The truth is, as sinners we only want to hear good things. We want to hear that we are OK. But what we need to hear is the hard truth that we are not OK, but under God’s wrath – unless we repent. Thus before we can proclaim the wonders of God’s matchless grace to people, we first need to make it clear to them why they need such grace in the first place. And that means they must hear of the just demands of the law, and their complete failure to live up to those perfect standards.

It is always amazing just how biblically illiterate some folks are. Worse yet, there are plenty of Christians who think they know everything about the Bible, when it is clear that they most certainly do not. Let me give an example of this that I came upon yesterday on the social media.

Someone had shared a meme that I had earlier shared which said this: “If only some had the reverential fear of God that they have of Covid19!” One of his friends came back with this short but silly remark: “Fear is not a godly trait.” I replied by posting Philippians 2:12: “Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

And I posted a link to one of my previous articles on this: billmuehlenberg.com/2010/08/29/the-fear-of-god/

And this morning I noticed another passage – of so many – that said the same thing: “The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love” (Psalm 147:11). And we have numerous other verses, such as, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom.”

That is just one case of biblical illiteracy reigning supreme. Speaking of this – and the social media – I just posted this online: “It seems the Apostle Paul may have known all about FB, given that he said this in 1 Tim.1:6-7: ‘Certain persons … have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions’.”

There certainly are a lot of armchair theologians out there who seem to think they know it all, and are ever ready to go on search and destroy missions if they find anyone daring to take a differing view. But that passage – which I just read again this morning – is worth looking at more closely, and in context. It entails Paul’s warning against false teachers as found in 1 Timothy 1:3-11:

As I urged you when I was going to Macedonia, remain at Ephesus so that you may charge certain persons not to teach any different doctrine, nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. Certain persons, by swerving from these, have wandered away into vain discussion, desiring to be teachers of the law, without understanding either what they are saying or the things about which they make confident assertions.

Now we know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted.

What especially stood out to me was that second paragraph. How many times have I heard Christians say that we cannot expect pagans to know about, or run with, God’s law and God’s morality? They tell us we should not tell them about right and wrong and godly standards, but instead we should just “love” them into the Kingdom.

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