“Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance” Martin Luther King, Jr.

Four years ago, a person entered a highway via an exit ramp that she thought was an entry ramp. She ended up going the wrong way and killed six people. Even though the driver was no doubt sincere in thinking she was going the right way, she was not. And the six who died were just as dead as they would have been had she known what she was doing.

I had heroes, when I was a boy. Most were sports figures like Mickey Mantle, Joe Namath and Pete Rose. These guys all advertised various products on TV and because they were my heroes – and even though I rarely paid any attention to commercials – I watched every syllable of the ads when they were on them.

Later on, I learned two things: First, none of these sports legends were very moral when it came to their lifestyles. Second, they were all paid spokesmen, so they didn’t necessarily even use the products that they were promoting.

I stopped paying much attention to ads after that – even when my “heroes” were on – because I discovered that people who get paid to say something generally will only say what the person paying them wants them to say.

Do you ever consider that most preachers are paid spokesman? Now I don’t want you to think that I am insinuating anything at all about their integrity, because I am not. I am a preacher and I get paid to stand up and speak every Sunday. I try to never say anything that I do not earnestly believe, but I also try to remind those who listen to me that I am a paid spokesman. Since this is a fact, they better be checking the Word to make sure that I am saying what the Master wants me to say, instead of what the people paying want me to say.

And, I have noticed through the years that even preachers sometimes forget who is who in this Master/employer relationship.

Let me give you a “for instance”. Did you know that the Bible does not mention, not a single time, a “Sinner’s Prayer of Faith”. Does that shock you? Now, I’m not saying that those who preach this doctrine are not sincere, but I am saying that they are paid spokesman, so maybe you should be checking out the Word to see if it agrees with what your paid spokesman is saying to you.

Wouldn’t it be a shame to find out someday that you and your paid spokesman were sincerely wrong?

Martin Luther King recognized the danger of sincere ignorance, and I believe you and I should too. I believe we should also recognize paid spokesmen when we see them. I am one, and so is every minister who accepts a salary. These salaries allow us to spend our time in study and preparation – I think that’s a good thing. But they also have pressure, no matter how subtle or not so subtle, to say what the people paying them want them to say.

As long as you recognize this, you can be on guard. But the moment you forget you are listening to a paid spokesman, you are in danger of succumbing to a “sincere ignorance” that could cost you your soul.

“For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” II Timothy 4:3, NIV