Just A Lot Of Noise!

August 7, 2025

Just A Lot Of Noise!

When I exercise at the gym each morning, I spend about ten minutes listening to the different talk-type news shows on television.  When I listen, all I hear is a bunch of noise. 

Experts who are not experts, give “expert” opinions, reporters who never smile, report on news that never makes them smile, and “news” that is fabricated around the social, political, and economic agendas of the networks is reported as the unbiased truth about what is happening in our world. 

The talk-type news programs are mostly a bunch of noise getting in the way of and distracting us from the real Truth.  Missing the truth when we are distracted by agendas, opinions, and biases of our own or those of other people is nothing new.

The church in first century Corinth was struggling with distractions that get in the way of the Truth.

The church in Corinth was continually engaged in conflict.  The conflict was not so much with people in the community as it was with other people in the church. 

The Christ-followers in that place were arguing about everything.  They argued about who should receive Holy Communion first, who was more spiritually gifted, and who was the better pastor.  They argued about what to do about sexual immorality in the church, how to handle lawsuits against other Christians, and what kinds of food were to be avoided.  They argued about dress codes during worship, style of worship, and how to treat guests in worship. 

When Paul writes I Corinthians 13, he was thinking about how to deal with conflict in the church, in life, and in the world.  In I Corinthians 13:1 we hear that the first thing Paul writes is; “If I speak in the tongues of mortals and of angels, but do not have love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.”

Paul says that even when I am the most eloquent speaker, even when I share my opinions in an articulate way, or even when I speak with what seems to be the authority of God, my message is often no more than a bunch of noise.  Paul says; “I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal.” 

The result of too much noise is that love is diminished or destroyed.

For some reason, we have become people who believe our opinion, perspective, agenda, and beliefs count more than everyone else’s opinion, perspective, agenda, and beliefs.  We have also convinced ourselves that we are obligated to share our opinion, perspective, agenda, and beliefs with everyone we meet.  Eventually, we become people who believe that everyone can and should agree with me.

We can become another stream of noise that distracts us and other people from knowing the Truth.  In the end, the Truth is not about my opinion, my perspective, my agenda, or my beliefs.  The Truth begins and ends with God.

In John 14:6 we hear; “Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.’”  Jesus does not say He is one among many ways to the Kingdom of God.  Jesus does not say He is one among many ways to an abundant life.  Jesus does not say He is one among many ways to the Truth. 

Jesus says He is the only way!  Jesus says He is the only life!  Jesus says He is the only Truth!  Everything and everyone else is just a bunch of noise.  That noise distracts us from and distorts the reality that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life.

I encourage you to avoid becoming one more pessimistic and cynical and bitter human being.  For sure, we have enough of that poison in our world already.  Imagine if rather than looking to the major news networks for the Truth we looked to Jesus for the Truth.

Maybe it is time to seek the Word of God rather than rely only on the noisy and clanging words of other people.  I challenge you to engage in a 21-day Bible reading challenge starting today.  Read one chapter of the Gospel of John each day for the next 21 days. 

Before you read your chapter each day, take time to pray.  Ask the Holy Spirit to speak through the words on the page so those words become the Word of God for you…personally and uniquely and especially for you! 

When you have finished reading the chapter for the day, take time to pray again.  Invite the Holy Spirit to continue speaking through those words during the remainder of the day.

When we discover the Truth is Jesus and we come to know the Truth through the Word of God, our hearts will fill with delight in the Lord’s goodness and grace and generosity.

Take Delight In The Lord!

Doug