HOW OFTEN, when you have recommended a weighty book to a ‘Christian’ to read, or invited them to the lectures or sermons of a great preacher, have you had it said to you, “No thanks. I don’t need books and all those words. I just want the simplicity that is in Christ”? When that is said to me, I just marvel at the brazen manner in which someone can so misuse and decontextualize a few words out of 2 Corinthians 11:3, which is the verse from which the words “simplicity that is in Christ” are taken. I say “taken”, but it should really be ‘taken for a ride’ because, as is the way with so many today, the few words which are being plucked out of context are being misused in order to justify a false teaching or, in this case, to justify downright laziness, a cop-out from what should be our true course through this life.

It is true that the King James Version has those words in that verse, which reads in full: “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”. A more accurate reading of the Greek would be “I am afraid, however, that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may be led astray from your simple and pure devotion to Christ”, because that is what lies behind Paul’s words. For this verse is NOT about some kind of feigned innocence of belief in Christ which is saying “Don’t complicate the simplicity of Christ through any learning in written prose or the spoken word”. That would be a complete misreading and a disastrous one. This verse is really saying, “Do not be seduced by false teaching which is undermining your essential relationship with, and understanding of, the Lord Jesus Christ, which is simple and pure”.

Nowhere in the Bible does it say or even imply, “Let’s just keep everything simple and eschew all learning and deep study”. The reality is that when you come to Christ as His disciple, that is just the beginning of a MASSIVE LIFELONG LEARNING CURVE concerning spiritual truth and also about understanding one’s own heart. Teaching and learning are vital aspects of spiritual growth as a disciple of Christ. To say one just needs simplicity and no deep learning or instruction is not only naïve and stupid but it is also downright dangerous!

Contrived ‘Simplicity’ is Dangerous and Even Spiritually Suicidal

Do you know how many words there are in the Bible? More than three-quarters of a million! If we were not supposed to engage in learning or instruction from wise and deep teachers, why would God have revealed His word in such a massive tome, much of which is not easy to understand? He expects us to wrestle with those words until we do understand them. Some are easier to understand than others. The Apostle Peter said about Paul’s writing that “some parts of his letters are hard to understand, which unlearned and unstable people distort, as they do the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction” (2 Peter 3:16). Let’s just unpack that verse, because it has great bearing on the case of people who falsely claim that we should merely rest in what they call “the simplicity which is in Christ” and attain no other knowledge whatsoever.

First of all, that verse of Peter shows how when parts of Scripture are difficult for the average disciple to understand, it is much easier for those parts to be seized upon by Scripture-twisting false teachers who tend to be wilfully unlearned and generally very unstable and who take advantage of those who revel in being “simple”, i.e. who deliberately do not bother to progress in their learning. The person who says “I only want simplicity because that is what it means to be in Christ” as a way of avoiding deep study is going to be a sucker for Scripture-twisters. If I may put it even more bluntly, to say “I don’t need any outside teaching because I’m just keeping it simple in Christ”, is to commit intellectual and spiritual suicide. Let’s crack this open even more deeply (because ‘deep’ is where all true disciples of Christ want to go, one way or another).

The Transformation of the Illiterate

Maybe you will say, “But not all believers are academic like you”. I am not really an academic. People are so unused to deep teaching and investigative research that they think it is unusual and only for an elite. Not so! What I am sharing in this little piece has nothing to do with IQ or having a university degree (which I do not have) or a Ph.D. (which I also do not have). The thirst and desire of the disciple of Christ to wrestle with the truths of the Bible goes way beyond mere intelligence quotient. I have known people who, prior to coming to Christ, had received very little in the way of formal education, having left school in their early teens, and were only semi-literate, and in one case he was almost completely illiterate, barely able to read anything. But after coming to Christ they were all seized with the desire to spruce up their ability to read and to expand their sphere of knowledge. I have watched people who had no previous interest in study become avid students of the Bible and even of theological literature and the writings of the early church fathers. This is a beautiful thing to witness. This is the work of the Holy Spirit in a soul, so that for the very first time people can become who they are really meant to be.

