Ignorance is Not Bliss
My people are destroyed from lack of knowledge.
Hosea 4:6
The nation of Israel was apostate. Even the land suffered from the immorality of the people (see Hosea 4:3). God warned the priests not to blame the people, as they too were guilty of sinning and also guilty of not teaching the truth. “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” (verse 6). Ignorance of the law is not an acceptable excuse, and people will remain in bondage to their sins if they don’t know the truth.
Paul raises a similar issue concerning salvation in Romans 10:14-15: “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? And how can anyone preach unless they are sent?” This is why the Church has been commissioned—to preach the gospel to the ends of the earth (see Matthew 28:19). We are saved by faith, but if we don’t know what it is that we are to believe, then how can we be saved? If we don’t know the truth, how can the truth set us free?
If a department store had a 50-percent-off sale on all its merchandise, you couldn’t take advantage of it if you never heard about it. Merchants have to get the word out if they are going to stay in business, and so does the Church. The Church is “the pillar and foundation of the truth” (1 Timothy 3:15). Being members of the Body of Christ, we are called to speak the truth in love (see Ephesians 4:15,25) and to share our faith with those who have never heard the good news. Ignorance is not bliss; it is defeat.
Even if we have heard the good news so as to believe unto salvation, we must still have an increasing knowledge of the truth to live liberated lives. People are in bondage to lies or to falsehoods they have chosen to believe in the past. If truth sets people free, then lies will keep them in bondage. Many Christians are not experiencing their freedom in Christ because of past traumatic experiences. It is not the trauma experiences themselves that are keeping believers in bondage; rather, they are in bondage to the lies they have believed as a result of the trauma.
Consider children who have been abused by their father. They could choose to believe that they are no good, or that God doesn’t love them, or that they deserved the abuse. Such children develop a negative perception of themselves and a negative concept of God the Father. Unless such beliefs are replaced with truth, they will remain in bondage to false beliefs.
There are also spiritual forces in this world that seek to deceive us into believing lies. Satan, the father of lies, “leads the whole world astray” (Revelation 12:9). We have been warned “that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons” (1 Timothy 4:1). A lie is a lie no matter where it comes from, and it is our responsibility to choose the truth that will set us free.
Questions to Consider:
In Hosea 4:1-6, why did God hold the priests accountable for the people’s sin? What had the priests failed to do that kept the people in bondage?
Why is it so important for believers to speak the truth in love?
Why are many believers not experiencing the freedom they have received in Christ?
What past experiences have distorted your beliefs about yourself and God?
How can you choose to embrace God’s truth so that you will not be “destroyed from lack of knowledge”?
Neil T. Anderson is the founder of Freedom in Christ Ministries. He began the ministry in 1989 and continues to spread the message of freedom to this day.