Our Need to Unlearn

In a sermon I heard, the preacher spoke of Simon of Samaria who came to faith in Jesus after being a practicing sorcerer.  For a long time he held the people of his city spellbound by his supernatural abilities, and he duped them into thinking he wielded the power of God.  After Simon believed in Jesus, was baptised and continued with Philip the evangelist in fellowship, he saw when visiting apostles laid hands on people they were filled with the Holy Spirit.  He foolishly offered Simon Peter money so he too could have the power to lay hands on people so they could receive the gift of God.  Acts 8:20-21 tells us Peter's fiery response:  "But Peter said to him, "Your money perish with you, because you thought that the gift of God could be purchased with money! ²¹ You have neither part nor portion in this matter, for your heart is not right in the sight of God."

It is very possible this idea of offering money for power carried over from Simon's life when he was a sorcerer, for power was always on offer--for a price.  In Acts 19 after the fear of the LORD Jesus Christ fell on the people of Ephesus, those who repented of their witchcraft and confessed Jesus as LORD brought their books of magic together and burned them, and the value of those books combined was 50,000 pieces of silver.  Satan is willing to exchange power for a price (always a wretched deal), for he offered the cities of the world to Jesus if He would bow and worship him.  Because of his background, it is likely Simon imagined it was perfectly legitimate to offer money for a supernatural ability like a magician does for a new trick.  Peter rebuked Simon for offering money when the Gospel and the baptism of the Holy Spirit is freely offered by God to all who trust in Jesus.  Simon had a lot to learn.

Simon, like all people who come to believe in Jesus, also had a lot to unlearn.  This is one of the great challenges that faces all Christians, for we naturally carry into our Christian life oversized baggage full of assumptions, hearsay, misunderstandings, the emphasis of one truth to the neglect or negation of another equally important truth, falsehoods and even heresies.  A person who spent time as a spiritist or was a member of a cult has a crooked foundation of thinking laid that does not automatically disappear by the addition of faith of Jesus Christ.  Believers who spent their childhood or their adult life attending churches that had a legalistic style can be influenced by a legalistic lens in their reading and interpretation of the Scriptures, judgments they make about scores of things, and their daily decisions.  Adding knowledge by reading God's word does not by itself remove rubbish ideas we assumed were correct because they are the only thing we have heard or known.  Having been born again by faith in Jesus, we must grow to be dependent on the word of God by the power of the Holy Spirit to observe the scripture, understand what it means, and how to apply it personally.

Praise the LORD He is the One who transforms us, and the light of the Gospel brings countless sins and our errors to light.  God also uses fellow believers to exhort and even rebuke us when bitterness or pride rises up within us, when we crave the spotlight and grab for power like Simon did.  Our journey of being sanctified day by day more into the image of Jesus means we need to keep changing for good, and this means the old ways of living and thinking must be identified and thrown out so we can be better aligned with our LORD Jesus.  People who have had genuine faith in Jesus for decades can still be influenced by assumptions, habits and ways of thinking that are unbiblical.  God forbid we should be like those Paul described in 2 Timothy 3:7, those who are "always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."  This suggests an unwillingness to lay aside old falsehoods combined with unwillingness to obey the Gospel.  Unless we put what we learn of God's word into practice by faith in Him, we will not grow spiritually.  Jesus is the Truth and has given Himself to us, and by following Him faithfully in submission to Him we embrace our sanctification.  Though progress may seem slow, we have all assurance God is faithful to complete the work in us He began by His grace.