Obfuscation

Romans 1:21 “because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.”

The glory of God is impossible to miss. We are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses, from the majesty of the heavens to the imperceptible complexity of life, our world shouts of God’s magnificence. People who have encountered the Lord in our past have given an account of His faithfulness, and many today concur with the testimony of those who have gone before us.

To obfuscate is to render something unclear, make it unintelligible, or to simply leave someone bewildered.

There are couple groups in the Bible that get a lot of attention, the fool and the simpleton. What characteristics can we observe in these types of people that we can look at with a critical eye back on ourselves and ask the question, “Do we fall into either of these categories?” If we can’t see ourselves in the light of God’s wisdom, we obfuscate our ability to see God at all.

The Fool

As a general definition for a fool, the fool is someone who knows what to do and chooses to do otherwise.

“Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom.”

Charles Spurgeon

This begs the question, “what are we to do?”

Psalm 74:18 “Remember how the enemy has mocked You, O LORD, how a foolish people has spurned Your name.”

• The fool despises God’s name. The revelation of God’s name is a revelation of His character. The myriad of names by which God has revealed to mankind displays the wisdom of who God is by HIs action and intervention. Creation was meant to be a revelation of the depths of His glory. Look at the ways a fool treats God’s glory and you’ll see a heart that despises God’s love.

Psalm 10:4 “In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his schemes there is no God.”

• The fool may look like he seeks God, but in his heart he never does. There are so many people that claim to seek after God, or enlightenment, or some other form of religious observance that tickles their ears and makes them feel like they are spiritual. In the end, all who play the spiritual charade will be condemned as those who simply never knew Jesus.

The Simpleton

There are those who know what to do and choose to go their own way, this was the description of a fool. The simpleton doesn’t know the way to go, they have no knowledge of God’s truth and go their way by ignorance.

“The knowledge of our ignorance is the doorstep of the temple of knowledge.” “The first link between my soul and Christ is, not my goodness, but my badness; not my merit, but my misery; not my standing, but my falling; not my riches, but my need.”

Charles Spurgeon

The simpleton may or may not understand their need, all they recognize is their lack. Hopelessness befalls many for lack of knowledge.

Our Role

John 8:55 “Yet you have not known Him, but I know Him. And if I say, ‘I do not know Him,’ I shall be a liar like you; but I do know Him and keep His word.”

Jesus

For those who know Christ, there is an obligation to uphold. The light that is within God’s people is meant to illuminate the darkness of the ignorant. We were all ignorant and simpleton’s at one point in life, the knowledge of God’s Truth permeated our lives and we chose to accept it and believe.

Jesus made it clear what belief looks like-belief is made evident by obedience.

John 8:51 “Truly, truly, I tell you, if anyone keeps My word, he will never see death.”

There is a fine line that many have crossed over in thinking works leads to salvation. Works is evidence of salvation, not the process by which to be saved.

There is clarity in the Spirit, not confusion. For those who walk in the Spirit, their desires become like-mannered with God’s desires. Obedience to God’s leading is a joy for those who enter in to His work, working in the flesh is the attempt to justify oneself before God and this can be done by believers and unbelievers alike.

A fool may have knowledge of truth but chooses to not walk in it, this doesn’t mean they aren’t saved, believers can act foolish also. Trusting in the Lord is a process of belief that acknowledges God’s way is good, even if all we see is the first step.

Doing Good

1 Peter 2:15 “For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men—”

The fool’s life denies the goodness of God. By showing forth a knowledge of Truth while displaying a lack of understanding, they blaspheme God’s name and step over His grace.

We can silence this foolishness by the way we live our lives. By living according to God’s moral law, we live righteously in Christ and our lives become a model for God’s goodness working through us to His glory. You can argue philosophy, you can argue interpretation of God’s Word, but you can’t argue results. When our lives model the Truth of God, we have the opportunity to take the written Word and make it real for others. There is an expectation of others that must be taken into account when we live by the name of Christ, it is important to remember that we aren’t in the role of trying to prove God through righteousness, it is by seeking Him and our love for Him that should be an organic expression revealed in and through our lives.

The prayer of David sums our cry….

Psalm 141:8 “But my eyes are upon You, O GOD the Lord; In You I take refuge; Do not leave my soul destitute.”

The fool who claims to know Christ and yet walks in darkness only muddies the water of God’s revelation. We are called to bring light in the darkness, to allow the springs of life to flood out of us to the world, and our testimony should remove all doubt that fools pronounce by the way they live.

Allow others to see Christ in you, be a testimony of His goodness and return the glory of God back to the One who shined on you.