I rarely watch television. It’s not because I have some pseudopious objection to it. For me it’s a time issue, except when it comes to sitcoms. If I was confined to a bed, I wouldn’t watch a sitcom. I used to love them as a teenager, probably for the same reasons I tend to dislike them now as a parent.
One of my irritations with the sitcom genre is how every adult is portrayed as a half-wit while the kids are endless sources of wisdom and clear-headed thinking. The only skills that mom and dad seem to have are getting into trouble and being smart enough to let their kids extricate them from their problems.
Maybe this is why one of my pet peeves is the notion that the Bible is so simple even a child can understand it. Don’t get the wrong idea—I know that the gospel story of Jesus really can be understood at a young age. But I’m talking about more than the gospel. As someone who has taught a lot in the local church and in the classroom, I’ve heard the expression stated as a duty simply to avoid thinking. “I just want to love Jesus. Why are you complicating things?” I want to love Jesus too. Why are you being lazy about knowing God’s Word?
Serious Bible study is work. It can be tedious at times. It doesn’t always provide an immediate payoff in terms of addressing a spiritual struggle or answering a knotty question. Teddy Roosevelt once said, “Nothing in the world is worth having or worth doing unless it means effort, pain, difficulty. . . . I have never in my life envied a human being who led an easy life. I have envied a great many people who led difficult lives and led them well.” Amen. I’ve never wanted to emulate anyone who halted their study of Scripture with what their kids knew. I’ve sought to be like those who put real effort and sacrifice into the enterprise.
As Art Linkletter used to remind television audiences, “Kids say the darnedest things.” They sure do, but I’m not expecting to hear one explain why God told Samuel to deceive Saul’s men (1 Sam. 16:1–5), or what Paul was thinking when he talked about baptism for the dead (1 Cor. 15:29), or a long list of other things in the Bible. Discovering those answers is for adults.