This week let's take a look at 2 Timothy 3:1-9
1 But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, 4 traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people! 6 For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions, 7 always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men who are corrupt in mind, worthless in regard to the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress, for their lack of understanding will be clear to all, as theirs was also. - 2 Timothy 3:1-9
The main caution found in this text is issue of false believers. But exactly is a false believer? Well in these verses we actually can find 19 indicators of what a false believer can be.
Some include: being a lover of money, being proud, disobedient, ungrateful, lovers of pleasure, the list goes on. Obviously we aren't talking about people who outwardly display themselves as lost or non-Christians. Who we are really talking about are the people who fill the pews of churches all across the world on Sundays and Wednesdays but Monday - Saturday live as if there is no God, but rather live to please themselves.
We all stumble and fall short of the glory of God, so if you've messed up and committed one of these sins listed above don't freak out and consider yourself a false believer yet. What Paul is describing isn't a one day mess up, it's a constant lifestyle. The lifestyle of a true believer should (on average) be focused and centered on Christ and the Will of God. The lifestyle of a "lost" person will be totally focused on anything but Christ, and will outwardly proclaim it.
So where does that leave the false believer? The false believer outwardly claims to give God everything, but in reality only (on average) focuses on what makes them happy and gives them pleasure.
If this describes you, then your journey doesn't have to end here. God always allows us the freedom to turn around and surrender to His Will. Maybe for the first time, maybe for the fiftieth time. God is the God of unlimited second chances.
If you know someone who this describes then do as Paul says in verse 5 and avoid them. I'm not saying to completely cut them out of your life. What I'm saying is take a step back and allow God to work on them. Don't totally ignore them, instead pray for them every time you think of them. Once they've allowed God to work through them then you can restore whatever relationship you have.
Grounded in Christ,
Bro. Austin
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