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After yesterday's confession at the end of the blog and podcast,
it's probably not "wise" in the world's eyes to make another confession
at the start of today's but I have to do it. I have a very hard time
forgiving people who I believe are putting off the image of being a
Christian while denying the truth of the gospel in their very lives. I
won't say that I don't forgive them but it can take an incredible
amount of effort. The reason is that it's so hard to take the truth of
Christ to a lost and dying world in itself without having someone
saying they are a Christian but living their life where the world can
look and laugh at them.
These are the people that were spoken of in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV):
"But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of
difficulty. For 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, having the appearance of godliness,
but denying its power. Avoid such people." Now, you can probably look
at that list and say "well, I've done X, Y and Z, so is he talking
about me?" I'm only talking about you if you're doing those things and
plan to continue doing so while claiming to be a child of God who is
seeking Him. If you're truly desiring to serve and not do those things
I'm not speaking about you. The intent behind the actions are what
make the difference.
I'm talking about the teenager who goes
around school telling his or her friends how they need to come to Jesus
and how they need to visit their church while at the same time getting
drunk at parties on Saturday night or becoming sexually active with one
or many other people. The businessman who tells people he's a
Christian businessman to try and obtain their money while treating his
employees like dirt or shortchanging his customers on deals. The
worship leader who revels in the attention they get for leading worship
and seeks to have the spotlight on themselves Sunday mornings so they
get more and more theatrical in their worship leading.
Yes, you
could just say they're "hypocrites" and move on but if you look at the
passage from 2 Timothy it really spells out in black and white the real
seriousness of the situation. The word "hypocrite" is used so much
that sometimes you can really lose the depth of the sin within the life
of someone. This can be especially true when it's someone seen in a
position of power...a businessman, a pastor, a ministry
leader...because you want to believe they're doing things out of the
desire to follow God's teachings in their lives. You don't want to
stop to think that perhaps the repeated stumbles in their faith are not
just the mistakes we all make but rather a deliberate pattern on their
part because they are a lover of self or money or power. You don't
want to believe that these people who put off the persona of being a
strong Godly man or woman is really denying God's power in their lives
but essentially being their own God.
Now, you might be asking,
"how can I tell if someone is really being like we're warned about in 2
Timothy and how can I tell if they're just slipping and falling like we
all do?" That's a great question. Not to sound flippant about
it...because I really believe this...I think the answer is that the
Holy Spirit will let you know. 1 Corinthians 6:19 (ESV) says "do you
not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit
within you, whom you have from God?" I believe that when you're
interacting with someone who professes to be a Christian but you see
actions that say otherwise the Holy Spirit within you will give you
that uneasy feeling in the pit of your stomach when you are dealing
with the person seeking their own love first rather than the love of
the Lord. If you trust in the Holy Spirit he will open your eyes to
the reality of the situation and at this point you can see how you are
to proceed in any situation.
What are you to do if you
encounter someone like this? The scripture says to "avoid such
people." Does that mean you ignore them? I would say no because Jesus
didn't ignore anyone and I think you should pray that their eyes are
opened to how they are really living their life versus how they profess
to be living their life. I do think you should avoid situations where
you are yoked to that person to continue to feed the problem. For
example, if you work for a businessman who claims to be a Christian
businessman but you know runs their business in a manner that is not
reflecting Christ you should pray earnestly for another job. It would
be better to work for a non-Christian than it would be to work for
someone who professes Christ yet denies His truth. If you're in a
church where one of the leaders is bringing the spotlight to themselves
instead of Christ then do not volunteer your time and efforts into
ministry activities that could allow this person a chance to puff up
their pride.
If you follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and
you are cautious about the people with whom you associate your walk
with Christ then you will find that you can avoid many of the people
spoken of in 2 Timothy and the traps that inevitably go along with
being associated with those people. Still, pray for them. Pray they
see the reality of their situation.
Most of all, if you're guilty
of the things spoken of in 2 Timothy there is hope. You just have to
repent. I know that sounds incredibly simple to say and incredibly
hard to do. In some cases, perhaps it IS hard to do. However, the
more you seek Christ and the more you really put Him first in your life
the easier it will be to turn things. Also, don't get down on yourself
if you slip up and make a mistake because we're all human and we'll all
slip and fall at some point in our walk. Just dust yourself off and
keep moving forward with your eyes focused squarely on Him.