Filling the Void of Ignorance with Learning Enables the True Self to be Revealed

You see, my friends, before people come to Christ they are only a shadow of their true selves. Those true selves are hidden behind an immense number of ego-driven masks, hurts, pains, defence-mechanisms, ungodly comebacks, amorality, sorceries, very limited knowledge and education, false teachings, conditioned responses learned from family and teachers, cultural conditioning, media conditioning, and knee-jerk reactions, all lumped together in a package of sinful unrighteousness. After truly coming to Christ, much of that falls away immediately and the remnants are gradually eclipsed by the need to be real and by exposure to the new light of day in one’s life… or at least that should happen… courtesy of the indwelling Holy Spirit. At that point, the diligent disciple of Christ develops a whirlpool of thirst for wisdom, knowledge and understanding — sucking into its wake anything which s/he considers useful and upbuilding. And you know what? God gives them! “For the LORD gives wisdom; from His mouth come knowledge and understanding” (Proverbs 2:6). The obtaining of wisdom is actually the foremost thing in life. “Wisdom is the main thing; so acquire wisdom. And whatever you may acquire, gain understanding” (Proverbs 4:7). The genuine disciple of Christ does not ‘rest on his or her laurels’ post-conversion, eschew all study and learning, and say, “I just need the simplicity which is in Christ”. Not at all! Because now there is a void resulting from all the dross which has been expunged which needs to be filled with truth, with wisdom, with knowledge, with deep understanding of everything, especially everything in the Scriptures. In this way, people finally become the true selves they are meant to be in God’s creation.

Christ Gave Teachers to the Church for a Big Reason

Do you think that the Bible is simple and straightforward? Sure, some of it is. But much of it really needs to be explained and understood fully before one can bathe in its light. If we do not need to study, why do you think that the Lord Jesus Christ “gave some to be…pastors and teachers” (Ephesians 4:11)? Was it superfluous to needs? Was the Lord just exercising some intellectual exclusivity? NO! The reason they were given is clearly stated as being…

“to equip the saints for works of ministry and to build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, as we mature to the full measure of the stature of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming”.

Ephesians 4:12-15

The reason there are pastor-teachers given in the churches is so that disciples of Christ can learn. We are to be students and learners, bigtime — precisely so that “we will no longer be infants” meandering in a haze of contrived ‘simplicity’ and deceived on all sides by the many impostors and false teachers which Satan has inserted into the churches! The one who says, “I do not need to study or read articles and books written by mere people; I only want to read the Bible”, will be rich pickings for Satan. The number of people I see on social media spouting away concerning some Bible passage about which they have not got a clue has grown out of all proportion. If one points out to them that they are a bit off-track, no matter how graciously, they will accuse you of working for Satan to undermine them. I kid you not! The bleak reality is that only “fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). The Lord Jesus says, “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me” (Matthew 11:29). Elders are to “encourage others through healthy teaching and refute those who contradict it” (Titus 1:9). A local ekklesia is not the equivalent of a toddlers’ nursery or a Sunday School for kids. It is to be a powerhouse of knowledge for learning.

Essentially, if you think that “simplicity in Christ” means only ever reading the Bible, never really studying, never reading articles or books, never listening to (or reading words by) pastor-teachers sent by Christ into the churches, then you will not grow in knowledge and you will actually become a simpleton! Pastor-teachers “make every effort” to present themselves “approved to God” as “unashamed workmen who accurately handle the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). They have to study deeply and then what they present to you is a distillation of that. What you read or hear from them is probably 20% of what they have had to plough through over many hours, days, weeks and years. The studying of both pastor-teachers and those who read or hear them is a vital foundation for spiritual growth for everyone. I can assure you that I learn a huge amount by studying for the writing of books and articles and I relish it.

