LifeLink Devotional

Wednesday, October 14, 2020

There’s one more element of prejudice that we need to deal with before moving on in our study of the seventh chapter of the Gospel of John. It’s the matter of prejudice being an irrational attitude of hostility towards others.

It only takes a few minutes of being out in public to recognize this aspect of prejudice in our culture today. People’s behavior is irrational.  The word rational comes from the Latin word rationalis, meaning reasonable or logical. There seems to be very little logic used by people today. In what world is it rational to proclaim that you stand for something and then seek to prove your point by destroying it? We only have to read the headlines or observe the culture to see that irrationality rules.

We must pause for a moment and recognize a very important truth – rational thought can have the appearance of reasonableness but lack logic. Let me explain. It is reasonable for ungodly, self-ruled people to act in accordance with their chosen objective to gratify self. But we are relational beings, not designed for independence but rather for interdependence. Yet every effort to serve self is at the expense of someone else, thereby destroying interdependence. Self-gratification may appear to be reasonable, but it is ultimately illogical, therefore not rational.

Yet our world is being driven by people seeking self as the highest objective. And if self is the highest objective, then hostility towards whatever opposes self is acceptable. No wonder the activities we observe are so irrational.

Massive groups of people claim to uphold the dignity of life, yet they destroy life in the womb. Irrational.

Large numbers of people seeking respect for various races of people, yet they destroy the livelihood of the very people they claim to represent. Irrational.

Leaders of government are elected to represent the people but instead use their authority to strengthen their own positions. Irrational.

I’m sure you can come up with more examples. Irrationality abounds all around us. All caused by prejudice. We are guilty of the prejudice of honoring self over others. The result is hostility towards those who don’t serve our purpose.

My friends, don’t fall prey to the irrational behavior of the world. Rational thought is possible, when grounded in logic. Logic is possible when based on unchangeable truth. And there is only one source of unchangeable truth – Jesus Christ, who is THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE. Rational thought will return to the world when Jesus Christ does. Until then, we who choose Christ over self are called to be little islands of rational thought in an irrational world.

Pastor John