Mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them. (2 Timothy 3:1–5, NIV 1984).
My Musings – A laundry list (not all inclusive) of what not to be. Especially that last one – “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” Avoiding all the other things add nothing to godliness. Doing the opposite of these things will add nothing to godliness. Avoiding them or doing them is mere form. The only thing that gives them substance, the only thing that gives them power, is the Gospel. Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone.
“Abram believed the Lord, and He credited it to him as righteousness.” (Genesis 15:6, NIV 1984). Righteousness was not the things he did or did not do. Righteousness is a product of belief. Righteousness is not a product of behavior. “When the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done [or the unrighteous things we did not do], but because of His mercy…through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.” (Titus 3:4-5, 6–7, NIV 1984).
My Advice – “There will be terrible times” when the power of the Gospel is denied, and “Christianity” becomes form without substance. Such “faith” is powerless to transform the culture, which will ultimately result in a culture characterized by what Paul describes in the text – “lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God.”
“Terrible times” indeed. “Last days” for sure. But as true believers let’s live out our days having the “form” of godliness, because we have been “transformed” by faith in the substance and power of the Gospel.
“I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.'” (Romans 1:16–17, NIV 1984).
The Brew Is A Musing 