A terrible pall of a kind of anti-intellectualism has covered the churches like a wet blanket over many decades. What is spoken of disparagingly as “head-knowledge” (which is really mind-wisdom in the believer) has been rejected in favour of displays of subjectivism and entertainment. Many prefer to be so-called ‘slain in the spirit’, to be entertained by false healing rallies, to get ‘blissed-out’ on consciousness-altering “worship”, or to babble in unbiblical pseudo-tongues rather than be bowled over by beautiful teaching from the Bible. No wonder, then, that the visible church should be in such a dire state.

Contrived ‘Simplicity’ Means that One Rejects the Deep Things of God

What is missing from so many churches today is a real love of what Paul calls “the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10). So many would rather just “have a good time” wallowing in superficiality and hypnotic forms of ‘worship’. It seems that secreting endorphins (foolishly imagining that to be ‘entering the Spirit’s presence’) has become preferable to feeding on the Word of God. Decades of superficial media, frivolous movies, and trivial television have dumbed down both Christian and worldly minds to such an extent that under the disguise of “simplicity” they have become shallow and vapid. We have strayed a long way since the time when young men ploughed the fields and read at the same time. In the olden days, “It is no mere figure of speech to say that farm boys followed the plow with book in hand, be it Shakespeare, Emerson, or Thoreau” (Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business, Penguin Books, 1986, p.62). Imagine that! It would be unthinkable today, even if there were still horse-drawn ploughs. The church has again imitated the dumbed-down world, which is what it seems to do best in these apostate times.

What so many have failed to realise is that while there are “the deep things of God”, there are also “the deep things of Satan” (Revelation 2:24). So we must counteract these with the deep things of God. This is why we have to go deep. You don’t like deep? Then what are you going to do with the Letter to the Romans? That is DEEP! A massive work covering so much deep theology and teaching on the corruption of human nature, original sin, justification, righteousness, sanctification, election, predestination, the true meaning of circumcision, the nature of the Ekklesia, spiritual Israel, what is a true Jew, and so much more — all of which needs to be understood. Getting to grips with the depths of Romans will mean that you can all the more enjoy “your simple and pure devotion to Christ”. Because that is where all deep teaching ultimately leads; though it does not mean that one can bypass or abandon the routes taken to get there. Finding “simple and pure devotion to Christ” does not come though the embracement of superficiality but from plumbing the depths of truth conveyed in God’s word, which itself has been specifically given to us “for instruction, for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness, so that the person of God may be complete, fully equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

God does not Just ‘Inject’ us with Knowledge Supernaturally

Many seem to have got hold of this mystical concept that learning and study are solely intellectual, worldly activities and that God will just somehow ‘inject’ us supernaturally with whatever it is we need to know. My friends, that is mysticism not spirituality. Genuinely spiritual people have to be active participants in the learning process. We are proactive and we have to discover of our own volition. That is the heuristic beauty of it; though God may well give us some important eureka moments as rewards for that study. The more we study, the more we will learn. The more we learn, the more we will want to study. For there is no end to “the deep things of God”.

The Need to Develop ‘Spiritual Intelligence’

It is high time that we all developed “spiritual intelligence”. This is a form of intelligence which does not rely on regular IQ measurements or academic qualifications but transcends them all. It is what happens when you have the indwelling Holy Spirit. Unless someone has a mentally-impairing medical condition, would all those people in this world who are indwelt by the Spirit of God be dim and ignorant and have no interest in the deep things of God? The question itself is ludicrous. When we come to Christ, we become able to exercise “spiritual intelligence” in ways that we could never have imagined. Our spirituality determines our ability to think and perceive and overpowers any limitations of our IQ, as measured according to secular standards. To hide behind the words, “I just want the simplicity that is in Christ”, in order to justify taking no interest in the depths of God’s word and in the vast halls of biblical theology is disingenuous at the very least or, at the worst, it is a symptom of having become a victim of deception.

