2 Timothy 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' and Jambres' folly was also.
 - 2 Timothy 3:1-9

Does this not appear to describe our society today? I could probably write an entire series of blog posts about just this first paragraph and give examples from the world today to show that this is true. I will not do that, however. This is for at least two reasons. First, it seems entirely too obvious. Second, and less obvious, is the fact that people have probably thought nearly the exact same thing for generation after generation going back multiple hundreds of years. Therefore, it seems plausible to me that 150 years from now, some people will look at this passage and think about how it so accurately represents their world more than any otherh time in history.

To that end, we will merely point out the fact that this list of vile behaviors and values seems to be extremely prevalent today and we will move down to what I think is a pretty interesting part of this passage. Paul is talking about these people who are so messed up and have this long list of abhorrent values and then he gets to where he says that they hold "to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power."

How many people come to mind reading this list of values who will say that they "believe in God" but that they understand God as a tolerant and loving God? How many people claim to be "spiritual but not religious?" On the other hand, there are those who are like the Pharisees that Jesus rebuked in the gospels. The ones who made up laws about pious behavior, but ignored God's laws such as compassion and forgiveness. To them, what mattered was the outward behavior rather than the condition of the heart.

In either case, I think one ends up as the subject of this verse. My suspicion is that Paul was more directly referring to the latter, though I can imagine that the former fits into this as well. In the case of the Pharisees, they are self-righteous because of their behaviors and they ignore their sense of love and compassion for others. For the "spiritual" folks, it seems to be just the opposite. They feel they have the moral high-ground because of their loving and tolerant attitudes and open-mindedness, yet they have no anchor in any doctrine other than their own, personal feelings.

For the Pharisees, they deny God's power by believing that their behavior and outward actions will justify them before God rather than understanding that the only way is to accept Christ as Lord and savior. In the case of the "spiritual," they will typically believe that they are "good people" and a good and loving God would never send "good people" to hell.

Unfortunately, as is often the case when you have two very black and white options such as these, the truth lies somewhere in the middle. On the one hand, as Christians, we should have certain outward facing behaviors, but those behaviors do not come from trying to obey the letter of some law. On the other hand, we should have feelings of compassion and tolerance and "lov[ing] your enemies," but you should also base your understanding of God on solid truth and doctrine.

We should understand that the process is basically that we receive God's love, that love is so abundant that it overflows from us and motivates us to love others. But this love is not just about good feelings. It is about loving people in the sense of wanting what is best for them. This idea includes such concepts as justice, discipline and correction in addition to other things like compassion, mercy, generosity and grace. One might be tempted to think that this is a delicate balance, but if we are truly just a conduit for God's love flowing through us in these ways, there is not some sort of "balancing act," but rather it is more of an understanding what is the loving thing to do in a given situation.

Listen to Dave Ramsey's radio show for a while. You will hear quite a few calls from people who, in the interest of "loving" their children, are actually harming them by doing things like; not holding them accountable, saving them from the consequences of their own action, bailing them out of trouble, paying off their debts with no conditions (such as being better with their money in the future). As Dave points out all the time, this is not "loving." This is, to use his common phrase, like "giving a drunk a drink."

The people who teach this false understanding of "love" often target certain women. Paul, here, is specifically referring to, not women in general, but a certain subset of women who are particularly vulnerable to men who flatter them and make them feel good, thus capturing the devotion of these women who are perhaps, in modern terms, co-dependent.

Men like this are compared with a couple of Moses' contemporaries who started spreading false teachings and led people astray. Paul tells us that, to the discerning person who studies and knows their Bible, these people will be obvious and their lies will be clear. It is like the people who work on identifying counterfeit money. The way to identify the counterfeit is to become exceedingly familiar with the authentic. Then, it is very easy to spot the fake.

These are challenging times, but the more we dig into the scriptures and better understand the Truth, the better chance we'll have identifying lies and deceptions. So, study your scriptures. Learn them. Get to know them. Prepare yourself to combat false teachings and misunderstandings. But always approach these things with love as well as truth.

Until next time, grace, love and peace.