2 Timothy 2:11-19

2 Timothy 2:11-19 If we died with him, we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself. Keep reminding them of these things. Warn them before God against quarreling about words; it is of no value, and only ruins those who listen. Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth. Avoid godless chatter, because those who indulge in it will become more and more ungodly. Their teaching will spread like gangrene. Among them are Hymenaeus and Philetus, who have wandered away from the truth. They say that the resurrection has already taken place, and they destroy the faith of some. Nevertheless, God’s solid foundation stands firm, sealed with this inscription: “The Lord knows those who are his,” and, “Everyone who confesses the name of the Lord must turn away from wickedness.”

Are you spiritual or are you full of godless chatter? Sometimes we puff ourselves up with knowledge but it leads us nowhere. It does not profit our souls. We might know or think we know something that is supposedly spiritual, but it leads to death rather than life. Paul says such teaching, such an attitude, is like gangrene: it eventually rots the whole organism. Such thinking eventually destroys the believer. Paul says that Hymenaeus and Philetus have wandered away from the truth. Knowledge can be good, but it has to be placed in a faith-building category or it becomes destructive to your soul.

Lately, I have been reading a book by a Harvard-trained brain scientist who had a massive stroke at the age of thirty-seven. She experienced this stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As the stroke progressed, she observed how it was gradually taking away all of her left-brain functions: her ability to walk, talk, read, remember, use numbers, understand others, and so on. She also felt herself floating in a timeless existence without any power to control her earthly self, which was becoming encased little-by-little in a nonfunctioning body. However, during this time her soul felt free and amorphous. She would drift in and out of a strange euphoria of well-being as her left-hemisphere functions slipped away. Even though she prayed to the "Great Spirit" to help her as she was experiencing this stroke, she now relegates her feelings of euphoria and well-being entirely to the functions of the right brain rather than to God. Of course, the stroke was happening in the left hemisphere of her brain and not the right, and the right hemisphere of our brains does function differently from the left. It is the creative, imaginative, qualitative, global part of our brain. The right hemisphere tends to function in the NOW, which is the timeless aspect of our existence. The left functions in a linear, sequential, quantitative way. The left places our lives in the context of time; the right experiences the moment for what it is without the constraints of time or evaluation placed upon it. This brilliant scientist placed all what was happening to her in a physical context. She could not allow herself to categorize anything she was experiencing as spiritual.

Sadly, this is what is happening in the world. The beginning of knowledge is the fear of God, or placing everything within his context of existence. If you fail to acknowledge his existence, you are still operating in profound ignorance. I thought about this lady, and as I was praying about it, I felt the Lord impress on me that you can either be spiritual or carnal in your thinking. Carnality is placing all happenings within the context of what we physically know and understand. Nothing is spiritual, everything is empirical, all can be tested. Spirituality is placing everything under the authority and existence of God. The latter takes faith, but that is the beginning of finding eternal life. A Christian believes there is something beyond what we can perceive with our senses, something that is eternal. The carnal man's thinking will always end up in a blind corner; he always hits the dead end sign. What is godless chatter? It is that which doesn't recognize the supremacy of God. Our human knowledge about anything is as foolishness to God, even when we talk about spiritual things without divine revelation. Therefore, may our speech be that which builds faith. This kind of talk is an instrument of the Lord. As Paul wrote in another letter, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. (Philippians 4:8 KJV)