"But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."

At one time in human history it was possible to keep up with the growing accumulation of knowledge. In the year 1300 AD, for instance, there were only 1338 volumes in the Sorbonne library in Paris. A very intelligent reader could have absorbed what essentially amounted to the entire body of knowledge of the then-known world. Three hundred and seventy years later, the library at Oxford University alone held over 25,000 books - too much information for any one person to absorb. Today there is so much collected knowledge that even people with narrow specialties are hard pressed to keep up. In 1998, the Library of Congress in Washington DC, for instance, held 112 million books, manuscripts, and documents.(1)

I have read that more new information was produced in the last thirty years than in all the previous five thousand. Accumulated information today is said to double every 20 months.

We live in an increasingly complex world – or at least the process of understanding it is more complex. And the future only promises to increase the difficulty. As knowledge grows, so does technology. We’re mapping the human genome. We’re cloning animals. We’re transplanting all manner of human organs. There is talk of even growing human organs. At this moment we have two little high tech hotrod cars exploring the landscape of Mars. The systems behind these technological accomplishments are highly complicated.

Not surprisingly, religion gets more and more complicated, too. Have you noticed? Religious books and religious beliefs proliferate. New theories are propounded regularly. New groups are formed. In the realm of Christianity alone there are hundreds of denominations and religious sub-groups.

Even when a person decides to seek Christ, trying to figure out the denominational puzzle with its varied theories and practices can seem overwhelming. No wonder when people are searching for a church, they end up going with the one that makes them "feel good"! How could they possibly understand enough to make a more reasoned choice? The person seeking God may ultimately throw up his or her hands in frustration or even give up.

But there is some good news in the midst of today’s religious complexity. It’s not new news. In fact, it’s very old news, so if you haven’t heard it, it isn’t because it hasn’t been there. It’s more likely that it just hasn’t been pointed out to you.

Here is the news: There is a beautiful simplicity in Christ when a person takes a little time to notice it. This lack of complexity can cut through the confusion and bring peace of mind, calmness of soul, clarity of understanding, and confidence against the future. There was only one church in the Bible. There was only one way to God.

I said this wasn’t new news. That’s a part of the problem. This simplicity has actually been around since the beginning of Christianity. In fact, that’s where you’ll find it – way back at the beginning, before all the present confusion existed. It’s in the writings of the New Testament. Here is what the Apostle Paul wrote in the first century AD, not very long after the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. It is recorded in 2 Corinthians 11:3:

Oh what joy a little simplicity would bring to tired souls looking for some respite from a very complex and confusing world! Could what Paul says here really be true? Could it really be simple? I believe so. I believe that there is sufficient evidence to say with confidence that:

Coming to Jesus and living a life that is pleasing to Him is not so complicated or hard to understand that a person with average intelligence can't comprehend it. This one verse is sufficient proof of it. Yet so many people seem to run on the assumption that coming to God and living for Him is difficult to the extent that only the religious elite can understand. Or maybe even no one can really understand it! Let’s look at some of the evidence that indicates that there is simplicity in Christ.

We’ll consider the gospel message itself – the things that are necessary to understand in order to come into a saved relationship with Christ and maintain that relationship.

The first thing that shows that the gospel of Christ is simple and understandable is that it was designed to be taken to every person in the world. In Mark 16:15, Jesus told His followers to "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation." The KJV says, "to every creature." Jesus didn’t tell them to go and preach the gospel to only a select theological elite. He didn’t specify that it should go only to the sophisticated, or to the scholars. If the gospel were so complicated that it took a degree in theology to figure it out, Jesus' command to take it to every creature would have been a ridiculously impossible command to keep.

A second thing that shows that the gospel of Christ is simple and understandable is that it was shared successfully with the common people in Jesus’ day - and they understood it. Jesus’ own 12 disciples prove this. They were from among the "blue collar" people of Israel. Eleven of them were from Galilee, the rural part of the country. (The only "uptown" guy from Judea was Judas.) They came from a group of fishermen, a hated tax collector, and a political zealot. Someone has said that the original twelve disciples were "remarkably unremarkable."(2) The only theological scholar who became an apostle was Paul and he wasn’t added until after Jesus ascended. The common man openly received Christ. It was the multitudes that He himself referred to as "sheep without a shepherd"(3) who understood His message most readily. Oh, don’t get me wrong. The sophisticates understood His message, too. That’s why they killed Him. They could see in His simple truth a threat to their power and prestige.