Contrived ‘Simplicity’ Will Never Keep Us From the Wolves

In the sixteenth century, a pastor named William Perkins (1558–1602) taught through the Scriptures in a deep and wonderful way in his huge church in Cambridge, England. In that church, it is said that princes and paupers appreciated his deep preaching with equal zeal. This is because the Holy Spirit provides the spiritual intelligence necessary to study and to learn. It is not a formal education (or even a theological education) which enables you to have spiritual zeal and perception. It is the presence of the indwelling Spirit of God. I think that many completely underestimate what we have at our disposal because of His presence in us, His getting alongside us as the Paraclete, and guiding us into all truth.

Perkins said that the two great works of the Ekklesia, of which a local assembly is representative (which he likened to being in ‘the suburbs of heaven’), are “the bringing in of the sheep and then keeping them from the wolves”. How do you fulfil those two great works? For the first, you evangelize, evangelize and evangelize. For the second, you teach, you teach, and you teach! That is how we are enabled to be kept from the wolves. By learning, learning, and learning. “Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14), by every falsehood and bandwagon which hit the visible church. There is no intellectual, educational, or intelligence-based obstacle to the disciple of Christ engaging in such study and learning. Remember, “the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom” (1 Corinthians 1:25). When you first came to Christ,

“Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were powerful; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast in His presence.

1 Corinthians 1:26-29

Thus, a whole world of opportunity opens up in the mind of the diligent disciple of Christ, regardless of his or her former educational or intellectual level. A wholly new ‘wisdom paradigm’ applies when one comes to Christ. This is because “you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God” (1 Corinthians 1:30). That is where your new-found wisdom comes from. So you do not need to feign some kind of phony “simplicity” and disingenuously back away from learning and study, or feel too inadequate to do it because of a previous lack of educational qualifications in your former life. For you now have “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). You are “a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). You had better believe it!

The Holy Spirit Expands your Attention Span

I realise that the attention spans of so many have been so corrupted that they cannot concentrate for long on any teaching. But that is a secular, fleshly limitation that should not be applicable to the disciple of Christ, whose intelligence is empowered by the Holy Spirit. Do you honestly imagine that the Holy Spirit of God who indwells you will just hang around passively while you ‘zonk out’ of a sermon or Bible study alleging the inability to concentrate. Ask Him to rejuvenate and resurrect your zeal to receive God’s word and there will be some astounding results. Of that I can assure you.

I am suddenly thinking now of the occasion when Paul exhorted and taught for so long to the disciples at the Greek port of Alexandria Troas that a young man sitting on the window-sill fell asleep and then fell out of the window! (Acts 20:7). Well, okay, a teacher does not regularly need to preach for hours. Although I can honestly say that I have listened to preachers who I wished had gone on long past the forty-five minutes for which they spoke. I can assure you that the Holy Spirit will extend your attention span to undreamed-of proportions if you do the work, because that is what He loves and responds to.

Studying and Learning are Part of Our Spiritual Warfare

Here is a final thought for us to take away: Studying and learning are a vital part of the armoury of our spiritual warfare. When you increase your understanding of God’s word, you are better able to make a stand against all the wiles of Satan. So please do not hide behind the see-thru skirts of a contrived ‘simplicity’ in order to avoid going deeply into God’s word. That would be a total cop-out. Our devotion to Christ is indeed pure and simple, as is shown in 2 Corinthians 11:3. But our wisdom, knowledge and understanding are gained through our active participation in our spiritual education process, which is infinitely deep and we should be infinitely willing to go there. Deep is simple for the diligent disciple of Christ.

Personally, I love deep. Don’t you?

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© Copyright, Alan Morrison, 2023
[The copyright on my works is merely to protect them from any wanton plagiarism which could result in undesirable changes (as has actually happened!). Readers are free to reproduce my work, so long as it is in the same format and with the exact same content and its origin is acknowledged]