A comic strip depicted a conversation between two small boys. One tells about his dad hearing a strange grinding noise in the car’s engine. When asked if he stopped to fix it, he replies, “No, he just turned the radio up louder so he couldn’t hear it!” It struck me that this is how we “fix” a lot of our problems.
Take a sinner who knows what to do to become a Christian or a backsliding, worldly Christian whose lifestyle needs changing to again entertain hope of salvation (Acts 8:22; Jas. 5:16). Each realizes that major spiritual repairs are in order, yet lacking courage to make them, he “turns up the radio.”
- He may turn up the radio by criticizing the hypocrites in the church or by poking fun at some Bible teaching.
- He may divert attention from the truth with a side-issue, such as untaught natives on some faraway island (cf. 2 These 1:7-9) or the “thief on the cross.” Is the “What about them?” more cover than concern? “What about me?” is a better question.
- He may attack the messenger in order to ignore the message. With violent prejudice some tried to muffle Jesus by calling Him “a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber” (Mt. 11:19). Some on Pentecost ‘turned up their radios” by accusing the Spirit-filled apostles of being drunk with new wine (Acts 2:13). Festus averted the issue by discrediting the teacher. In a loud voice, he said, “…Paul, thou art mad; much learning is turning thee mad” (Acts 26:24).
- He may “turn up the radio” by procrastinating. Felix tuned out the “uncomfortable” message of spiritual subjects, like righteousness, self-control, and the judgment to come, by appealing to a more convenient season (Acts 24:25). So far as we know, it never came.
- He may replace the teacher with one who will say what he wants to hear. Paul prophesied that some would “heap to themselves teachers after their own lusts” (2 Tim. 4:3).
As you can see, “turning up the radio” has been going on since before radios were invented. Why suppress the truth? It does not change it to ignore it. Perhaps it is disconcerting to see something in our lives that needs fixing— and especially if it happens to be something we don’t want fixed! That was the problem with some about whom John wrote. They “loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light…” (Jn. 3:19-20). Satan has the remedy: fix the “noise,” not the ailing soul.
Others know soul “fixing” means admitting wrong and making changes. Pride says, “Turn up the radio!” Courage and character say, “Speak, Lord, thy servant heareth” (1 Sam. 3:9). Wise people want all the truth (Acts 20:27).
