The World is Full of Pagans

Photo by Viv Lynch

Scripture: 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’s and Jambres’s folly was also.

Insights: These verses today in Thoughts by Scott are very descriptive of the world we live in today.  After reading these verses, I think it is pretty safe to say we are in the last days in which these difficult times will come upon us.  It is very easy to get caught up in the finger pointing of the world around us.  I probably ought to clarify that last sentence.  I find it easy to get caught up in the finger pointing of the world around me.  Beloved, I think the ease at which we “followers” of Jesus fall prey to this horrific finger pointing is one of the problems of the universal church found in the United States.  We have forgotten who our true enemy is and in forgetting this reality we attack those for whom Jesus Christ died.  A second challenge I sense we in the United States face is we expect lost people to get cleaned up before they come to know Jesus.  This long list of descriptive words about pagans is accurate because it is describing pagans.  Lost people act like lost people.  They say what lost people say.  They do what lost people do.  We ought not be surprised by this fact, but rather see the desperateness of their lives and become agents of grace for them.  I hope you become a grace agent.

Questions:

 1. To whom do you know that these descriptive words of Paul apply?

 2. Is it possible these words apply to you?

Prayer: Father, I am a sinful man and at times these words do describe my life.  I pray Your grace and forgiveness to be extended to me and may I as a result of your mercy extend mercy to others as well.  Amen.

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