Whoever heeds instruction is on the path to life, but he who rejects reproof leads others astray- Proverbs 10:17 ESV

A couple of months back, I did a deep dive into 2nd Timothy 3:1-5. I carefully studied the original definition of all the Greek words used. I did so because 2nd Timothy 3:1-5 is a prophetic passage of Scripture. Paying careful attention to prophecy (2nd Peter 1:19, Hebrews 2:1) prevents spiritual drift and keeps us focused on the things that matter most (Matthew 22:37-40). 

Truth-be-told. 

The whole experience was a bit startling and deeply disturbing. Startling because the words we read in our English Bibles fail to do justice to the colorful and extremely expressive language found in the original writings. It was disturbing because I gathered pretty quickly we have arrived at and are living in a 2nd Timothy 3:1-5 world.   

Not good. 

 2nd Timothy 3:1-5 describes a world where the vast majority of people, including many who identify as Christians will be hopelessly self-focused and evil in a very understated kind of a way. An inordinate number of people will lack natural affection for their parents and other family members. They will purposefully slander others to gain an advantage and have zero desire to forgive anyone for even the tiniest of offenses. People will be monumentally ungrateful and unkind. They will also love money and celebrity and the pleasures that can be bought with both. A lot. 

Yikes.  

However, these same folks will have a pretense of goodness that will fool many into believing they are as Christian as they pretend to be. The term “having a form of godliness but denying its power” means people will behave properly (at least outwardly) and will be very focused on having “Christian values”. However, they will lack holy fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 16:6, Psalm 128:1). This produces people who are selfish, conniving, deceitful and incredibly dangerous in every sense (2nd Timothy 3:5). 

I spent a great deal of time wondering how we got from a world filled with normal sinners to the kinds of deceitful, underhanded, super-sinners Paul depicts in such detail 2nd Timothy (Jeremiah 17:5). It occurred to me that prophecy is never accomplished in a vacuum. There is always a pattern of disobedience that opens the door for the prophecy to be fulfilled. In this particular case I believe the church has followed the world’s lead when it comes to character development, self-image and moral training. Even Christians have focused on fostering and building “self-esteem” in themselves and others rather than obedience to God, Christ-like humility and godly confidence. I concluded that in order to get to where we are now we have had to ignore the following biblical directives: 

Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought- Romans 12:3 

For a generation we have been told we should feel good about ourselves simply because we exist. Our mere presence in this world makes us worthy of praise and special treatment. The Bible teaches we should only feel good about ourselves when our motives are pure and our actions are good.  God knows the inner working of every human heart (Jeremiah 17:9). Therefore, He cautions us to think about ourselves with “sober judgment” and to apply a great deal of self-examination to our motives (Proverbs 3:5-6, 1st Peter 5:8). God wants us to seek to understand the reason why we are doing whatever it is we’re doing. Good “self-esteem” without healthy dose of self-knowledge paves the way for all kinds of wrong thinking about ourselves and others. It also makes it easy to justify almost anything that ultimately works in our favor. 

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit- Philippians 2:3 

Nothing in this world is more harmful or likely to end in an ugly moral failure than ambition motivated by a craving for money, attention or followers (Daniel 4:1-33). The anecdote to that kind of trouble is passion for giving God the glory only He is due (Daniel 4:36-37, 1st Peter 2:12, Psalm 63:3).

Never stop adding to what God began in you- 2nd Peter 1:5-11

For decades now, many Christian teachers have taught that salvation is the end-goal of the Christian life.  Once we are saved there is nothing left to do but wait for Jesus to come get us. The Bible teaches that salvation is a beginning. It’s the starting point of a whole new life that will completely reorder our entire existence (2ndCorinthians 5:17).  In order to get all the new life has to offer, we must be willing to walk with our Savior and Lord through the long, grueling process of sanctification (Revelation 3:20, Colossians 3:1-17, Romans 12:1-21,1stThessalonians 4:3-8). Sanctification is not “works theology” rather it is the essence of James 2:14-26. Sanctification is the practical process of working out our salvation with “fear and trembling” (Philippians 2:12-13). When we choose to get to know God through Bible study and prayer, He empowers us to shed all the sinful attitudes and behaviors of our old life. In time, we are transformed into the image of Jesus (Romans 12:2) The lack of emphasis on sanctification has made space for “Christians” who have a form of godliness but no real understanding of what it means to be a Christian.  

And finally, the Bible teaches all people (even Christians) have narcissistic tendencies that can take over our personalities. In order to avoid being overcome by those tendencies we must make a regular practice of examining ourselves to see if we are really walking in the truth of the gospel (2nd Corinthians 13:5, 1st John 1:6, 3rd John 1:3).  Doing so ensures we are part of the solution to our world’s problems rather than the problem.