Out Of Focus

“But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2Co 11:3 AV)

 

The word ‘simplicity’ does not mean what we think it means.  Jesus Christ and His doctrines are anything but simple.  The word means singleness.  The comparison is to Eve who complicated the law of God by adding to it.  In adding words to it, she opened the idea that God’s command was nefarious.  Satan accused God of manipulation.  He accused God of keeping from Eve good things that might come from partaking in the forbidden fruit.  The issue at hand was Paul’s methods and personality brought into question his credentials as an effective Apostle.  The Corinthian church was always superficial.   They were always carnal.  They had a hard time adhering to doctrine and Jesus above all other influences.  When Paul came with rude speech and a forthright demeanor, they questioned his office.  This complicated the ministry which He already had with them.  They could not stay focused on what they knew to be true without getting distracted by superficial concerns.

The phrase that sticks out to me is ‘by any means’.  This would suggest there are many means by which the Evil One can carry us away from a focused and single-minded life in Christ.  My sons were quick to get on the YouTube trend by watching Christian-appropriate vlogs.  I fought it for the longest time.  I thought there were better ways of getting information.  Like reading, for one.  Over time, I found myself watching a couple of channels around a particular hobby of mine.  I was watching one this morning.  There was paid content as part of the post.  The host advertised an app for your phone.  It was a first-person RPG with warfare ad its genre.  He went through all the features of this game with included tournaments and team playing.  As I learned of all this app does, or better, would require of you, I couldn’t help but think, “Who in the world would have that kind of time on their hands?”  But then I remember my occasional trips out into the public.  Whether a restaurant or mall, almost all people over the age of twelve have their eyes glued to their cellphones.  It reminds me of that episode of Startrek: Next Generation where a game was uploaded to the main computer and it hypnotized the entire crew.  Only Data was impervious.  Rather than stay focused on the task at hand, or life itself, their lives were split between what was supposed to be the most important function of their lives and a form of entertainment.

Eve had only one avenue and she failed. How are we doing?  We have a hard time keeping people faithful in the most basic of Christian graces and duties.  Our devotional life is in tatters because we are going here and there.  We don’t spend time in the word of God or in prayer because we are too busy saving the universe.  We have no passion for God because our passion is wasted on our favorite sports team.  We cannot rest our faith on simple truths because we read so many alternate theories on the premise that information means maturity and that we question everything and believe nothing.  The Corinthian church was a carnal church that got sidetracked way too easily and made life far more complicated than it needed to be.  Their faith was complicated by superficial considerations like the value of spirit gifts compared to others.  They complicated their faith by personality conflicts.  They complicated their faith with shallow arguments.  They complicated their faith with reason contrary to revealed truth.  This church had issues.  Too many ingredients in the recipe.  Too many considerations that the most important of all were lost.  Time to refocus on that which is known truth, our walk with Christ, and evangelization of the world.