The world empowers people to be always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth (2 Timothy 3:7). People often step into confusion, using it as an excuse to separate from others and justify indecision and indifference to God.
Yet, for God, confusion creates for us an opportunity to look for and latch onto conclusive truth which is precisely what God offers through His Son. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Humanity is therefore without excuse (Rom 2:1). Jesus Christ offers mankind order with knowable and definitive truth through a relationship with Him. God became a man in order that man may know God.
This is why Satan puts so much effort into hatching confusion and division amongst Christians. Spiritual anarchy is an effective weapon against God’s people, and it begins with a little confusion. God’s enemy quickly tells the confused person that their state of indecision is their truth. “This is your journey; you must walk it alone” is one of Satan’s most foul lies. Isolated thinking always leads you away from fellowship with God’s people, away from the Bible, away from prayer, away from the gospel of Jesus Christ, away from unity in the Church, and away from the pursuit of Christlikeness. What a rotten deal!
No matter how confusion manifests itself, it always works to remove clear thoughts and understanding. When people were of one language and they proudly decided to build the tower of Babel, the Lord responded with, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech (Genesis 11:7). The confusion resulting from not being able to understand each other resulted in the tower project getting abandoned and everyone separated.
Many years later, when the Lord defended Israel against the Philistines, He simply removed the Philistines clarity when they needed it the most – battle time. And behold, every Philistine’s sword was against his fellow, and there was very great confusion (1 Samuel 14:20). The Philistines were certain this battle would exterminate Israel, yet it turned out to be their own defeat as they killed themselves in their own confusion of thought and mistaken identity.
When we speak of God and His Word, we never see confusion, for God is not a God of confusion but of peace… (1 Corinthians 14:33). The apostle Paul, instructing the Corinthians on orderly worship, centred their thoughts on the character of God, which was to determine the character of their worship. Two of God’s character qualities stood out to Paul; first, was the absence of confusion, and second, was the presence of peace. When it comes to our understanding of God, these two qualities are inseparable. I call them the “clarity twins” because where one is present, the other is also. Where God’s truth is clear you will find peace. Likewise, where you have peace from God, you will find the absence of confusion about God.
Similarly, Paul requested the Colossian believers to pray that God would open up opportunities through his imprisonment to proclaim the gospel. What’s more, says Paul, pray that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak (Colossians 4:4). That gospel message is not at all confusing, as Paul explained to the Corinthians, Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
God is not confused, and neither should we be! To be continued…