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. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth. For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer.
If you point these things out to the brothers and sisters, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, nourished on the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed. Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, 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. This is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance. That is why we labor and strive, because we have put our hope in the living God, who is the Savior of all people, and especially of those who believe.
My thoughts -
Paul believed that the end was coming soon. First century Christians were convinced that Jesus was coming back in their lifetimes. Paul even comforted those who had loved ones that died before Christ's with the teaching that Jesus would raise those who had "fallen asleep" first before returning for those who were still living. Christ's return was imminent, and desperately needed in a culture in which believers faced persecution, prison, and even death for their beliefs.
Paul places false teaching here in that end times context. Yet I'm not sure it doesn't belong in a more "all times" context. Paul may not have realized this at the time but we're still here 2000 years later and we're still dealing with "hypocritical liars... whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron" and who use their status as religious leaders to control and manipulate and abuse those who place their trust in them. It seems this has always been so and is another reason we desperately await the return of Christ.
In the meantime, as we wait for Jesus to return, which we have to guarantee will be in our own lifetime, how do we differentiate the good teaching from the bad? People follow crazy, abusive, hypocritical, selfish charlatans all the time. How can you tell the difference?
While Paul's words were written for Timothy in the context of him being a leader and a minister in the church the have value for us as well:
Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives’ tales; rather, 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.While it is good to have leaders to help instruct and teach we cannot rely on anyone solely for the word of God. We have scripture we can read. We can study and can train ourselves. Yes, scripture is best read in community where our own issues we bring to the text can be checked against and others can help us understand what we don't but we need to also train ourselves. We have scripture, we need to read it. We have the Word, we need to be in it. There is nothing we can do in this life that is as important as learning to listen to God's will and to do what God desires from us.
You who know me know that I'm crazy about "physical training". I love to work out. I love to run. I love to bike. I try to get a good two hours or so of exercise every day. That is important to me. And Paul affirms that as "good". But if I'm not also in the Word I'm missing out on something far greater.
Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.6
No comments:
Post a Comment