Acting in ignorance (Acts 3:17)

In Acts 3:17 Peter, after healing the lame man, addresses the crowds saying: ““Now, fellow Israelites, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did your leaders”. Indeed, there are several instances of the New Testament speaking of people acting in ignorance. In Acts 17:30 Paul tells the Athenians that they acted in ignorance in making images of gold or stone. In Eph 4:18 Paul speaks of people generally acting in dark ways because of their ignorance, and in 1 Tim 1:13 he speaks of himself acting in ignorance when he persecuted the church. And in 1 Peter 1:14 Peter speaks of the believers past lifestyles being a result of their ignorance. We need to appreciate that the Bible does not use ignorance as an excuse, they are still guilty. Rather, they have now been made aware of the truth, and they need to respond to the truth. What we see is a “model” where people are told that their behaviour is wrong, evil; part of the reason is that they were ignorant of the truth, now the truth has been made known to them, and they need to repent and believe. This Biblical model is very different from the model so often adopted by the “church” today, which more often than not seems to say sin does not matter. The mission of the church is to make God’s truth known to people, so that they are not ignorant any longer, and to call them to respond to their knew knowledge by repenting and believing in the Lord Jesus Christ.