“That guy doesn’t have a clue!” I hear that statement tossed around quite a bit. While it is uncharitable at best, it is not without merit in many situations.

I’ve stood in self-checkout lines and watched customers summon the clerk with each and every scanned item. As I am a frequently technologically challenged old guy, I may be overly sensitive to the perception of being “clueless”!

Google AI tells us, “Being called ‘clueless’ means someone thinks you lack knowledge, awareness, or understanding about a specific situation. It implies you don’t know what is going on or how to handle a given situation, and it is frequently used to describe someone missing obvious signs or social cues.”

One thing we don’t want to be clueless about is this Christian journey we are on. In spiritual terms, the opposite of being clueless is being discerning, and a lack of discernment is a significant problem today.

The Apostle Paul tells us, “The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Corinthians 2:14, ESV).

The Greek word translated “discerned” is anakrino, defined as “to judge closely, examine” (Young’s Concordance). While it makes sense that an unsaved individual will fail to grasp spiritual principles, that should not be the case for a born-again believer.

The author of the Book of Hebrews gives us an insight into what might lead to a lack of discernment on the part of a Christian:

“About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” (Hebrews 5:11-14)

If we take our Google AI explanation of a clueless individual being one who lacks “knowledge, awareness, or understanding about a specific situation,” and couple that with our Hebrews passage, the source of our cluelessness is a lack of biblical knowledge — or, to be precise, biblical illiteracy. We are unfamiliar with biblical precepts, biblical promises, and biblical wisdom. We go through life being clueless about how to navigate this chaotic fallen world.

Most of us understand that if we are going to assemble a cabinet, we need to follow the instructions. The Bible is our instruction manual from the One who made us, and we are clueless if we fail to heed His instructions on the care and maintenance of His created ones.

The Apostle Peter tells us, “His [God the Father’s] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence” (2 Peter 1:3).

If you want to avoid cluelessness, you need to begin reading the Owner’s Manual. It contains “all things that pertain to life and godliness.”

What say ye, Man of Valor?
Semper Fidelis!