Watch Out for Common Sense
Glorified stupidity is no way to approach our attitudes toward life or our decision-making. There's a better way.
People will often say their attitudes or decisions are rooted in “common sense.”
But common sense usually describes only what people think or do reflexively, without looking at facts or seeking wisdom. “Common sense” is, for the most part, glorified stupidity.
Seeking information and listening to wise, informed people yields better attitudes and decisions. Proverbs 11:14 says, “Where there is no guidance, a people falls, but in an abundance of counselors there is safety.”
(By the way, the wisest of people can often be heard to say, “I don’t know, but there’s someone else or some other source you might look at for the answer.” And my mentor Martha Schneider used to tell me, “It’s not something you can’t pray about, Mark.”)
Of course, all true wisdom comes from God and those who reverence and respect Him are the ones to whom God usually gives His wisdom. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10)
It should be said that wisdom won’t save you from sin, death, or condemnation for sin. We sinners can do nothing to save ourselves from our inborn impulses to sin: our selfishness, greed, lustful or murderous thoughts, gossip or covetousness. But like wisdom which has God as its ultimate source, it is God Who overcomes our native sin and the death that results from it. He does this through Jesus Christ, the crucified and risen Savior. Christ forgives believers and makes us new, not because we deserve saving, but because of God’s love for the whole cosmos, including you. “…[I]f anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) Jesus says, “I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:32) Through His cross and resurrection, Jesus has completed the work necessary to save you (and all of us sinners) from sin, death, and condemnation.
And, as we pray to God in the name of Jesus Who has saved us and as we read His Word in Scripture, we can also receive the benefit of God’s wisdom. This is important if we want to live beyond the level of reflexive and unreflective “common sense.”
Returning to God through Christ in daily repentance and faith is, for the follower of Jesus, as essential as taking in oxygen or food. Jesus tells Christians: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)
Relying on our minds, our emotions, or our common sense isn’t helpful. Virtually all of the troubles we see in our world are caused by people relying on their brains, hearts, or “common sense.” Proverbs warns us, “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death.” (Proverbs 14:12) Our inmost thoughts fail us. “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9) Our uninformed, inward thoughts will fail us too.
There are no guarantees that we will always have the right attitudes about life or make the right decisions. God is always right; but even those made righteous through their God-given faith in Jesus are still by inclination and impulse sinners. We listen to God and His wisdom with ears prejudiced toward the selfish path, the easy path, the known and worldly path. None of us will ever get things completely right.
But God is gracious, full of charity and abounding in love. As you seek wisdom through prayer, the reading of Scripture, and the counsel of mature people, you will sometimes, even often, get things wrong. But God will never condemn those who earnestly seek Him and His will. As you trust in Jesus, however faintly, you can be certain that, before the eyes of heaven, you are covered with the righteousness of Jesus.
And what if, needing to make a decision, you feel no certainty about what the right thing to do might be?
Then, trusting in Jesus and having an earnest desire to do God’s will and not your own, you should make the decision you believe is right. (Usually, that will be the more selfless and inconvenient option among the decisions you consider.) You can do this because, as a human being God deeply loves and for whom Jesus died and rose, you know that “[nothing]…in all creation, will be able to separate [you] from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:39) Besides, if your decision proves to be the wrong one, you can correct things.
”Common sense” be hanged. Instead, you can trust in the God we meet in the crucified and risen Jesus.