My point here is that, contrary to the notion that religion is complicated, the message of Christ – at least our part of it - what we need to do to respond properly to it - is not so difficult that it cannot be shared or understood by ordinary people.

A third thing that shows that the gospel of Christ was simple enough to be understood by all is the fact that it was carried everywhere by ordinary people. When a persecution arose in Jerusalem and the Christians were scattered, as they fled, Luke makes a special point of telling us in Acts 8: "they were all scattered throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles." The apostles - those who had been specially trained by Jesus for three years - stayed behind. Then three verses later Luke tells us that "those who had been scattered went about preaching the word."(4) Not only did these ordinary Christians understand the message – they could carry it with them and share it with others! It didn’t take a degree in theology to share it.

A fourth reason we know that the gospel of Christ was simple enough to be understood by ordinary people is that Jesus said God will condemn those who do not believe it. In Mark 16:16, referring to the gospel message, He said, "…he who has disbelieved shall be condemned." If the gospel of Christ were so complicated that only trained theological scholars could understand it, would God be just in condemning those poor people who did not believe it because it was impossible for them to comprehend?

A fifth reason we know the gospel of Christ is simple enough to be understood by all is that He promised that those who seek Him will find Him. Most of you are familiar with that passage in Matthew 7:7-8 that says, "Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened."

This promise wasn’t given solely to some religious elite. Everyone who seeks will find.

"Ah," someone says. "That’s where you’re wrong. I know many people who are very sincere in their faith. Every day they seek God. In fact, they seem to have more zeal than some of the Christians I know. Yet they’re all tied up in some wacko religious group that bears very little resemblance to the Bible. It couldn’t be as simple as what you’re saying."

But it is as simple as what I'm saying. The problem is that sometimes His instructions about how and where to find Him are ignored. If I’m looking for someone who is lost in my little home town and that person has been sighted there recently on numerous occasions, it is quite likely that if I keep seeking, I will eventually find that person. However, if I ignore the sightings in my home town and decide I want to go a large, unrelated city 1000 miles away to search because I like the weather better there, can it be expected that I’ll find the one I’m searching for? You’ll find Jesus Christ - and the answers you need to come to Him -   when you search for Him in the only place He is clearly revealed – in the written word of God, the Bible. If you search elsewhere, there are no such guarantees.

It doesn’t take a pollster to know that Biblical ignorance is at an all-time high in this nation. One of the big reasons for that condition is that people have bought into the lie that understanding God’s will for them in the Bible is out of their reach. They must depend upon others to do it for them. And that’s just what they do. Sadly, there are those out there who pose as theological "experts" who are only too willing to take advantage of that ignorance for their own gain. They lead them away from the simplicity of the message of Christ – the very thing Paul was concerned about in our text.

A sixth reason we know the gospel of Christ is simple enough to be understood by ordinary people is because when we read of those who did become Christians in the Bible, we see that it didn’t take great amounts of explaining for them to understand and respond. As an example, if you read through the second chapter of Acts, you’ll find that 3000 people became Christians after one simple sermon. In that sermon, the apostle Peter told them how they and their leaders had crucified the Messiah. Then he showed them that God had planned for this all along and had raised Jesus from the dead and made Him both Lord and Christ. Peter’s point hit home! They we so convicted and understood the message so well that they interrupted his sermon and cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?"(5) At that point they were given a simple answer that no one had any trouble understanding. There was no request for clarification. There was no need for clarification. (In fact, sometimes I joke around and say that it takes a theological "expert" to misunderstand it!) Peter said, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the Name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."(6) Then he went on to say that this would be the way it would be done from then on. "For the promise is for you and your children, and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God shall call to Himself."(7)

Peter’s words were not spoken in some obscure theological code language. They were spoken clearly, in the language of the common man. Even when it is translated, it remains clear.

