Thursday, February 9, 2017, 8:55 p.m. – The Lord Jesus put in mind the song “Teach Them.” Speak, Lord, your words to
my heart. I read 2 Timothy 3:1-4:5
(NASB).
Difficult Times
(3:1-9)
But realize this, that in the last days difficult
times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful,
arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving,
irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of
good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers
of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power;
Avoid such men as these. For among them are those who enter into households and
captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always
learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes
and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved
mind, rejected in regard to the faith. But they will not make further progress;
for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes’s and Jambres’s folly
was also.
There are generally three
types of people in this world – the ones who truly believe in Jesus Christ to
be Lord and Savior of their lives, the ones who make no profession of faith in
Jesus Christ at all, and those who make a profession of faith in Christ, but
don’t really know him at all, because they have not truly been born from above
of the Spirit of God.
The latter claims to know
Christ, and they may even be preachers or teachers of the Word, but by their
lives, character and conversations they deny him. Their faith is human faith and
it is in outward form only, but the Holy Spirit is not living within them, and
there has been no transformation of heart and mind of the Spirit of God away
from living in sin to living to God and to his righteousness. Much of their
behavior, in fact, fits more with the description in the passage above than
with any biblical description of what a Christian or a godly leader should look
like in character, words and in action.
The Bible says that we, as
the body of Christ, should avoid having fellowship with those who profess
Christ but who knowingly and willfully live in direct opposition to him and to his
teachings, and who are unwilling to repent of their sins. I believe one of the
reasons for this is so that they do not bring us down with them, i.e. so they
don’t infect the whole body with their poison.
Training in Righteousness (3:10-17)
Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith,
patience, love, perseverance, persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to
me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out
of them all the Lord rescued me! Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted. But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to
worse, deceiving and being deceived. You, however, continue in the things you
have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,
and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to
give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ
Jesus. All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for
reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may
be adequate, equipped for every good work.
So, we need to exercise godly
wisdom in choosing the people we mostly spend our time with. We should not make
as close friends those who are hot tempered, who are liars, who are gossipers, who
are porn addicts, who tell off-color jokes, who are pleasure-driven and who are
worldly, etc., even if they claim to be, or especially if they claim to be fellow
believers in Jesus Christ. Yet, this does not mean we write these people off as
hopeless, because we don’t know what God yet intends to do in their hearts and
lives.
The Bible teaches us to love
one another, and even to love our enemies, and to pray for them, and to do good
to them, and to want what is best for them. So, we should pray for these
people, and we should show Christ-like love to them, but we need to not make
these the people we regularly fellowship with or spend time with, because evil
is a very strong influence, and we might be overtaken by them and fall back
into sin.
Instead, we should have close
fellowship with other believers who are walking the talk instead of just
talking the walk. We need to be around people who are godly influences on our
lives, who encourage us in our walks of faith in Christ, who share with us
regularly about their own spiritual walks, and who work toward building us up
in our faith and in leading us in the right direction, instead of leading us
astray from our purity to Christ.
For, we live in a time where
the saints of God (his church) are under attack for living what they believe
and what the Bible teaches, so we need one another to help strengthen us in our
faith so that we can persevere, and continue, and have the courage to stand
strong even in the face of great opposition. But, if we are in a situation
where we don’t have much in the way of this kind of fellowship, we should not
let that discourage us, for we always have our Lord. He will never leave us or
forsake us, and he will give us all the strength and courage we need to keep on
keeping on in his name.
Wanting Ears Tickled (4:1-5)
I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of
Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and
His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove,
rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. For the time will come
when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears
tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their
own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside
to myths. But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an
evangelist, fulfill your ministry.
One of the reasons that the
saints of God are under such severe attack is because so much of the church has
gone the way of the world and is teaching what people want to hear, not what
they need to hear. They have turned the church into big business, and so they
are marketing it to the world just like they would any other human-based
business (corporation). “Worship” services are oftentimes nothing more than
just cleaned up versions of entertainment for the world, i.e. cleverly
orchestrated stage productions intended to attract the world to the “church.” Bible
studies are being replaced by books written by modern-day authors who may or
may not be handling the Word of God accurately, and the gospel message is
diluted to make it more acceptable and appealing to the world of sin.
So, serious followers of
Christ are being ostracized, rejected, pushed aside, persecuted, abandoned, and
falsely accused, because the modern church movement has no place for them in
their marketing schemes. They don’t want anyone who might offend the people of
the world with the truth. And, so they find ways to make serious Christians
look bad, or they invite them to “go someplace else” where they will be a “better
fit.” Then, the leaders are free to give the people what their itching ears
want to hear, unhindered.
Yet, we need to not let this
unsettle us or to get us to compromise our faith and convictions in order to be
accepted. If we have to stand alone, then we have to stand alone, but we are
never alone. God is on our side, if we are on his side, and he will never
abandon us, but will give us all we need to endure persecution and to keep
holding on to the truths of scripture, even if we lose friends, or even if our
family members reject or abandon us, or even if the modern worldly church wants
nothing to do with us. We need to remain faithful to God and to his Word and to
the ministry to which we have been called and for which God has prepared us and
equipped us. Amen!
Teach Them / An
Original Work / May 24, 2012
Based off various scriptures
Open up the blinded eyes of
Those who walk in sin’s darkness.
Turn them to the light of Christ
And to His righteousness.
Turn them from the pow’r of Satan.
Turn them to the peace of Christ,
So they may receive forgiveness
And eternal life.
Teach them to put off their old selves
And their former way of life,
And to put on their new self,
Reborn to be like Christ;
To not copy worldly customs;
Be transformed in life and mind;
Obey freely His word in them,
Pleasing unto God.
Teach them how to love their neighbors
Truly as they love themselves;
Be a witness; share the gospel;
Satan’s lies dispel;
Comfort all who mourn in sadness;
Share Christ’s love and joy today.
Do this through your life and witness
For your Lord always.
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