“As obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance:” (1 Peter 1:14).

Before one can obey he must know what to do to obey. Ignorance, whether in innocence or in willful rejection of the facts, has consequences to affect both the individual and those around the ignorant. Consider three products from ignorance.

1. Fears. A common expression that typifies an effect of ignorance is “fear of the unknown.” Humanity is often uncomfortable with matters of unfamiliarity. Not knowing what is in the dark or even not knowing how something will turn out has created all kinds of worry and irrational behavior. Ignorance is one of Satan’s greatest tools. It is quite interesting to note that a common expression in the Bible is “I would not have you to be ignorant” (1 Thess. 4:13). Read also these following passages along those same lines (cf. Romans 1:13; 11:25; 1 Corinthians 10:1; 12:1; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 2 Peter 3:8). Accurate knowledge dispels the fears that cripple the mind and life in anxiety. Peace and comfort come from the knowledge of the One who is always in control.
2. Fightings. Paul stated of his own conflict with Christ before his conversion, “I verily thought
   with myself, that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth” (Acts 26:9). He would later write to Timothy concerning that same time before his conversion, “Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief” (1 Tim. 1:13). Peter said to those Jews who sided with the crucifixion of Jesus, “And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers” (Acts 3:17). Wars and fighting have often been propagated due to ignorance. There are times in the heat of conflict that one would dare ask the question “What are we really fighting for?” There has often been internal conflict with oneself because of not knowing what to do. Since God is not “the author of confusion, but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33), a thorough understanding of the will of God through the study of the Bible brings light to those in darkness (cf. 2 Cor. 4:4).
3. Falling. Hosea professed the Lord’s declaration to the nation, “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children” (Hosea 4:6). When the psalmist stated, “But as for me, my feet were almost gone; my steps had well nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” (Ps. 73:2-3). He further states of such thinking, “So foolish was I, and ignorant: I was as a beast before thee” (Ps. 73:22). Isaiah wrote of the ignorant, “Therefore my people are gone into captivity, because they have no knowledge: and their honourable men are famished, and their multitude dried up with thirst” (Isa. 5:13). When people do not like to retain the knowledge of God in their minds, depravity in all its forms is soon to follow (cf. Rom. 1:28-32). Therefore, Peter exhorts to the obedient ones, “For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men” (1 Peter 2:15).

Jimmy Clark