Unexpected Comparison

II Timothy 3:2-5 says this:
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.

The end of time will be a long and painful process that I do not know where, when, and what will be happening, but God through Paul here gives us a little bit of insight on those times. And really, they are not that far away when we read texts like this.

In those days, there will be people who are lovers of themselves and money. Has anyone been affected by the economy lately? Why did that happen? Because some people loved themselves and money more than the integrity of their companies or their customers.

People will be brutal, and haters of the good, slanderous, unholy, and unforgiving, disobedient to their parents and ungrateful. Have you been to high school lately? Suicide rates among teenagers and early 20s are on the rise; gangs and cliques in school make many others feel insignificant. Movies like "Mean Girls" are not too far off from the truth. More and more teens are runaway from home or are being kicked out of their homes at a young age.

People will be boastful, conceited, and rash. Enough said; there are plenty of people we know at the workplace or are our friends who are boastful and pompous. Enough said.

But the thing that really catches my attention is the last one: people will hold on to the outward form of godliness, but deny its power. In all this chaos, in all this turmoil, in all of this negativity and as we are left with this imagery that is just dark and unholy, Paul shoots us all with these words. Peterson paraphrases it like this, "They'll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they're animals."

People may be looking up to you; they may think you are a super-Christian; or they see the works that you do in the church, in the youth group, on the mission field; but how many more of us fit into this last category of people? It almost seems like Paul was writing to the non-Christians in verses 2-4, and then verse 5 was for the Christians.

I see this a lot in myself. I have been serving and actively a part of the spiritual life of my campus, you know when people are looking. But, I continually drop the ball sometimes when it comes to my personal life, or when it comes to leading my girlfriend, or when it comes to being around the guys.

So here is the challenge: Let God be God, and not just of your activities, not just of your predicaments, not just of your circumstances, but of YOU, and every part of you: your relationships, your friendships, your workplace, your personal life, everything.

Let's give it all to the One who did give it all!