There’s something almost comical about a wooden cigar store Indian winning an election. Back in 1883, that’s exactly what happened when “Abner Robbins” (no relation) secured victory in Allentown, New Jersey, beating a real person by seven votes. Then, in 1938, a mule named Boston Curtis won a political race in Washington state. The town mayor had put the animal on the ballot to prove a point: voters often have no idea who or what they’re actually voting for.
We might chuckle at these historical anecdotes, but they reveal something deeply unsettling about human nature. We’re quick to align ourselves with things we barely understand. And nowhere is this tendency more dangerous—or more prevalent—than in the American church today.
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: spiritual ignorance is epidemic among those who call themselves Christians. Walk into most churches on any given Sunday, and you’ll find people who can tell you they’re believers, who show up faithfully, who’ve cast their spiritual “ballot” for Jesus. But press a little deeper—ask them to explain justification, sanctification, or the Trinity—ask them what the Bible actually teaches about salvation, the church, or holy living—and you’ll often encounter blank stares or vague platitudes.
We’ve become a people who attend church without becoming disciples. We’ve mastered the art of religious participation while remaining biblically illiterate. We know our favorite worship songs better than we know Scripture. We can navigate social media with expertise, but fumble through our Bibles trying to find Ephesians. And this ignorance isn’t just embarrassing—it’s spiritually deadly.
This is precisely the crisis Jesus anticipated when he gave his final commission on that Galilean mountainside. In Matthew 28:18-20, he wasn’t calling people to mere attendance. He was commanding a complete reorientation around learning, knowing, and obeying his Word.
And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in[a] the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
Matthew 28:18-20
The Authority Behind the Commission
Notice how Jesus begins: “I have been given all authority in heaven and on earth.” In Greek, the word for authority here is exousia—not just raw power (dynamis), but legitimate, divinely ordained jurisdiction. This isn’t a general making suggestions to his troops. This is the cosmic King declaring his sovereign rule over every realm, visible and invisible. Everything that follows flows from this foundational reality.
When Jesus speaks of “all authority,” he’s making an exclusive claim. Not some authority. Not shared authority. All of it. This is the resurrected Lord of the universe issuing a command that brooks no negotiation. We can’t cherry-pick which parts of Jesus we like while leaving the inconvenient bits behind. As A.W. Tozer powerfully stated, “The man who has God for his treasure has all things in one. Many ordinary treasures may be denied him, or if he is allowed to have them, the enjoyment of them will be so tempered that they will never be necessary to his happiness. Or if he must see them go, one by one, he will scarcely feel a sense of loss, for having the Source of all things, he has in One all satisfaction, all pleasure, all delight. God is his treasure, and Christ is his all in all.”
The Command: Make Learners
Here’s where the rubber meets the road. Jesus didn’t say, “Go and get people to raise their hands.” He said, “Go and make disciples”— mathéteuó in Greek, which literally means to make learners, to create students. A disciple is fundamentally someone engaged in the process of learning and applying what they learn.
Think about what Jesus is commanding. He’s not asking for weekly attenders. He’s not building a membership organization. He’s creating a learning community where people are actively, intentionally, systematically studying and obeying his teachings. Baptism marks the entrance into this learning community. Teaching represents an ongoing activity. Obedience demonstrates that the learning is actually taking hold.
Yet what have we created instead? We’ve built a Christianity where people can go years—decades even—without ever seriously engaging with Scripture. We’ve normalized biblical illiteracy. We’ve made discipleship optional, something for the “really committed” folks, while the average churchgoer coasts along on a diet of inspirational quotes and emotional worship experiences.
Dallas Willard’s words should haunt us: “Discipleship is the process of becoming who Jesus would be if he were you.” But how can you become like someone you don’t actually know? How can you follow teachings you’ve never studied? How can you obey commands you’re not even aware exist?
The brutal reality is this: many Christians today know more about their favorite TV shows than they know about the God they claim to worship. They can quote movie lines but struggle to quote Scripture. They’ve never read through the entire Bible even once, yet they feel qualified to have strong opinions about what God thinks about contemporary issues.
This isn’t just a minor problem. This is a fundamental failure to do what Jesus explicitly commanded.
Teaching: The Heart of Discipleship
Jesus gives clear instructions: “Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you.” Not some of them. Not the easy ones. Not just the comforting verses we like to post on social media. All of them. The Greek word tereo means to guard, to keep watch over, to practice habitually. It’s about integration—taking what Jesus taught and weaving it into the fabric of daily life.
But here’s the question that should make every Christian uncomfortable: How can you teach what you don’t know? How can you obey commands you’ve never studied? How can you guard and keep something you’re ignorant of?
The teaching component isn’t meant to be outsourced entirely to pastors and professors. Yes, we need gifted teachers in the church. But every believer is called to be both learner and teacher—constantly growing in understanding and helping others grow. As Mark Dever observes, “The Christian life is the discipled life and the discipling life.” You can’t separate the two.
