“But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” (2 Corinthians 11:3 NKJV).
You used to like email: no more postage! Immediate communication! Every time-saving technology we introduce, however, ends up demanding more time than we ever dreamed.
Humankind is good at many things. One of them is adding complexity to nearly everything. This can be good in many areas: we've got mouths to feed, after all. But one major area to war against complexity is our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Paul worried about the Corinthian church. He had shared the gospel in their city for a couple of years. He wanted to present them to Jesus like a bride ready for her groom. He feared, though, that the serpent who deceived Eve would also deceive them. He hated the idea of their minds being corrupted "from the simplicity that is in Christ."
From simplicity to complexity, that is the poisonous trend. The Corinthian church went there. And we still blindly run into this stupidity, for the folly of mucking up a simple and pure devotion to Christ with complex arguments and systems is a bane to us. Jesus says, "And man shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh." But then the complexors come and twist the words beyond recognition until, to their satisfaction, marriage is redefined into oblivion.
Jesus says, "I'm coming back." But then the complexors come and build camps who argue and fight and ridicule the others. Some of them even have a specific date for his return in mind. Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit." We love him for his simple and good teaching. But then the complexors come and tell us he doesn't really love the humble, nor the poor, and especially not the poor and humble.
Time and time again, the complexors suck the life out of our simple and pure walk with Christ. Look, it's not as if a relationship with Christ is incompatible with the complexities of life. It's not as if all biblical doctrines and study are straightforward and simple. No, God has given us minds and a big book to study. It's just that the Corinthians, like so many today, had drifted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
He loves humanity. He came for humanity. He lived for humanity. He died for humanity. He rose for humanity. His blood produced a new humanity. He lives to help his new humanity. He is coming again for his new humanity, the church.
Don't let the complexors plot and twist and do what they do, complicating your whole relationship with Christ until it's reduced to a debate on every subject under the sun.
