Jesus' most obvious analogy

Sometimes, the Bible makes fairly obvious statements. Like the statement Jesus made about relying on His word being like building a house on the right foundation. It is obvious, blindingly so, that relying on the word of the holy, omniscient God is as wise as building on the right foundation. Of course, I'm not saying that Jesus was wrong to say it (quite the opposite), but that this statement is so obvious that the only reason He needed to say it in the first place is because we, as sinners, are not always capable of understanding the obvious.

To illustrate this, consider the other religions of this world. Let us first consider Islam. Most Muslims, though they consider the Qur'an to be the holy word of God, do not actually study it. In fact, they are discouraged from doing so. When they attempt to study the Qur'an alone, they often start asking some very difficult questions. The response they receive from their apologists is that the Qur'an is unclear, that it doesn't really mean what it plainly says.

Furthermore, there are several places in the Qur'an that tell Muslims to study the Bible, in whole or in part. The typical response is "the Bible has been corrupted", but once again, they are discouraged from studying it without the help of their leaders.

Now, this much is obvious: If you believe the Qur'an is really the word of God, you should study it, you should believe it. By instead relying on the word of their imams, scholars and apologists, Muslims have submitted their will not to God, but to man. If they would just release themselves to God, they would study the Qur'an, find that it says to study the Bible, then the Bible would tell them to leave Islam, turn to Christ, and study the Bible instead.

But it's not just non-Christian religions that have this problem. Even if we go to pseudo-Christian religions, such as Catholicism, Mormonism, or the Watchtower, we see that independent Bible study is also discouraged, if not outright forbidden, in those religions. But as Bart Ehrman likes to ask, "if you really believe God wrote a book, why wouldn't you want to read it?"

And why indeed? God is omniscient, He possesses all knowledge. God is Holy, He cannot lie. God is love, He desires to know you personally, and for you to know Him. God is wise, a faithful application of His words will almost inevitably lead to a positive outcome even in this life (and a guaranteed positive outcome in the next). There is absolutely no sensible reason a sane human being would not want to hear and act on the words of God. And yet, in the conflict between sanity and sin, sin too often wins. False religions discourage you from hearing the words of God. Sinful desires dissuade us from acting upon them. Jesus had to make such an obvious statement as this, in the form of a simple analogy, because there is just so much in this world that makes even wise men foolish.

Thankfully for us, Jesus did make this statement. He did tell us that to hear and act upon His words is as wise as building a house on a rock. But His analogy does not end there. Jesus went on to describe the man who does otherwise. By not hearing His words, or not acting upon them, such a man is as foolish as one who builds a house on sand. Such a house will fall if so much as a breeze passes it by, and so the application is that relying on anyone else is a very bad idea. Muslims, Catholics, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, these people, and more, are in grave danger. Rather than hearing the words of God, and acting upon them, they hear the words of false teachers. These false teachers filter, shred, twist and disgrace the word of God, trapping those who follow them. This is to their own destruction, but also to the destruction of their own followers. Therefore, prayerfully study the word of God, and do not allow anyone to convince you not to.