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Good morning my “Walking with Jesus” friends.
As your eyes scan the horizon of life in our world, do you sometimes feel the enemy of all that is good seems to be breeding confusion into every segment of our world, resulting in conflict… in families, the marketplace, education, health care, entertainment, courtrooms of justice, the halls of government leadership and even religion and spiritual faith?
I’ve referred you to Dr. Albert Mohler’s “daily briefing” in the past. Here’s a link to his website which provides a daily, clear Biblical perspective on current global events. I have found it helpful in the confusion of so much contrary perspective from mainstream media:
The Apostle Paul speaks to this issue of society confusion in his first letter to his friend Timothy, chapter 4. Paul had left Timothy in the great but diverse city of Ephesus, for the purpose of giving leadership to the Christians there as they tried to live God honoring lives in a very confusing time in history.
Paul writes “The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron.” (1 Tim. 4:1,2)
Wow! That’s powerful and graphic isn’t it? When Paul uses the phrase “later times” he’s referring to the time in history from the incarnation of Jesus, God among us here on earth, to the time of the final judgment when the great deceiver Satan and his demons will finally be cast into the lake of fire for all eternity (Rev. 20:10). So that’s our time, now! We’re living in ‘later times”. You’ll remember Jesus had said “I am the light of the world, whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness.” (John 8:12).
In that same chapter Jesus gives a graphic explanation of how Satan has been deceiving humanity since the days of the garden of Eden (John 8:44). “Why is My language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say. You belong to your father the devil… he was a murderer from the beginning not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth you do not believe Me.”
Frequently in our “Walking with Jesus” I call us to see the importance of God’s truth and our being able to discern it in our confused world. In John 8 and 1 Timothy 4 we see both Jesus and Paul making very clear statements about WHY there is what I’d like to call ‘truth dysfunction’ all around us. It’s fundamentally a spiritual battle for the minds and hearts of all people.
Satan and his demons hate God, God’s truth, God’s Gospel, God’s people, and God’s purposes here on earth. They are determined to do all they can to oppose it all! That’s why Paul wrote so often about the battle for our minds and our ability to think truthfully, and our hearts and the struggle to follow God’s holy path in life. (Romans 8:5-9; 2 Corinthians 4:4)
I find Paul’s phrase “…whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron…” to be really interesting. Perhaps you know there’s an important procedure used in modern medical care. It’s called ‘cauterize’ and it means: “burn the skin or flesh of a wound with a heated instrument or caustic substance, typically to stop the bleeding or prevent infection.” (Oxford dictionary) This procedure is often used in surgery to stop bleeding as it ‘sears’ the bleeding blood vessels. Can we make the application to the human conscience? How have you seen the God given moral conscience of many people has been seared by repeated exposure to truth distortion, societal pressure, or political pressure, to accept and even endorse that which we know down deep is wrong?
While Paul gives us some practical examples of this truth dysfunction battle in 1 Timothy 4:3 and counters it with God’s truth in verses 4 & 5, may I invite you today to take a moment and look around your world to identify where the truth battle is being fought?
How about science and ongoing debate about the truth of the origin of all things and the involvement or absence of God in the function of our Universe?
Or the confusion about us, human beings, and when life begins, how humans originated, and even when life ends or the confusion over gender identity?
Or the confusion about what is right and wrong morally and what standard defines this and what happens to a society when we can’t agree on what is right and wrong, good and bad?
Do you see the relevance of what Paul is telling Timothy nearly 2000 years ago to our world in 2020?
Notice Paul urges Timothy to be bold enough to be clear with God’s truth: “If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus…” (4:6) Is this ‘pastor talk’ between two men who are trained to be spiritual teachers? Well, yes… but it’s more. It’s for you and me and every follower of Jesus! It is our privilege and responsibility to shine the light of God’s truth into our world of confusion, where-ever that confusion is, whenever we have that opportunity. That’s part of being an Ambassador of Jesus through whom God is making His appeal (2 Cor. 5:20).
You notice Paul urges Timothy to prioritize “the brothers” in pointing out God’s truth. That means Timothy was to focus his attention on helping Christian men in particular, to understand God’s truth and stand on it in their confusing world. That’s a good word for you and me today men, do you agree? It calls us to prioritize knowing God’s Truth and using it to drive back the darkness encroaching into our families and every other area of society where we walk, my brothers. It calls us to be lifeguards on the beaches of life as we watch for people drowning in confusion.
Notice Paul’s challenge to Timothy to not get caught up in the mumbo-jumbo, the noise of conversation that has no meaning, no relevance to the real issues facing us. My, does that fit in our world of non-stop talk radio, tabloids, chatter TV and social media? Rather, take note my friends of this very important word from Paul: “…train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come.” (4:7,8)
Do you see Paul saying that in every segment of society… business, health care, education, politics, civil service, military, entertainment, religion… everywhere, the God honoring person has great value all the time if they will engage society with godliness? For “…godliness has great value for all situations, holding promise for both the present and the future…”. This ‘God honoring’ person will bring light into the darkness, clarity into confusion, truth into deceit, moral right into the wrong and will help people turn toward Jesus where they will find the hope, help and healing only God can bring into the despair and brokenness of our world.
But do you see Paul challenging Timothy to ‘train yourself to be godly”? That’s a spiritual workout! Training our minds to think, hearts to feel, ears to listen, eyes to see and mouths to speak with Godliness! God honoring in every way, all the time. That’s why we feel called of God to prepare “Walking with Jesus” every day.
Now take just a moment and reflect. In every segment of society, what changes do you see have taken place in the past 20 years? Now project forward, another 20 years. If the same rate of change continues, what can you predict our world will be like by 2040?
That’s why Paul’s challenge of making a difference today, that will affect change tomorrow, is so vital. Do you agree? Oh my friends, please don’t minimize YOUR potential significance right where you are in our world TODAY. Can you see where God has placed you and the influence you can have which could impact the confusion where you live TODAY and the potential long term impact years from now. Let’s stop right there and let’s ask God to show you and me, OUR strategic potential this week, right where we are, if we’ll live 1 Timothy 4:1-8 in the power of Jesus Christ our Savior!
Have a comment or question about today’s chapter? I’m ready to hear from you, contact me here.
Pastor Doug Anderson 262.441.8785
“Let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, with our eyes fixed on Jesus…” (Heb. 12:1,2)
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