So did they really understand it? We know that they did because they did exactly what Peter told them to do. Verse 41 says, "So then, those who had received his word were baptized; and there were added that day about three thousand souls."

Clear. Concise. Understandable. Doable. Emulatable.

As you continue through the book of Acts, you’ll find other accounts of people who became Christians. They understood what they were told. Their part was simple. It didn’t take a theological scholar to explain the message, nor a complicated process for them to obey it. Neither did it take a special, authorized, dully ordained, licensed person to assist them.

"You make it sound so simple, Dave. But I have a question. If it is as easy to understand as you claim, why do some theologians and high powered religious men disagree? Why is there division in Christianity, even about what is necessary to be saved?"

Look again at what Paul says in our text in 2 Corinthians 11:3. He is expressing his fear for those first century Christians - that they would be led astray from this simplicity: "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."

Paul’s wasn’t afraid that the message was so complicated that they couldn’t understand it. He was concerned that there would be a concerted effort to lead them astray by convincing them that it was more complicated!

Thus we come to our second point. There is simplicity in Christ, but:

Why would people leave something of critical importance that is very simple and allow falsehood that is more complicated to replace? That’s nuts!

No. That’s deception. Look again at our text in 2 Corinthians.

Paul brings up the case of Eve, the mother of all the living. Do you remember her story? Let’s take a look at it. Genesis 3:1 says,

Note that both this verse and our text call Satan "crafty." The word means "devious" or "deceptive." There is some beguiling underhandedness about to happen here and the author of Genesis is going to tell us what it is.

Was there anything complicated about God’s prohibition about eating from the tree of in the middle of the garden? No. It was perfectly clear. Did Eve understand it? Looks to me like she did. What is there to misunderstand? It was a simple sentence and the only issue that the first couple had to worry about in that perfect place. She could even articulate it in her own words in answer to Satan’s question. And as long as she wasn’t "led astray from the simplicity" of that command, all was well. But look what happened.

That’s where the straying from the truth began. Satan suggested that the simple sentence that God had uttered was not enough for her. He suggested that it didn’t account for God’s shady ulterior motives. (Of course, God didn’t have any shady ulterior motives here. I’m just presenting what Satan suggested.) "God is keeping you down, Eve! He knows that good things will happen as soon as you eat from this tree. He’s holding out on you. There is a lot more to life than walking around this tree all day, trying to ignore it." He didn’t attack the meaning of the prohibition. That was clear. Instead, he attacked the reasonableness of it. And suddenly, Eve sees in her mind a world of possibilities. She can be sophisticated! She can be wise! She can be a smart as God! It’s a classic case of forfeiting something simple for the illusion of something more sophisticated and better. It’s the same thing that the Prodigal Son saw in the "distant country." It’s the same thing that Lot saw in Sodom. And now for Eve, suddenly that old simple sentence from God seems pretty limiting. It seems unsophisticated and plain and even primitive. People are "led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ" in the very same way!

Why would people complicate the simple gospel of Christ? One reason is that they feel they are above and beyond it’s limitations or perhaps they think they know better.

Don’t get me wrong. Few people come right out and say that they know more than God, but have you ever heard that line of reasoning that goes something like this: "Well, those commands and principles were OK for people living back in those days, in the days of the primitive church, but we’re far more sophisticated today. That stuff doesn’t fit us anymore. We need to add things that will better address the concerns of the modern church."?

My wife recently finished her Bachelor’s degree at a religious college in Salem. As part of her curriculum, she was required to take some Bible classes to add to her major. When they got to the book of Acts, that is exactly what one of the professors told the class about those examples of conversion and church structure found in Luke’s book. Those were adequate for the primitive church, but not for us today. Sound familiar? Read Paul’s words in our text again: "But I am afraid, lest as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds should be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ."

Paul told the young evangelist Timothy in 2 Timothy 1:13, "Retain the standard of sound words which you have heard from me, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus." Paul spoke of a standard. Did that standard expire sometime after Paul and Timothy died? Is there now a new standard or a changing standard or perhaps no standard at all to keep us from drifting away?