Yet we’ve created a spectator Christianity where the professionals do the learning and the rest of us just show up for the highlights. Francis Chan cuts to the heart of it: “We reduce discipleship to a canned program, and so many in the church end up sidelined in a spectator mentality that delegates disciple making to pastors and professionals, ministers and missionaries.”
This wasn’t Jesus’s vision. He envisioned communities of learners—people who take God’s Word seriously enough to study it, understand it, apply it, and pass it on. He envisioned believers who could answer the hope within them because they’d actually done the work of understanding what they believe and why they believe it.
The Battle Against Ignorance: A Call to Arms
So what’s the solution to this epidemic of spiritual ignorance? It’s time to stop playing games with our faith. It’s time to get serious about becoming students of God’s Word. Not casual readers. Not Sunday-only Christians. Actual students who are intentionally, systematically, relentlessly pursuing biblical knowledge and understanding.
Here’s your challenge—and it’s non-negotiable if you’re serious about following Jesus: Get into God’s Word daily.
Not when you feel like it. Not when it’s convenient. Daily. Open your Bible every single day and read it. Not as a religious ritual to check off your list, but as someone desperate to hear from the living God. Start with a reading plan if you need structure. Read through the entire books so you understand the context. Don’t just cherry-pick your favorite verses—engage with the whole counsel of God.
And don’t stop at surface reading. Study it. When you encounter something you don’t understand, don’t just shrug and move on—dig deeper. Use a study Bible with notes that help explain historical context, cultural background, and theological significance. Look up the original Greek or Hebrew meanings of key words. Trace themes throughout Scripture. Ask questions: What did this mean to the original audience? What does it teach me about God’s character? How does it connect to the rest of the biblical story? What is it calling me to believe or do?
Engage with Scripture in a way that works for you. I know memorization can feel intimidating, especially if you’ve always struggled with remembering things. But here’s some encouragement: you don’t have to memorize perfectly to benefit deeply from God’s Word.
What matters is engagement—reading the same passages repeatedly, writing verses on cards you keep nearby, listening to Scripture audio during your commute, or even just focusing on one short phrase that speaks to you. Over time, through repeated exposure and the Holy Spirit’s work, God’s Word begins to take root in your heart. You might be surprised how a verse you’ve read dozens of times suddenly comes to mind exactly when you need it.
The psalmist said, “I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.” Notice it doesn’t say “memorized flawlessly”—it says “hidden in my heart.” That can happen through meditation, reflection, and simply spending time in Scripture, regardless of your memory capacity. When temptation strikes or doubt creeps in, the Holy Spirit can bring truth to mind in ways that transcend your natural memory. God’s Word shapes us not through perfect recall, but through faithful exposure and His supernatural work in our lives.
Start small. Be patient with yourself. Trust the process.
Explore biblical resources relentlessly.
You don’t have to figure everything out on your own. The beauty of living in the digital age is that two thousand years of faithful Christian wisdom is now accessible right from your phone or computer. Here’s how to tap into this treasure trove:
Download a Bible app with built-in resources. Apps like YouVersion (Bible.com), Logos, Olive Tree, and the ESV Bible App offer far more than just Scripture text. They include reading plans, devotionals, study notes, and even commentaries—all in one place. Many features are completely free, and they sync across your devices so you can pick up where you left off.
Subscribe to solid daily devotionals. Services like Our Daily Bread, Desiring God’s daily devotional, and Ligonier’s Tabletalk deliver brief, theologically sound reflections straight to your inbox or through their apps. YouVersion also offers thousands of devotional reading plans on every topic imaginable—just look for ones from trusted ministries.
Sign up for theological newsletters and podcasts. Consider subscribing to:
- The Gospel Coalition (articles, newsletters, and podcasts)
- Desiring God (daily articles from John Piper and others)
- Ligonier Ministries (R.C. Sproul’s legacy continues with solid Reformed teaching)
- Tim Keller’s resources through Redeemer City to City
- Bible Project podcasts and videos (excellent for understanding biblical themes)
Access free Bible commentaries online. Websites like BibleHub.com and StudyLight.org offer multiple commentaries side-by-side for every passage. Bible Gateway also provides study notes alongside the text. For deeper study, many seminary libraries now offer free access to classic commentaries.
Watch or listen to sermon series and seminary lectures. YouTube channels from faithful churches, ministries like Ligonier Connect, and platforms like RightNow Media (often free through your church) give you access to world-class biblical teaching. Many seminaries, including Dallas Theological Seminary and The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, offer free online courses and lecture series.
Join online Bible studies or find a local small group. Apps like Zoom and FaithTree make it easy to study Scripture in community, even if you can’t meet in person. Iron sharpens iron—and now that iron can connect from anywhere in the world.
The resources are abundant. The question isn’t whether they’re available—it’s whether you’ll take advantage of them. Start with one app, one newsletter, one podcast. Let it become part of your daily rhythm, and watch how it transforms your understanding of God’s Word.
