No meme or witty response can describe contemporary Western culture as well as 2 Timothy 3:1-9. Anyone who wonders whether or not the Bible can relate to the modern world need only read,
People will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.
This isn’t the tagline for the evening news or a description of Washington politicians. this is Paul’s description of people in the “last days.” A glance at Facebook (which is where many of you found the link to this article) reads like Paul’s words. Social media is a perfect platform to abuse others, to show our love for self, love for money, and to display the arrogant and abusive attitude of our culture.
But, I digress.
Paul warns, in verse 7, about those who are “always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth.” Who are these who are always learning and never able to arrive at truth? “Those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions.”
Those who are always learning and never able to arrive at a landing place for knowledge are con-artists. These are people who are preying on the weaknesses of others.
Those who never arrive at a knowledge of the truth are hailed in contemporary culture as “humble” and “real.” However they can be more accurately described in the negative than the positive. They are not grown up. They are living off of the good will of others and are not contributing to the well-being of the church or the larger society.
They love to question the church, but offer few answers. They can find problems, but very few solutions. These people are tossed to and fro by every wind and wave of doctrine (Ephesians 4:14) because they have not planted their roots deep in the scriptures. They are miles wide and inches deep.
We live in the information age. Social media represents a real challenge for Christians today. We are literally bombarded with information, but the call of the apostle is for us to put away some of the flood of information long enough to meditate on the things that matter most and land our spiritual plane.
The spiritually mature are not those who have lots of knowledge (no matter how godly that knowledge may appear to be), the spiritually mature are those who have learned to be discerning and walk introspectively with the Lord.
Don Shula was the coach of the Miami Dolphins when Miami Vice was popular. He once met the stars of the show and when introduced to “Miami Vice” thanked the for their service. He thought he was meeting police officers from Miami.
People laughed at Don Shula, but no one criticized him for being too focused on his football team to know what Miami Vice was.
May we, as God’s children, be known for neglecting many things for the purpose of knowing Him and living out His truth.
