What the World Needs Now – Sunday, March 27, 1983
If it’s true that wisdom consists of the proper application of knowledge, then it’s equally true that knowledge without application is a form of ignorance.
History itself provides ample proof of this assertion, for much of the carnage and destruction which characterizes the human species has been committed by those professing religious knowledge. And what’s even more tragic, the Gospel of Love has been used by governments and dictators alike as an instrument of intimidation, corruption and gain. And in the name of the gentle Galilean Himself, wars have been waged and entire nations eradicated.
We as a world know much of religion but apply little. We will argue for religion, fight for it, and even die for it, but few of us will live for it. We long for the immortality of another world yet find it difficult to live together in this one.
A knowledge of gospel principles, then, is no guarantee that religion will become a motivating force in the lives of men.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is not as much a philosophy of thought as it is a philosophy of life. It was not simply words and logic which characterized the life of Christ, but action and behavior. His words were few; His deeds were many.
And what few words we do have of His provide only an outline for the application of love and charity. “The Sermon on the Mount” is nothing more than a call to brotherly love.
And yet, the application of that short sermon to the events of our modern world would solve forever the most destructive ills of mankind.
What the world needs now is not new ideas, but the application of the old truth—the adoption by mankind of the simple virtues contained in “The Sermon on the Mount.”
Such application would let mercy patrol the skies above the Saudi and the borders of the Middle East; it would permit pureness of heart to administer the affairs of world leaders, and charity to preside in the great assembly halls of governments; it would suffer the peacemakers to walk the streets of troubled towns and reconstruct the rubble of war tom cities; it would allow those who mourn to comfort the sick and homeless of the slums and ghettos, and those who are poor in spirit to bring solace and shelter to the aged and unemployed. Such application would establish an unwritten law in every city and in every town of this globe the dear brotherhood of man.
Then and only then will nation not lift up sword against nation, neither shall we learn war any more.1
1 Old Testament, Isaiah 2:4
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March 27, 1983
Broadcast Number 2,797