Biblical Theology for Transformation - 18th Posting

"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people."

2 Timothy 3:1-5



"The world is going to get ugly!" If that is your response to this passage, you may be in for a suprise. Paul is telling Timothy about the outward sinfulness of many as the end of times comes closer. What may suprise you is that Paul is not talking about the world, he is talking about the church! Scary! Do we know people like this in our churches? As I read through this list, I could probably check off a few for myself. The problem though, is that so many in the church are becoming more and more like the way Paul describes here.

I believe there are many reasons why this will happen and is happening. One is pretty obvious; God is sovereign. People's sinfulness in the end of times is part of the story that God tells. Two, there are so many false teachers out there infiltrating the minds of believers and the minds of non-believers causing false conversions and deceiving the believers. Three, the non-false teachers aren't teaching Biblical exegesis. When a preacher teaches his own ideas and has not examined the text to allow the Holy Spirit to develop the sermon and exhort the text, the listeners will be fed mush and will have stunted growth. Four, there is not enough Christian accountability. There are too many Christians doing things that they ought not to and there is no one to tell them they are in sin. So their sin grows and leads to deeper and greater sin. There are many more reasons for this decline in the church as the end approaches, but we will leave it at that for now. Let me make this clear; as many churches are filled with people who live in these sins, there are also many churches being filled with passionate Christians who are truly seeking to be more Biblical and obedient to Christ and His Word.

The question then becomes...in which of these sins do you participate? Of course, our flesh arises and desires to do all of these things, but according to Paul in Galatians 5:17, the Spirit is within us and is at war with our flesh. So the war continues, but for the Christian, Christ is victorious. So though we fall into sin as believers, we must recognize that we cannot dwell too heavily on our sin. Once we do, we come to close to becoming legalistic. We must recognize that God does not require our perfect lives in order to please Him...He requires Christ's perfect life in order to please Him. Once we realize that we will understand what Paul meant when he said in Galatians 5:18, "but if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law." What Paul is telling us is that, though we battle daily against our flesh, in the Spirit we are free to live lives that produce the fruit described in verses 22-23.

So a warning and encouragement are in need. The warning: be aware of those who do the things that Paul describes to Timothy. At the end of the passage, Paul says, "avoid such people." We cannot associate with those who practice sin without regard for Christ. The encouragement: Though you too may have some of these sins in your life, you must recognize that your sins have already been paid for. Once we begin to grasp that, we will begin to live in the freedom to serve and love Christ that He purchased for us.