Another reason people complicate the simple life in Christ is that they believe it must be changed in order to make it more appealing and acceptable to the world. I haven’t much time to talk about it but we see this happening around us in some of the so-called "church growth" circles. A well-known guru with a large church has been teaching that if you want the church to grow, you must go out in the community and ask the "unchurched" (it isn’t fashionable to call them "unbelievers" or "lost" anymore!) what it would take to get them to come to church. Then, so counsels this expert of church growth, you come back and remake the church in that image. Thus today, in many churches, preaching the word of God has been supplanted by positive thinking and self-help sermonettes that minimize duty and commitment and Scripture. You especially never speak of sin. That’s a dirty word. Nor are you directive in any way. You simply suggest little portions of the truth and hope that they’ll like the warm, fuzzy, feel-good "worship" and music, along with the basketball court in the basement and the knitting classes during the week, so that they’ll join and eventually get what the truth of the gospel is all about.

I think it is fair to wonder whether Jesus Himself would have fit into that kind of church. The first time He came on with words like, "Except you repent, you will all likewise perish," He would have been politely ushered out and asked to leave. And even if we consider His outwardly compassionate response in dealing with people like the woman taken in adultery, He did say, "Go and sin no more."

Yet another reason people complicate the simple message of Christ is that they don’t know any better. They are ignorant of the Bible. Perhaps those who taught them knew the Bible at one point but decided, for whatever reason, to neglect it. Now the next generation neglects it too, but they don’t know why. Now they think it must be so complicated that they couldn’t understand it anyway.

Perhaps a fourth reason people desert the simple message of Christ for something else is that they don’t want to obey it.

I just about hit a highschooler the other day with my truck. He walked right out in front of me against a "Don’t Walk" light that he should have stopped for. Then, after I had crammed on my brakes to keep for hitting the kid, he had the nerve to "flip me off"! The problem wasn’t that this kid didn’t understand those two little words, "Don’t Walk." The problem was, for whatever reason, he didn’t respect them. He didn’t want to obey them. I can only hope that sometime in the future, he learns to respect others before it takes his life prematurely.

Sometimes when people avoid obeying the gospel of Christ, it isn’t because it is too complicated to understand. It’s because they don’t want to do it. The "it’s complicated" argument is just a dodge – an excuse for an attitude of superiority and disobedience.

My friends, the gospel of Christ is simple enough for ordinary people to understand. We need to be about the business of reading and heeding it ourselves so that we know it and can share it with others. We need to have a firm grasp on it ourselves, so that when God opens up the opportunity to share our life's most precious truth, we can do it with clarity and confidence.

The danger of being led astray from the simplicity found in Christ is no less an issue today than it was back in the day of the Apostle Paul. It is not too difficult for ordinary people to comprehend.

Before we go, may I ask whether you have responded to the simple gospel of Christ? Your eternal life depends upon it. Would you let us help you get started? You can bring your own Bible. We’ll sit down with you and show you, in the simple words of Scripture, what you need know and do in order to be saved and live for God.

Footnotes: Please use your back button to return to your place

1. Using Information Technology – A Practical Introduction to Computers and Communications. Online version. Copyright ©2000 The McGraw-Hill Companies: http://www.mhhe.com/cit/interactive/uit/text/ch01/011100_experience.html
2. John MacArthur
3. Mark 6:34
4. Acts 8:4
5. Acts 2:37
6. Acts 2:38
7. Acts 2:39

Dave Redick is Minister of the Hwy 20 Church of Christ in Sweet Home, Oregon and Editor of The Preacher's Study. He may be reached at pstudysupport@comcast.net.

Copyright © 1996-2008 by The Preacher's Study. Permission is granted to subscribers to use this document in total or in sermon preparation in the context of the local congregation only. Publishing it in a book, on the Internet, or anyplace beyond the local congregation is prohibited.

All Scripture quotations and references are from the New American Standard Version unless otherwise stated.

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