1 Timothy 6:3-5 ESV
“If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.”
There is so much deception going on in the world today. So
much is being faked. So much is being lied about and disguised and twisted and
made to appear one way while it is another. Too many wolves in sheep’s clothing
within the gatherings of “the church” serving as pastors and elders, leading
God’s people and the people of the world astray. The same is true within governments
of nations and coming from our news media and other media outlets. We cannot
just take people at face value anymore. Too many liars!
So, we have to be so careful that we don’t just believe and
accept everything we hear, or everything we hear coming from a specific person
or group of people, for not everyone is who he says he is, and not everything
is as it is reported to be, either. Lies abound everywhere, it seems. And Satan
is so deceiving, and so are his servants and messengers. So we need to be
students of the Scriptures who study them in context and who are testing whatever
we hear in prayer and against the Scriptures, in context.
But not everyone does that. It appears that most people in
America don’t. Although there are many people in America who seem to be
somewhat awake and alert to the deceptions going on, many (or most) are not. It
appears that the majority of Americans are easily deceived, gullible, naïve,
and trusting, or they are just lazy and they don’t care, and they just want to
be able to live however they want while they largely ignore the realities going
on around them. Or they pick a side and stick with that and don’t even consider
that they may be being deceived by clever manipulators.
So the result of all of this is that we have many people
believing and following after lies and not the truth, and they are like
children being tossed here and there by every wind of doctrine by people in
their cunning, craftiness, and deceitful scheming (see Ephesians 4:1-16). For
they have blinders on, and most, it seems, are not willing to hear the truth or
to examine what they are believing to see if it is truth. And so many of them
are chasing after things which are harmful to them.
And the result of all these lies, deceptions, fakery, and
twisting of truth, which seems to be just about everywhere you look, is that the
majority of people, it would appear, are following after the lies, and so they
are on the broad path which leads to destruction, and they are not on the
narrow road which leads to eternal life (Matthew 7:13-14). But the very sad
reality is that so many Christians (or professing Christians) are going the way
of the broad road and not the narrow road because they are believing the lies.
For in America we have many professing faith in Jesus Christ
who have made a one-time confession of Jesus as Lord, convinced that all their
sins are forgiven and that heaven is guaranteed them when they die, but while
they continue in deliberate and habitual sin – all kinds of sins like sexual
immorality, adultery, lying, cheating, stealing, conniving, and hiding their
evil deeds done in secret, etc. And so they are destroying their own lives and
their marriages and family life so that they can keep on in their sins.
1
Timothy 6:11-12 ESV
“But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
Nonetheless, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are not to be
those who chase after the trappings of this world and who follow a sinful
course of behavior. We are not to think that we can give lip service only to
our Lord while we continue living for the flesh and not for the Spirit. Sin is
no longer to be what we practice, but now righteousness and obedience to our
Lord are to be what we practice, by the grace of God, and in the strength of
the Lord.
So, we are to flee all that is sinful and that is of this
sinful world, and we are to pursue (chase after, follow, and practice) all that
is godly and holy and morally pure and upright and honest and loving and
faithful, etc. And we are to fight the good fight of the faith, which means daily
resisting evil and sin and Satan, and fleeing temptation, and daily saying “NO!”
to the flesh and “YES!” to God and to his righteousness, in obedience to our
Lord.
And the way in which we take hold of the eternal life to
which we were called and about which we made a confession of faith is by daily
dying with Christ to sin and denying self and by following Jesus in obedience
to his commands (Luke 9:23-26), and by continuing on this course steadfast in
faith until the very end, in the strength and wisdom of God. And this means
that we no longer make sin our practice but now righteousness is our practice.
Phil Johnson / Bob Benson Sr.
Are you tired of chasing pretty
rainbows?
Are you tired of spinning 'round and
'round?
Wrap up all the shattered dreams of
your life
And at the feet of Jesus lay them
down.
Give them all, give them all,
Give them all to Jesus -
Shattered dreams, wounded hearts, and
broken toys.
Give them all, give them all,
Give them all to Jesus,
And He will turn your sorrows into
joy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsOnwWsHnIw
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