For years, decades, perhaps even centuries, common sense has been understood and agreed upon by the majority of people on the planet – despite ideological and even religious differences, people agreed on certain things that seemed illogical to deny. Elders should be respected, children are to be taken care of and valued, its better to be kind to someone than to shame them, things are either true, or false; these things and many more like them were just “known” and accepted by basically everyone – and to disagree with them, made one counter cultural. There are some that were a little harder to swallow, but still viewed as common sense – you get out what you put into something, hard work pays off, nothing in life worth having usually comes for free, sometimes life isn’t going to go your way, and you have to be able to survive and adapt – these and other hard lessons were still viewed by most as easy to identify and accept. But over the course of the last generation, 40 or so years, a worldview has become pervasive across the globe and it has changed everything – it’s called “postmodernism” and basically it’s best described as the idea that something can be true for one person and not the other. Now while that doesn’t sound incredibly impossible on it’s face, because of things like skill level or God given gifts, those aren’t the things that postmodernism is concerned with. More often than not it has to do with things like morality, cultural ideologies, and what’s viewed as normative between the two. It’s gotten to the point where I think it’s safe to say; ‘Common sense isn’t common anymore.’
Because there’s so much wrong with us, we need something and someone to help us figure out how to fix and change it – we need some sort of example on how to live differently and make the correct choices, a guideline or instruction booklet of sorts, so that we can get life right (for the most part). Those of us who grew up in church or a Christian home probably think of the Bible when those kinds of things are mentioned, and I think that’s the best place to start – but even more specifically, we need to look directly at the life of Jesus and those who had real life interactions with Him, so that we can see how He lived, and how he handled situations like the ones we face. You see, I don’t claim to be any smarter than anyone else, I know I’m not more virtuous or capable of defeating sin on my own, I have fights with my wife, I lose my temper with my kids, I put my foot in my mouth all the time – but ONE thing has helped me keep on the straight and narrow for a lot of years. I believe ‘Christianity SHOULD be common sense.’ The life and teachings of Jesus, should be so obviously helpful to us, that when faced with challenges in life, we know that we need only open the pages of our Bible, and look to His life and teachings as our guide.
The Apostle Paul tells first century Roman believers, that the evidence for God is everywhere, and it’s as obvious as the nose on their face. He puts it this way;
Romans 1:18–23 (ESV) ~ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things.
You and I have the same choice to make. Will we make the teachings of Jesus common sense and common practice again in our world, or will we exchange the truths of God for the lies of this world? I think we should try making common sense, and common sense Christianity, common again.
