

Scotty