You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them! (2 Timothy 3:5)
Break it down …
Boaster = Braggart
Arrogant = exaggerated sense of ones importance
Abusive = offensive, violent, crude
Disobedient = refusing to obey authority
Ungrateful = unappreciative
Unholy = impious, blasphemous, sacrilegious, profane, irreverent
Inhuman = lacking compassion and mercy; cruel and barbaric.
Implacable = relentless, unforgiving
Slanderer = false and damaging statements about someone
Profligate = recklessly extravagant, licentious
Brute = savagely violent person
Haters of Good = God is all Good, so this sort hates God
Treacherous = guilty of betrayal and deception
Reckless = not caring about the consequences of their actions
Swollen with conceit = excessive pride
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So perhaps at times we all have behaved like one or more of these things. But God has given us free will to think, to choose, and to turn away from these behaviors.
The world temps us, deceives and goads us into falling into acting in some of these ways. Do you really think the msm, politicians, movie stars, advertisers, big pharma, big corps., Facebook, google, etc. really have your best interest in mind? Have you ever stopped to think about what is driving your thoughts, tastes, behaviors? Or do you just go on auto pilot, thinking “that’s just the way I am” ? How much are you a product of the times? Is that good or bad? Have you found happiness deep in your soul? Or are you hooked into the constant stream of noise that rushes into your veins, gives you that hit of sound bytes and distracts you from yourself, God and the truth about why you exist.
As God’s creation, we have a choice how we conduct ourselves. God will not violate our free will. That is how much He loves us. Yet, we turn away from him and think that it is He who has abandoned us, when we ourselves have not cared enough to seek the truth, but be led by the whims of zeitgeist (spirit of the time).
We have one life. Only one.
These negative behaviors are written by God in scripture as ones to avoid in life. God is love and has our best interest at heart. What an awesome life manual He has provided us. If we care to read it.
So perhaps choose this day to avoid these things and do the opposite behaviors. Christians need to always continue to cultivate virtue. Sadly, when I was Protestant, I was deceived by being taught to believe that once saved, always saved and you didn’t have to worry about sin, virtue or repentance, just try to be a good person. Not true.
God’s word says that nothing unclean will enter heaven. (Rev 21:27) so that says that either we work on becoming clean while we are alive, by working on virtue and rejecting bad behaviors (a.k.a. Sin) while we have the gift of free will for when we die we can do no more to help ourselves. Facts are sometime hard and stark things.
As Christians, because of our fallen nature, we must work on our own sanctity (state of holiness). And holiness contrary to popular, secular opinion is not a bad or boring thing. It leads to happiness, eternal life in union with love.
The alternative … well let’s just say take all those terms listed above and multiply them by the power of ten and you’ve got hell. Not a good choice for eternity my friends.