Mystery

The mystery of mankind is intriguing, but the mystery of God even more so.  Faith implies and needs some mystery which means there is information unknown and/or withheld from the seeker, perhaps from all seekers, and that without assurance it will ever be found or revealed.  A part of faith is that it will ultimately gain some end-stage understanding.  Mystery related to Christian faith is real, and has a life of its own.  It is not ignorance, although ignorance is a factor in working through mystery for human beings.  Ignorance, in the way we have come to use the term, implies that there is information available that has not been sought, or, at the lowest evaluation has been sought, found and ignored.  We tend to acknowledge mystery. We shy away from ignorance maintained by slothfulness.  As odd as it sounds, we are not ignorant that mystery is mystery.  We live with it, without guilt, and know what it is as we may live with a package unopened.  If the package is from a friend we know there is something good in the package.  If from someone unknown to us, there may be danger hiding in the wrapping.  Mystery comes from somewhere outside of ourselves – unless we create mystery for others.  We forget there is a devilish mystery that is more confounding to us than is the mystery of God.  We tend to feel blamed in some way when we are found ignorant or touched by mystery.  Religions that posit God are often identified as Mystery Religions.

In the human context we live with mystery, greater or lesser, in most of our experience, personal and social. When we don’t understand ourselves in our being, or in our relationships, some of the problem relates to the mystery of self.  Some of it is related to ignorance in that we may not have personal information available to us related to some aspects of this or that reality.  Under the law of the Old Testament ignorance related to spiritual values is addressed in Leviticus 4-5, and Numbers 15.  Under the grace of the New Testament the attitude of the Christian is to assume that violation of God is because of ignorance, Acts 3:17; and, that ignorance is further revealed in Ephesians 4:18.  The Apostle Peter carries the matter further in his First Epistle (1:14; 2:15).  Here he perceived human logic, that if ignorance relieves persons from negative evaluation the better it is to identify it as mystery.  Evasion would be taken as slothful, perhaps with greater loss ultimately than for those who are ignorant for no fault (unknowns) of their own.  A part of God’s favorable treatment of mankind relates to their faithful seeking for God and his will.  Willful evasion of spiritual duty is a folly of large meaning to be met with stern evaluation (judgment) from God.  For that ignorance in mankind that is not the fault of the individual in the context of life, we are comforted with the words of the Apostle Paul on Mars Hill.  My personal nature warms to the translation of the King James Version of the statement of the Apostle: And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent. (Acts 17:30)  The meaning of winked at is rightly translated for our current language symbolism with the word overlooked.  This is another way of reporting that God is fair to all.

Scripture teaches us how to live in the mystery of our lives and the universe.  The mysteries of marriage, family, society and natures, both physical and human, are not fully understood, but those mysteries can be well managed by faith relating to righteousness, by conduct related to service to others, by learning related to maturity (proper thought and action).  There are other factors noted in Scripture that assist in this life performance – including the Fruit of the Spirit delineated in Galatians 5:22-23.  It is interesting that the various factors are not addressed as plural, but that taken together they make up a compound (one of several) so that they meld together to make the persons we become.  There are other factors that belong to the listing in Galatians, like patience.  Usually the lists of Scripture don’t include all the factors, and add words like such like, or such things, or such sacrifices.  One of the great differences between the infant and the adult is that to the infant everything is elemental, and for the adult compounded.  The broken toy is everything of the moment to the child, and the tears are not assuaged until the matter is settled in some way so that the child may proceed to some other elemental factor.  The child lives in the moment, the adult lives in time periods.  The secret is to become effective in managing complexity in life – including mystery.