Genius

“The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him.” - I John 3:1

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Genius is an overused word these days. Far too often it is deployed by people simply to describe someone whose work or art or athleticism they really appreciate. Instead of being a word that is held in reserve until serious thought and consideration has paved the way and made its use appropriate, people tend to throw it around like cheap candy, labeling almost everything or everyone they really love as genius. 

On the one hand, it’s understandable: we live in an ultra-hyperbolic society where language is largely performative and people believe everyone deserves a superlative. Every woman is a  goddess, every kid who plays gets a trophy and we’re all winners if we’re all winners. Additionally, what might it say about me if everything I like is the work of geniuses and masters? 

So we throw the label around far too much. 

In reality, true genius is a rare quality. It comes to us in many different forms but it tends to have two primary qualities that propel people into its rarified air: inherent talent and remarkable work ethic. And it’s important to note both of these.

Prodigious gifting alone isn’t enough to create a genius. The one who receives the gift must also be willing to do what is necessary to develop and hone it. One of the great misunderstandings in our society comes from our pretending that this second part of the equation isn’t necessary, that phenomenally talented people are simply born with the ability to do what they do on such an exceptional level. But the biographies of these select few are all we need to know this isn’t the case.

The gifting of unusual talent is a prerequisite, of course. But the rare geniuses among us are also known for the willingness to do what others will not in order to summit new heights with their abilities. Some of history’s greatest minds and talents have sacrificed nearly everything in the name of their gift: relationships, health, finances, and any semblance of a normal, balanced life. This is not to say that these kinds of priorities are appropriate or wise. Indeed, many of them are not and are evidence of an immense insecurity in the heart and mind of a person who will use their incredible gifting as an excuse to hide away from the things that serve to make people mature, decent and honorable human beings. 

What I’m after here is the metaphor: genius is built on the back of innate talent and the willingness to do what others will not in order to cultivate it. These qualities together are what separate a genius from the rest of society into a category almost wholly unknown by the rest of the world. 

And it is at this point that we find the correspondence to the Christian life.

There is a kind of genius within every single redeemed follower of Christ. And both of its aspects have their spiritual parallel: innate talent is represented by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5; I Corinthians 3:16) and the willingness to do what others will not is akin to the regenerated and cultivated heart that desires to do the will of the God, submitting to Him in love and obedience (Ezekiel 36:27; Hebrews 13:20-21). 

Make no mistake: what is created in the heart, mind and life of a believer is just as foreign, bizarre and beyond comprehension to the rest of the world as the rare geniuses who impact it through science, music or any other field of endeavor. Just like those human geniuses, the spiritual ones reside in a wholly separate category (John 17:25; Galatians 3:26; 1 John 3:1) and seem just as oddball and eccentric to those who consider them. The confident belief that the Bible says what it means and means what it says, fidelity to its sexual ethic and taking seriously its instructions on speech, for instance, will make you nothing short of a freak in the eyes of the rest of the society in which you live.

A believer’s connection to the Holy Spirit and ability to understand and deploy true, biblical wisdom is a characteristic so outlandish that it prompted Paul to write in I Corinthians 2:12-14, “Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual. 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.”

So the redeemed child of God is a sort of spiritual genius in comparison to the rest of unbelieving society. Let us note one important similarity and one stark difference, however.

First, just like human genius, the person who possesses the spiritual genius of Christ cannot justly take credit for it. It is a received gift. Uncommon talent and abilities to do what others cannot do not originate from within ourselves. They are not codes that we crack or decisions we find within ourselves the strength to make. These things come from God alone and must be received as such.

But, unlike human genius, which the world fails to comprehend but still appreciates, spiritual genius rankles the watching world to no end. The world does not appreciate the people of God, but seeks to marginalize and silence them. Romans 1:18 speaks of their suppression of truth and Christ told us in John 15:18-19 that the world would hate us for our connection to Him. The spiritual genius of the children of God is a constant threat to the human autonomy that natural mankind so desperately craves. It is a blaring reminder of human inadequacy and a testimony to the fact that we cannot solve our own problems or satisfy our own desires. Human people need what Christ alone can give, but they resent that need so much that they are willing to turn their backs on Him for all eternity. The lifestyle, priorities and wisdom of the children of God are like an alarm clock for the world that it can never quite manage to switch off. So instead of appreciating what we have been given, they not only fail to understand it, but they resent and hate it. 

There is nothing at all common or usual about an obedient Christian. There is nothing normal in the eyes of the world about someone who bows the knee to the risen Christ and seeks to glorify Him with everything that they do. And the world cannot even begin to understand why a person would want to take up their cross and deny themselves, being willing even to separate from their own families (Luke 14:26) and the gratification of their own desires (Galatians 5:16) in order to roll the dice on a Jewish carpenter who was executed for blasphemy. 

Take very seriously what you have been given, Christian. It is easy to begin to believe that it is commonplace or boring. But what you have in Christ is more than forgiveness of sins (which is indescribably precious all by itself). It is the gift of a rare and exceptional life now, marked by the understanding of biblical wisdom and training for citizenship in that never-ending kingdom where Christ reigns. What you have is more exceptional and powerful than Mozart’s music, Einstein’s equations or Shakespeare’s pen. It will make you a hated, misunderstood and ostracized stranger in this world. But it also makes this entire world worthless compared to what you will forever possess. 

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