Imagine you sit down to write a book. The year is “any year” before the internet, simple typing tools like Microsoft Word, and widespread adoption of personal computation devices. You sit down to write your book, you have ink in your pen, a nice beverage, and now you can begin the arduous task of researching. Your library is extensive, and you have read most, if not all, of these books already. However, your book needs sources, quotes, and evidence, so you have to read through them repeatedly while taking hand-written notes. Months of painstaking research, countless library visits, and many drafts, you finally finish your book. The writing itself was not the most challenging part. However, it was the constant research and maintaining of copious notes and hundreds of pages of material.
Today, you sit down to write a book. You never have to leave your desk to write a complete book except for the many trips to refill your coffee mug. Want to read a scientific journal on nuclear physics? No problem! Curious about the composition of Io, Jupiter’s moon? Access granted! Need a book that is only carried at Cambridge? Digital download finished! Don’t have time to read through the estimated 856 pages of Kant’s “Critique of Pure Reason” and need to find if the man ever mentions the word “happiness?” Control+F that e-book, type “happiness,” and you have it! We have limitless access to the depths of human knowledge and understanding, countless opportunity to learn from the mistakes and wisdom of those who came before, and the ability to learn from one another in a global forum. The voices that we have can reach the whole world, not just our hometown. We are an era blessed beyond measure. What would the most significant people in history have given to gain a fraction of our immediate access to knowledge?
Our natural inclination would be to utilize limitless access to knowledge and understanding for self-centered purposes or squander it. We as Christians have no such luxury, because the tools of knowledge, wisdom, and insight have been given to us for a specific purpose: To serve the Living God. The Lord Jesus teaches this concept in Matthew 13:12, 25:29. Luke 12:48 He concluded it with this statement in Luke 12:48, “Everyone to whom much was given, of him much will be required, and from him to whom they entrusted much, they will demand the more.”
R.C. Sproul wrote in his commentary on Luke, “That passage terrifies me…” It terrified him because, as a pastor, the text applies to those who have been placed in a position of authority, of teaching, and of shepherding. The parable tells us what happens to the servant who dismisses the responsibility for their pleasures. However, the principle of faithfulness with gifts of knowledge, understanding, and wisdom all apply here. With limitless access comes infinite responsibility.
We as Christians have no such luxury, because the tools of knowledge, wisdom, and insight have been given to us for a specific purpose: To serve the Living God.
We Christians have no excuse or reason for biblical or spiritual ignorance. We have too much access to information through the Bible and fantastic extra-biblical resources to feign an excuse of ignorance or lack of time. Such excuses will not hold before Christ in eternity. The reality is that we make time for what we deem as valuable, and if the Lord is not valuable to us, we will not view Him as a priority. The Almighty has saved Christians, and He is the Greatest Being in existence, yet we shove Him to the side as if He doesn’t matter. May the Lord have mercy on our hearts if that is us! Let us examine if we are faithful stewards of the knowledge we have been given. No more fantastic words can be heard before God for the Christian than, “Well done, My Good and Faithful servant. Let us all refuse to squander the gifts that God has given and use them to serve Him instead of ourselves.
Theological Digressions 