I learned in Dominican Spanish that the verb for ignore is not ingnorar. Ignorar does not mean to disregard something, it simply means you don’t know. And ignorante doesn’t imply rude or uneducated, as ignorant does in English.

 

What does it matter? Because of the ignorant masses. That phrase is often used disparagingly, to condemn people for their ingorance, to see them as innately ignorant. Stupid.

 

Yet, the world is full of people groups who know little or nothing about Jesus Christ. Which makes them . . . ignorant. But let’s use the Spanish significance, or better yet, the Christian significance. Even Jesus said it, with compassion. They don’t know what they’re doing. Not stupid, ignorante. They simply don’t know. It’s easy to discard the non-believer, to scorn his or her ignorance, while perhaps forgetting that there was a time when we . . . simply didn’t know.

 

Can we find ways – especially in these days of alarming and burdensome news – to change the ignorant masses into knowledgeable believers? I think we can.

 

Doug Reed | Literature And Teaching Ministries | www.latm.info