The world’s knowledge

Even in the world’s eyes, knowledge is critical for reaching one’s goals. Education is an important building block of any society; an educated citizen, we are often told, is a responsible citizen. Businesses rely on knowledgeable employees to do their jobs well. We select leaders for our community from knowledgeable and “wise” people who have proven that they know what they are doing.

Let’s look at an example. If you would walk around a construction site when people are working on a building, you would find that there are different levels of employees. There are low-level jobs for those who don’t have much knowledge of construction in general; they can nail up a board somewhere or haul mortar to the bricklayers. There are more responsible jobs for those who have more knowledge. And those who understand the entire operation are overseers, the architects and senior contractors. The job level depends on one’s knowledge and skills. This is true in any job or business in our society.

Why are people’s jobs different according to the level of knowledge that they have? Because you can’t risk ruining the job! Ignorance jeopardizes the project. If a man knows nothing more than how to haul cement, what would the building look like if he was given the responsibility of overseeing the entire project? It would be a disaster. The person who oversees the project has to be completely knowledgeable about his job: he knows how to schedule the steps of the project, and knows what the individual workmen must do, and knows the building code, and how to estimate and keep to the planned costs, and so on.

This is so obvious in the work world that almost nobody questions it. Nobody would ever put a plumber in charge of launching a rocket to the moon! Someone on a lower rung of the job ladder may be jealous of those over him who have more knowledge, and he may despise them for their knowledge, but society doesn’t take him seriously. It can’t afford to. Everyone has his sphere of activity for which he is skilled.

But, unfortunately, this ignorance rules too often in the Church among Christians. “Fools are put in many high positions, while the rich occupy the low ones. I have seen slaves on horseback, while princes go on foot like slaves.” (Ecclesiastes 10:6-7) People who don’t know what they are talking about are put in positions of leadership to make policy, while those who have a profound understanding of God’s truth are despised and ignored. New-born Christians, and even immoral hypocrites, have the “right” to voice their (ignorant) opinions against the sound judgment of older and wiser believers. Why? Because knowledge is at a premium among God’s people today, and popularity and reputation are the deciding factors in choosing leaders and deciding issues. This means, of course, that the work of the Church is often shoddy or even ruined compared to what it could and should be.