2 Timothy 3:1-5

2 Timothy 3:1-5 But 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.

Having a form (pretense) of godliness but denying its (godliness) power to change lives is a significant aspect of the above passage. When saved, all things should become new. A different way of thinking and living should be the inheritance of a changed life. If you want to know what a changed life will look like, check out the antonyms to all the words or phrases in the above passage that describes a fallen life. What is the opposite of lovers of themselves,

lovers of money, boastful, proud, and so on? When Jesus comes into our lives, we should reflect His Spirit, and godliness should be our inheritance: But the fruit of the Spirt is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,

goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:22-25)

Have we merely added Jesus to our lives or have we replaced our lives with Jesus' life? Are we living his life or ours? I think the modern Christian sometimes merely adds Jesus to his or her life, rather than replacing his or her life with Jesus' life. Our attitudes and our actions should change when we are saved. Our activities and choices should change. We don't go out and carouse anymore, we don't allow ourselves to have temper tantrums, we don't delve into the sinful things of the world. We should desire to live holy lives, to experience good things, not to participate in evil, to live for Christ rather than the devil. I once knew a man who enjoyed horror movies the most. I wondered why a Christian would like to view something that frightened people, that depicted evil. Is that where God is or is that where our flesh is? I think we sometimes confuse ourselves with such an attitude. We faintly believe we want to think on pure things, but our minds and activities seek out the gross, the unclean, the unfruitful.

Christian lives, newborn lives, need to be different. Are we denying the power of God to change our lives by insisting on our fleshly will? Are we substituting a form of godliness for real godliness? A form of godliness cannot only fool oneself, it can fool the world too. The world or self will not easily know the form-of-godliness heart, but God does. When we hold onto thoughts and lifestyles that are not good, we will eventually reap the rewards of such a spirit: a life of chaos and darkness. Such a life will be like a juggler with too many balls in the air, eventually they start to drop.

What then is a life of true godliness? Well, it is powered by the Holy Spirit, and it is primarily a crucified life, for a seed must die to produce life. As Christians, we must not allow our lives to restore old habits, attitudes, and experiences. Those remnants from the old life must die. If you drank and caroused before you were saved, stop drinking and carousing, stop going to those places that spawned such activity. If your mouth was filthy before you were saved, stop allowing your lips to continue in that mode. Pray those words will not be in your mind anymore. In every way, keep yourself from things that tempt you. In your daily life, keep your focus on Christ, your ears attuned to his voice, and your lips full of praises to him. Let songs of praise dwell richly in your heart. Of course the will of the Holy Spirit is that you daily seek first the kingdom of God. Nothing else will open his power to your life.

Christians are imbued with the Holy Spirit, but we must draw near to him in our faith walk or we will not be able to draw strength from him. A fleshly life, focused on this world, is not a life that can be inspired by the Holy Spirit. But if we draw near to the Lord Jesus with our lips and heart, the Holy Spirit will be activated to COMFORT US and to provide us with his strength and the power to overcome fleshly desires. God never takes away our will, but if we WILL to be close to HIM, He will be close to us. No other life but a committed life will be victorious in these last days. We Christians have sunk into the morass of this world inadvertently, much like a frog that has been placed in cold water and then heated up. He is cooked before he realizes it. As Christians we accept much more of the world than we used to. For sure, the environment around us has heated up, yet we hardly realize it. But rather than dwell on the negative, we should dwell on the positive, for greater is He who is within us than he who is in the world. If we commit ourselves to him wholeheartedly, we will walk in the victory and faith that overcomes the world.