“No One Cares How Much You Know…”

Articles

Philip C. Strong
02/27/24 - Salvation

If the oft-repeated platitude, “No one cares how much you know unless they know how much you care” is how you think and feel, then you care more about yourself and how others feel about you than you do about truth. Friend, that’s dangerous ground, 2Thess.2:10… and I say this because I care!

If the ancient Ninevites had thought and felt as the cliché expresses, they would have perished instead of repenting at the dispassionate but truthful preaching of Jonah. Again, please think soberly about this as you read or reread the book of Jonah.

Also consider that we hearken and heed roadside warning signs, not because they necessarily care about us (they’re inanimate after all), but because they truthfully warn us regarding impending dangers of the path we’re currently traveling. Shouldn’t we have the same regard for “the truth” that warns of eternal perils of the path we’re traveling regardless of who and how it is revealed to us?

Such is not meant to provide license for failures to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt.22:39) or “love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matt.5:44), but is instead intended to emphasize how much or little we love and regard the truth, cf. Matt.13:44-45 and Matt.19:16-22.

So if we are only willing to hear and consider truth when it comes from someone who we feel has somehow “earned the right” to share that truth with us by loving and caring and approaching us in the way we think they should, we are narcissistically more concerned with ourselves than we are with truth. Don’t be “that guy” or “that woman”! Accept and apply “truth” because it is “true” rather than because of “who” and “how” it is revealed to you.

Understanding and applying this principle will allow you to even benefit from “truth” that someone you may consider an “enemy” has revealed. It will also help you comprehend how Paul could think, feel, and write what he did in Phil.1:15-18. Think about it, won’t you?