Never assume assumptions are safe. If you spend most of your time building your positions and beliefs based on assumptions, you will be a very shallow and misguided person. If you’re a preacher, well, you will be a very shallow and misguided preacher. Consider how easily it is for the devil to get into the details of assumptions. Below are a few dangerous assumptions that seem to be popular in our day.
- Assuming everyone’s life is wonderful and that your friends are living the “dream life” simply by following their Instagram posts.
- Assuming you know people because you follow them on social media.
- Assuming you are real friends with people who you follow on social media.
- Assuming a person doesn’t like you because they never interact with you on social media.
Remember that nice picture of your friend’s family enjoying a great vacation doesn’t contain the noise and drama of the children fighting and the lengthy list of other real life challenges that we all face. Stop allowing the sin of the human heart to lead you to jealousy and anger based on a simple social media post. The above list are just a few assumptions that are popular in our digital world, but what about “real life” that involves real conversations, actions, and church relationships?
Stop Assuming the Worst About People
How many people do you know who consistently embrace the worst about others merely based on assumptions gathered by body language or gossip gathered about the person without ever asking one question to the person in question? It’s really easy to build positions about people and to formulate what you believe about a person based on assumptions rather than reality. This is not only dangerously toxic, it’s a sinful misrepresentation of the person in your family, local church, neighbor, or co-worker.
Within the local church, I can’t tell you how many times I’ve met with individuals who have built an entire library of opinions about another individual within their local church based completely on assumptions. When I push back and ask if they’ve gone to the person to verify the reality of the opinions, nearly every single time the person denies having every asked a single question to the person for verification. They would rather believe assumptions instead of reality. The devil laughs at such patterns because he can easily divide people who aren’t committed to truth.
When you hear something about another person, instead of believing the worst, why not strive to believe the positive? Is darkness really more attractive than light? Consider what damage can arise from basing your opinion of another person on negative assumptions instead of verified reality. Likewise, consider what the Bible teaches about striving to maintain the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace. In his letter to the church at Ephesus (and surrounding cities), Paul penned pointed out the need for Christians to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3). The word translated maintain is “τηρέω” which means to retain in custody, keep watch over, guard. It can carry the idea of causing a state, condition, or activity to continue.
In short, the command is to strive for unity and it’s not an option for the Christian. The Christian is not called to create unity, but we are called to cultivate unity. The Christian is not called to manufacture unity, but we are called to maintain it. Martyn Lloyd-Jones – “Not to be in fellowship with those who are born again is to be guilty of schism, which is sinful.” [1] Rather than assuming the worst, why not fight for the unity of the Spirit within your local church?
Don’t Assume People Know the Gospel
Another danger among the Christian community is to assume that everyone understands and knows the gospel simply because they claim to be a follower of Jesus. This happens in the work of preaching (the heralding of the gospel) and it happens in general conversations in the community on a regular basis.
Consider how many times in preaching (you or your pastor) the gospel has been assumed. It’s often assumed that since people are in an evangelical church assembly on the Lord’s Day—they must understand what the gospel is and believe it. It would be wonderful to hear the gospel explained more clearly from the pulpit in the regular preaching of God’s Word. Preachers should state the gospel, and then explain it clearly. After explaining it, they should repeat what they explained and have already stated in order to be sure that people understand what they stated from the beginning. Assumptions are deadly when it comes to the gospel.
When having conversations at school or during break sessions at work—just because a friend claims to be a Christian don’t assume he or she is a Christian. It would be good to ask your friend to explain the gospel. What does a person mean when they claim to believe the gospel? Just yesterday, when I finished the Discovery class (membership class at our church) I informed each family that when we do their interview prior to membership, I will ask them to explain the gospel in 2-minutes and then explain how they have embraced (believed) the gospel personally. It would be a tragic mistake to assume that families who desire membership in our church know the gospel and believe it.
Assumptions lead to darkness and the devil always thrives in darkness rather than the light. It would be really good to stop assuming and start asking people to verify that what you assume to be true is actually…true.
- D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, What is an Evangelical? (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1992), 90.
