Picking Sides - An Interruption

Yesterday, I started a draft for a new post. It was going to be fun, hilarious, and not the least bit educational. I take a lot of pride in being funny, and LOVE being told that people can laugh at something I've said or written. That draft was interrupted, however, by my B1ble reading today. It makes sense, considering that every time I open the Book, I ask my Father to show me something I've never seen before and to wreck me through those words. 

Today, as I read 2 T1mothy, I read something that I'd never considered before: 

3:2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of G0d, ⁵ having the appearance of g0dliness, but denying its power. AVOID SUCH PEOPLE.

Oh boy. Now, if I was an "end times" specialist (which I'm not), now would be a good time for me to tell you that Paul was telling Timothy about the Last Days in this passage (which he was). But I don't want to talk about when I think Jesµs will come back, who I think the anti-chrˆst is, or when exactly the rapture will happen. In fact, you shouldn't want to hear what I think of it. It's not ours to know yet. 

I digress. The only thing I know about this passage in 2 T1mothy is that his description of people look a lot like people now. Not just people, though, Chr1stians. Here Paul is warning Timothy to STAY AWAY from people who match this description, and I'm sitting on my couch wondering if there's anyone who ISN'T like that. Sure, most Chr1stians aren't heartless or brutal. But ungrateful? Self-loving? Proud, money-loving or disobedient?

We forget that we are asked to live a culture completely separate from the culture we're surrounded by. We say, "It's the culture we live in!" but we forget that we're supposed to be called aliens - even in our home towns. 

Paul makes it very clear that in the last days, there will be two types of people. People who have the appearance of g0dliness but deny its power, and people who AVOID such actions and people. (Here, you could argue a third type of people, the type who couldn't care more about g0dly living. You would be right to think of that, but for now let's focus on the two types that Paul tells of... the two types of "Chr^stians" so-to-speak.)

Are we a people who have the appearance of g0dliness, but who don't even claim that power to rid ourselves of the evil attributes of this world? Or do we "Put on the new self" that we might live a life of true g0dliness, void of those ugly things listed by Paul? 

Two types of people, two sides. Chr1stians by appearance vs. the New Self of true g0dliness. 

I know. Sometimes it seems impossible to me, too. How can we let go of what seems to be our own nature? Remember, we are children of a Father to whom nothing is impossible. Allow Him to have the victory over the battle for your life. Understand that this is a daily (sometimes hourly) occurrence and that submission to His L0rdship is a continual choice. But it's the best choice you'll ever make.

Father, that we would choose Your truth. The we, with Your spirit living through us, would embrace the g0dliness you offer us and avoid the "self" of this world. Amen

^{2 T1mothy 3:16-17 "}All Scr1pture is breathed out by G0d and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in r1ghteousness,  that the man of G0d may be complete, equipped for every good work." (ESV)