Volume 50 Number 1 January 2008
“I don’t know and I don’t care!”, was the curt reply.
“You are absolutely right”, the surveyor said. “Ignorance and Apathy are the two greatest problems we face today!”
“Ignorapathy” is one way of describing this epidemic state-of- mind. When we fail to learn and educate ourselves in the important issues of living and dying, we are truly in critical condition. Sliding through life with no concern for our own eternal well-being, or the welfare of others, we are simply a disaster waiting to happen. Only one thing is worse than ignorance and apathy, and that is when we don’t know and we don’t care about our own ignorance and apathy!
The Bible shines a bright light on the subject of ignorapathy. Ignorance is described in
Deuteronomy 32:28,29: “For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!” Again in Psalms 10:4: “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts.” Then the solemn verdict of Hosea 4:6: “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that you shall be no priest to me: seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I will also forget your children.”God’s Word also deals with apathy. In
Psalms 142:4: “I looked on my right hand, and beheld, but there was no man that would know me: refuge failed me; no man cared for my soul.” Apathy is another way of saying our love has evaporated. Not caring is a sure sign we no longer love as we ought to. One who cared as Timothy is considered rare: “For I have no man likeminded, who will naturally care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.” (Philippians 2:20, 21).Our Creator cries to us through His Word in
Proverbs 1:22: “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?”. Friends, let us not ignore apathy. May we apply our minds to knowledge and let our hearts be opened once again to care about the eternal things of God that really matter!