The Blasé-ification of Scripture

 

A friend of mine recently started a conversation with me this way: “‘Reap what you sow.’ You realize how blasé we are toward that?”

“Huh?” I had no idea what he was talking about.

“It’s French,” he told me; then sent me the definition.

Blasé (pronounced blah-zey): “Unimpressed or indifferent to something because one has experienced or seen it so often before.”

“We use that phrase all the time, but in the Bible it is right next to ‘Make no mistake, God will not be mocked,’ he continued. “It’s like really serious.”

And he’s right. It is serious, but we don’t take it seriously anymore. When Paul said, “Do not be deceived, God will not be mocked,” he was talking about reaping the consequence of the actions we sow (Galatians 6:1-10).

 

 

So what did he mean when he said God will not be mocked? To put it simply, we cannot run away from the fact that we will ultimately reap what we sow no matter how hard we may try to evade the reaping.

 

Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

(Galatians 6:8)

 

We can try to deceive ourselves by thinking our unsavory actions will not have equally unsavory outcomes, but God will not be deceived because He already knows what will happen before we even carry out the action.

And so, we may try to get away with committing “harmless” little things that are pleasing to our sinful flesh, but in so doing, we are inadvertently “mocking God” as long as we pretend that it did not happen.

Even though it may not be our intention to tell Him that He is not all-knowing, by simply trying to sweep our ungodly actions under the rug, by ignoring the Holy Spirit’s prompting and, by not fessing up to our actions, we are indirectly telling God, “It’s ok wan lah. You didn’t see anything.”

 

 

Charles G. Finney once wrote, “Mocking God grieves the Holy Spirit, and sears the conscience; and thus the bands of sin become stronger and stronger. The heart becomes gradually hardened by such a process.”

And isn’t that the real problem behind the blasé-ification of Scripture—The hardening of our hearts? There are dozens, if not tens and hundreds of verses in the Bible that have lost their effect on us Christians today.

Not just because we have heard them so many times but also because our hearts have been hardened in many ways—by our lifestyle, our culture, our own rationalization, etc.

Consider these verses (to pick a few):

 

Do to others as you would have them do to you. (Luke 6:31)

Trust in the Lord… (Proverbs 3:5)

If you love me, keep my commands. (John 14:15)

You are the light of the world… (Matthew 5:14)

And without faith it is impossible to please God… (Hebrews 11:6)

Go therefore and make disciples of every nation… (Matthew 28:19)

…Love one another. (John 13:34)

For God so loved the world… (John 3:16)

 

So what do we do when we become blasé toward Scripture? We’re constantly told to ground ourselves in the word of God. David says in Psalm 119:11, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you,” and Paul says in 2 Timothy 3:16 that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.”

 

 

But how do we hide Scripture in our hearts if our hearts don’t even respond to Scripture? How do we apply its teachings to our lives if all it is to us is just another repetitious and boring text?

The first thing we need to do is ask God to soften our hearts. Pray. God gave us His word to speak to us, but He also gave us His Holy Spirit to bring His word to life. Without the Holy Spirit actively working in our hearts, the Bible is just a book. The only way it will begin to make sense again is if we open ourselves up to the ministrations of God’s Spirit within us.

Then, we need to actually go to the word. Hebrew 4:12 tells us, “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”

When we come to God with an open mind, open heart, and an obedient spirit, His word will speak to us, and we will be blown away by the depth of His love, grace, mercy, and wisdom.

 

 

Finally, we cannot suppress the Holy Spirit. Ever. As soon as we begin to ignore God’s voice in our lives, we begin to harden our hearts again, and Scripture will once again become increasingly irrelevant to our lives. We reap what we sow. God was dead serious about that, as He was with everything else He said in Scripture.

The Christian life is one of continual commitment to a God who reached out to us in our darkest state, and if we do not do our part to keep our relationship with Him alive, He will not force us to talk to Him or listen to Him.

God prompts us, convicts us, sends people to talk to us, and uses circumstances to speak to our hearts, but if we choose to ignore Him, we blasé-ify Scripture, we lose out on the abundant life He promises us.

 

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Esperanza Ng