Learn more about what you believe and why you believe it.
- Can you explain the gospel clearly to someone who’s never heard it?
- Can you articulate why you believe Jesus rose from the dead?
- Do you understand the difference between justification and sanctification?
- Can you defend the reliability of Scripture?
- Do you know what your church believes about baptism, communion, and church government—and why?
If you can’t answer these questions, you’re spiritually vulnerable. You’re easy prey for false teaching. You’re ill-equipped to help others. You’re living on borrowed faith instead of developing your own convictions rooted in Scripture.
This isn’t about becoming an academic or a seminary professor. This is about being a responsible Christian who takes seriously the command to love God with all your mind, not just your emotions. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer warned, “Christianity without discipleship is always Christianity without Christ.” And you can’t be a disciple—a learner—if you refuse to learn.
The Stakes Are High
Here’s what’s at stake: When Christians are biblically ignorant, they become spiritually unstable. They’re “tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching.” They fall for popular but unbiblical ideas. They make decisions based on cultural preferences rather than biblical principles. They lose their saltiness, and their light grows dim.
But when believers immerse themselves in God’s Word—when they study it, memorize it, meditate on it, apply it—something powerful happens. The Holy Spirit uses Scripture to transform minds, renew hearts, and redirect lives. Biblical truth becomes the filter through which everything else is evaluated. Spiritual discernment develops. Faith deepens. Obedience becomes increasingly natural.
You begin to think God’s thoughts after him. You start seeing the world through a biblical lens. You’re no longer tossed about by every new teaching or cultural trend because you’re anchored in the truth you’ve studied and internalized. You become useful in God’s kingdom—able to teach others, to defend the faith, to make disciples rather than just being one.
Tim Keller puts it plainly: “Discipleship is not an option. Jesus says that if anyone would come after me, he must follow me.” And following Jesus means going where he went, doing what he did, and learning what he taught. It means becoming a student of the Word, not a spectator in a religious show.
The Promise and the Challenge
Here’s the good news that makes all of this possible: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Jesus doesn’t send us out to become learners on our own strength. His presence, through the Holy Spirit, is our teacher and guide. The same Spirit who inspired Scripture illuminates it to our understanding. The same God who commands us to learn empowers us to learn.
But let’s be crystal clear: Jesus’s presence doesn’t replace our responsibility. He’s not going to download biblical knowledge into your brain while you binge-watch Netflix. He’s not going to magically make you biblically literate while you ignore your Bible. His presence empowers your effort; it doesn’t substitute for it.
The challenge before you is straightforward: Will you commit to becoming a student of God’s Word, or will you continue coasting as a spiritually ignorant churchgoer? Will you take responsibility for your own biblical literacy, or will you keep delegating your spiritual growth to pastors and professionals? Will you immerse yourself in Scripture and sound teaching, or will you remain content with secondhand spirituality?
Because here’s the reality—the church doesn’t need more people who show up on Sunday morning. It needs disciples. It needs men and women who know what they believe because they’ve studied it. It needs believers who can “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have”—and who can do so with both conviction and gentleness.
It needs Christians who’ve moved beyond spiritual infancy to maturity. Who’ve trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Who aren’t content with milk but are ready for solid food. Those who are able not just to be taught but to teach others.
David Platt is right: “Making disciples of Jesus is the overflow of delight in being disciples of Jesus.” You can’t pass on what you don’t possess. You can’t teach what you don’t know. You can’t lead someone into biblical depth if you’re swimming in the shallow end yourself.
So here’s your assignment: Starting today, commit to combating spiritual ignorance in your own life. Set aside time daily for Scripture reading and study. Buy a good study Bible and a solid theology book. Find a Bible study group or start one. Memorize one verse per week. Listen to sound biblical teaching during your commute. Use the tools and resources available to you.
And as you grow in knowledge, as Scripture saturates your mind and shapes your heart, don’t keep it to yourself. Share it. Teach a Sunday school class. Mentor a younger believer. Start conversations about biblical truth. Be ready to give answers. Make disciples who can make disciples.
The wooden Indian won the election because voters didn’t know what they were voting for. The mule won because people didn’t bother to investigate the candidate. Don’t let that be the story of your spiritual life. Don’t be a Christian in name only, ignorant of the faith you claim to profess.
Jesus has given you his authority, his commission, his Word, and his presence. He’s given you every resource you need to grow from ignorance to understanding, from spectator to disciple, from consumer to multiplier.
The only question left is: What will you do with it?
Get into God’s Word. Explore biblical resources. Learn what you believe and why you believe it. Immerse yourself in divine truth. And watch as the Holy Spirit uses that immersion to transform you from a churchgoer into a disciple—and from a disciple into a disciple-maker.
The battle against spiritual ignorance begins in your own heart and mind. Will you fight it?