A few days I woke up with a verse on my mind. I could not recall directly where it came from but I found it soon enough. Paul was encouraging Timothy regarding the dangers of the last days in his second letter to Timothy 3:15 — “Know this,” he said, “That in the last days, there will be very difficult times. People will be hedonists loving themselves and their money. They’ll scoff at God, boastful and arrogant, ungrateful and disobedient to the parents. Nothing will be sacred to them. They will be unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self control, cruel, reckless, and disinterested in anything that’s good. They’ll be full of pride and love pleasure rather than God.” Wow. That’s quite a list. I look around and see this right now. Paul wrote this in AD 66 before he was executed. He knew what was coming down the pike, and was sending a warning to Timothy [in his day] and that same warning resonates to us today. But then Paul goes on in verse 5 to say that in the last days, people will act like they are godly — “Having a form of godliness, but denying its power thereof.”
So that last verse has been rolling around in my mind in recent days and I have been thinking that we are all susceptible or even prone to displaying some of these characteristics — from being ungrateful, prideful, loving materialistic things, to walking in unforgiveness. But that last one… acting like I have godliness but not walking in the living, regenerating, sanctifying influence of it. It’s so easy sometimes to just act religious. I can spout off the right “Christianese” that sounds great and makes it seem that I am in a pretty good place. I can use the newest buzzwords and theological phrases and it might cause people to think, “Wow, that guy is really close to the Lord. But if I’m just speaking out of my flesh without depth or new revelation or illumination, it’s a bunch of empty words. I want to walk in that place of authentic, regenerated newness…daily. Where I feel, like the prophet Jeremiah, that His mercies are new each morning because I am experiencing that reality…daily (Lamentations 3:22).
Since my desire is to live in that daily newness, God has given me [and all of us] an amazing gift to make it a reality. The solution and the way I am primarily influenced is found just a few verses down in 1416. “Remain faithful to what I have been taught because I know that it is true, and I can trust those who have taught me. From my childhood I have been taught the scriptures, and they gave me the wisdom to receive the salvation that came by trusting in Christ Jesus. All scripture was inspired by God and is useful to teach me what is true and makes me realize what is wrong in my life. It straightens me out and teaches me to do what is right. It is Gods way of preparing me in every way and fully equips me for every good thing God has planned for me.”
Now that’s a good word and such a powerful reminder that God has already given me all the tools I need to not only combat the darts of the enemy, but also to fight the apathy of my own flesh that can so easily creep in. I know that the Word will show me truth and the voice of the Holy Spirit will counsel me as I walk out what I learn. To walk as a man of godly character and embracing the power found in living sanctified and redeemed is what I strive for.