“Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame” (I Corinthians 15:34).

In this verse, the Greek word translated “shame” is the fascinating word entrope, meaning, literally, “turning-in.” It is used only one other time, in I Corinthians 6:5: “I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?”

The scientist, Clausius, in 1865, selected this word (“entropy” in English) to describe the dissipation of energy, or state of disorder, in any functioning system. The famous Second Law of Thermodynamics which he helped demonstrate to be a universal law of science, states that the entropy (i.e., the disorganization) of any system always tends to increase. That is, any system which “turns inward” to derive the energy or information to keep working, will eventually run down and cease to function. It is this law which indicates that the very concept of evolution is essentially impossible. “Evolution” means “rolling outward,” and implies increasing complexity, whereas “entropy” means “turning inward,” and implies decreasing complexity.

In the context of our text, the unconcern of the Corinthian Christians that some in their number were “agnostic,” or ignorant about the very existence and nature of God their Creator, was a measure of their state of “entropy,” or “in-turning”—that is, their self-centeredness—and this was a shameful state!

There is no excuse for a Christian to be an “entropic” Christian—a self-centered, self-sufficient, self-righteous hindrance to the cause of Christ, indifferent to the unbelief and compromise all around him, concerned only with his own personal affairs and comfort. The urgent command to such a one is “Wake up!” HMM