Jesus kept it simple

Jesus was the most intelligent being to ever walk this earth.  Yet He never spoke using complicated words.  When He taught, He often spoke in parables, stories that His listeners could relate to and picture in their minds.  He knew that a picture was worth a thousand words and that these images would stick with them, easy to remember.

Jesus wasn't "dumbing down" for His listeners.  He brilliantly realized that by giving them visuals, stories that included metaphors, that they could comprehend and retain more than if He spoke to them in more intellectual terms.

Jesus also spoke plainly about His identity, what was to come, and about how we are now related to Him through His Holy Spirit.  (see John 14, Matthew 24, and Luke 21)

God is omniscient, which means that He knows all.  Jesus is God.  Ergo, Jesus is omniscient.  His omniscience did not stop when He became human.  He could tap into that awesome power at any time as God's Son.

I bring this up because I have noticed that those who do complicate spiritual matters tend to receive much honor and veneration these days.  Many have been muddying the waters of spiritual matters by linking them to our bodies, our emotions, psychology - they sound more influenced by the world's ways than God's.

Now I fully believe that we are complex people and that our mind, will, emotions, bodies, and spirits are all connected.  But to focus on the other components is to be distracted away from how Jesus taught, who He was, and who He wants us to be.

We are spiritual beings in a body for now.  

Jesus didn't need to "sound" smart.  He was smart (understatement).  He had nothing to prove, nothing to "sell," and never spoke to impress others. 

I confess that I can be impressed by the intelligence of some Christians who seem to shed new light on things.  But the more I read their works, or hear them speak, the more I realize that they are not drawing me closer to Christ, but away from Him.  Anything that takes our focus off of Christ, even seemingly "good" things, is not only of no use to us but is downright harmful to our spiritual well-being.  And popularity is not a reliable gauge of someone's authenticity.  

We need to remember that the devil doesn't come in a red suit making himself obvious to us.  He is crafty, sneaky, subtle.  This is his mode of operation so that he can deceive people.

The devil is the "eloquent" one.  I use the term in quotes because his words twist, complicate, and are convoluted.  He twisted words and made them sound "sensible" back in the garden when he first deceived Eve.

I believe we have to be extra vigilant in these last days because the devil can get at us through well-meaning, intelligent Christians to lead us astray.  This can mean leading astray not into obvious sin (remember, our enemy is not obvious), but into distracting thoughts that lead us into reasoning, relying more on self than God, instead of keeping it simple like Jesus does.  

Jesus whittled all of the law and prophets down into two statements for us.  Again, simplifying matters.

Love God and love your neighbor as yourself. 

That's it!  The Ten Commandments, and all the many other laws that God gave His people in the Old Testament (there are scads of them - the dos and don't!), were whittled down into Jesus' brilliant, simple words in the New Testament.

If you think about it, Jesus' commands are simply the foundation of all we are to do and become.  They are the engine that makes the car run, so to speak.

If we are loving God and others, we simply will not break God's holy laws. Not out of some self-powered willfulness, but because we are actively loving God and others.  If we are loving God and others, we will not steal from them.  We will not commit adultery.  We will not covet what they have.  We will not murder them.  We will not have other gods in our lives before God.  We will honor our parents.  We will not gossip.  

See how it works?  We don't have to concern ourselves with the "thou shalt nots" because when we are truly loving God and others, we simply won't sin against others.  And all sin is really sinning against God.

This is the beauty and brilliance of our Lord Jesus Christ.  He kept it simple.  

Whenever we are tempted to jump on the next bandwagon of an "influencer," I pray that we would carefully and prayerfully test the spirits.  Let's keep it simple as Jesus did.  Let's not allow the enemy to muddy the spiritual waters for us.

The result?  We may not appear to be the most eloquent or intelligent of sorts, but others will be drawn to the real Jesus through us, not our "wits" or our reasoning or our "take" on a matter.

The focus is Christ.  The focus is making Him known in all His glory and simplicity.  The power is His, not ours.  His Holy Spirit empowers us to witness to Him, His power, His love, His truth, His grace, His gospel.

We will need to stay sharp in order to do this!  In order to not be sucked into the many mindsets trying to get us to think about things like:

- strength (already have it in Christ, thank you)
- grit (Christ provides all I need)
- power (you can't get more powerful than Christ in you)
- understanding the psychology of things (our Wonderful Counselor is all-knowing)
- being the "best version" of yourself (you can't do any better than Christ in you)

I'm sure there are many more distracting ideas, thoughts, and subjects that get our minds off of Christ and onto self; this is but a short list.  The fact that the list goes on is proof that it is not of God but is of the devil!  The devil complicates and goes on and on because he has nothing else going for him.  

Preaching the gospel is never outdated.  It is always and forever relevant.  We don't need more people talking/writing endlessly about themselves and what they've come up with to "add on" to the gospel.  The gospel stands on its on, thank you very much.

Your story matters only inasmuch as it glorifies Christ.  All other subject matter is only relevant inasmuch as it glorifies Christ and points people to Him.  God's people in the Old Testament were serious about their worship of God.  They struggled with "golden calves" and other idols just as we are tempted to.  

But if we keep it simple, as the One we say we follow did, then we will remain on the straight and narrow.  It may not be a very crowded path, but as long as Jesus is on it with us, that is all that matters. 

Dear Lord.  We complain about being bombarded with too much information, too many opinions, just to much!  But we get to choose who we listen to, what we watch, what we read and how much of each.  No one is forcing us to jump on any bandwagons.  Please do not let us be fooled by popularity, or what may sound good but is merely man's philosophies disguised as Christian teaching.  Give us extra discernment in these very distracting times, Lord.  Help us keep it simple and simply follow and obey You.  In Jesus' Name.  Amen.