The sneaky benefit of complexity

At my house I have a box of remote controls. One for the TV, one for the DVR/Satellite, one for the Clearplay, one for the over-the-air HD-digital receiver, one for the stereo, one for the DVD/VCR recorder combo, etc. Now, being a typical man, I see this as a thing of beauty. For one, I love remotes, and secondly no-one in the house but me knows which remote does what with which device, sooooooo guess who always gets to run the remote when it's TV time? Clever eh? Just make something so complex that no-one else understands it, and the job is always yours.

Okay, I suspect that our government does this to us all the time [The US tax code for instance]. But what I'm more interested in here is how our religious leaders do the same thing. How many times in a sermon have you heard something like "In the Greek, this word means servant, but not just any kind of servant, it is a special kind of servant, and to get the thought you must understand the ever so delicately discerned shade of meaning that is the critical centerpiece of God's message here... This is the kind of servant...that you couldn't possibly understand, much less teach anyone about, unless you have a Master's of Divinity Degree from an Accredited Theology Department in a Prestigious University, like I do..."

But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. 2 Corinthians 11:3

The truth is that Jesus spoke the common language of the people, the apostles did too. The New Testament was written in common fish-market Greek. The most commonly understood language of the day. Don't be fooled into thinking you can't understand God's word. To be sure, there are difficult passages, and sometimes understanding the Greek can be beneficial, but you don't need a Biblical Criticism and Ancient Languages to understand what God tells you to do. See if you can figure out these difficult passages:

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Mark 16:16
Blessed are the peacemakers, For they shall be called sons of God.
Matthew 5:9
love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you
Matthew 5:44

Or this marvel of complexity: "be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another".
I doubt there are many ten year olds who couldn't understand these things. Don't be impressed by the letters behind someone's name when they present a complex explanation of a Bible text. Most false teachers can give an impressively complicated explanation to show
you why the Bible doesn't mean what it says. They shroud the simplicity of Christ in complexity so you'll keep paying their salary.
Read the Bible for yourself, you really can understand it!