There’s a joke about a man who asks his friend if he knows that people think of him as not only ignorant but also apathetic. His friend replies, “I wouldn’t know and couldn’t care less.”
Ignorance is not good but apathy is worse. In time an ignorant man may learn, but the indifference of an apathetic person makes him or her unreachable. In animal terms: you can teach a dog but you can’t reach a koala.
Apathy is defined as a lack of interest in things that other people find moving or exciting. It leaves a person unfeeling about the needs of others and uncaring about their condition. Lots of Christians are apathetic about the Lord’s Second Coming.
Jesus said of one church that was neither hot nor cold that he would rather it was either one thing or the other. He said if it didn’t change, he would “spit it out” [as one does a lukewarm drink]. Harsh words but necessary ones for a church that had become self-satisfied and complacent (Revelation 3:15-17).
Complacency results from the over-enjoyment of possessions that have brought comfort. At least a complacent person has feelings, even if they are feelings of self-satisfaction. But an apathetic person has little or no feeling for anyone or anything. Apathy is indifference to passion, emotion and excitement. An apathetic church is dead to them all.
Lot was a righteous man who ended up in a city so “filthy” that he tormented himself every day for living there (2 Peter 2:8). But although Lot had compromised himself, no one could accuse him of apathy because an apathetic man is not tormented by what other people are doing. Abraham’s prayers moved God to send two angels to Sodom, and they rescued Lot and his daughters just in time.
But how is it possible for an apathetic Christian to become one that cares? Would not apathy itself prevent such a change? As we would expect, the answers to these questions are found in the Bible, first, in the way God stirred up rulers for the future good of His people; and second, in the way God’s people stirred up themselves.
Whenever a time came for God to keep His promise to His people, God stirred up the spirit of the ruling king of the day. “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it in writing…” (Ezra 1:1
“And the LORD stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, the son of Josedech, the high priest, and the spirit of all the remnant of the people…” (Haggai 1:14) The Hebrew word for stirred up means, awakened: God awakened Cyrus personally with a vision of what He wanted. Years later, He awakened the Jews from their spiritual sleep through the stirring words of Haggai the prophet.
In both cases, the time had come for God to bring to pass what He had promised. This is a kind of sovereign stirring that shows God’s initiative in a matter. This being so, we might conclude that there’s nothing we can do but wait for the time when He opens the eyes of people as to what he is about to do, and then reveals to them the part they are to play in bringing His plan to pass. But Isaiah says this isn’t always so; that spiritual preparation can be a believer’s personal responsibility.
“There is no one who calls on your name, that stirs up himself to take hold of you…” (Isaiah 64:7) In ancient Greek the word for “stirred” conveys the thought of a sharp paroxysm of pain. Figuratively, it can refer to the pain we experience when our spirit is provoked by seeing ungodly things. The Apostle Paul’s spirit was provoked by the idols he saw in Athens. Paul’s spirit was “stirred within him” when he saw that the city was “entirely given over to idolatry” (Acts 17:16). This flew in the face of all that Paul, who was a Jew, knew to be true.
While waiting in Athens for Silas and Timothy to join him on his journey to Corinth, the usually busy Paul had time to observe the idolatry that was endemic to Greece’s largest city. It pained him to see the hold it had on the people. He debated with other Jews in the city’s synagogue on the Sabbath, and during the week with whoever he met in the market. We are familiar with Paul’s inspired message to the Athenians on Mar’s hill (the highest court in Athens), but should remind ourselves that it was the outcome of a stirring in his spirit
Paul was far from apathetic: the many idols to the many gods so much in evidence provoked him; the vision of them pained him; the culture of intrinsic idolatry stirred his spirit and drove him to witness of Jesus to Jew and Greek alike.
“You loved righteousness, and hated wickedness…” (Psalm 45:7) This prophecy of the Messiah predicts that he would be anything but apathetic. An apathetic person wouldn’t care less, but would be indifferent, unconcerned, uninterested, unresponsive, uncommitted, disengaged, impassive, unmoved, listless, unemotional, unfeeling, cold, passionless, and spiritless.
Antonyms to apathetic include: concerned, interested, responsive, committed, active, stirred, aroused, excited, emotional, passionate, zealous, vehement – hot!
Which of these two groups describes your present state? Which group best describes your church? The honest answer is probably a bit of both: passionate about some things and cool about others. The Lord Jesus “loved righteousness and hated wickedness” – he was passionate across the scale! Apathetic unbelievers make no such distinctions; they care for neither because they are indifferent to both.
If you are not stirred, provoked or pained by lewd advertising billboards, increasingly suggestive television, and the increasing acceptance of filthy and blasphemous language, you need to stir yourself up by making a clear distinction between what is right and what is wrong; what is holy and what is unholy; what is acceptable to God and what is unacceptable to Him. “Woe to them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter.” (Isaiah 5:20) These things are perverse – but apathy is worse! An apathetic person could care less
Every revival begins when God stirs up someone’s spirit for what He loves and against what he hates. In the 19th century the spirits of godly men and woman were stirred up against slavery and for freedom; against drunkenness and for sobriety; against poverty and for welfare. In the 20th century the spirits of godly men and women were stirred up against dead religion and for living faith; against sickness and for divine health.
In the 21st century the spirits of godly men and women are stirred up to stand against encroaching government control and for hard-won liberties; against restrictive economic penalties and for free enterprise rewards; against world-approved religions and for personal spiritual freedom
If you wish to rid yourself of apathy you need to make a choice. If you don’t you may well identify with the idolatrous Athenians in their mockery of Paul’s message of the Resurrection and his certainty of future judgement by God’s appointed man Jesus. I say again: the Athenians erected a monument to The Unknown God and were more pathetic than apathetic; however, they did consider the possibility of an Unknown Something or Someone. Had they been apathetic, they may have gotten around to erecting an altar sometime with the brief inscription: “Who Cares?” Do you care? You should. The Day is dawning — no time for yawning.