Today’s Thoughts – 25 January 2021

In our last post, we discussed 2 Timothy 3:3 and the characteristics that were held within that verse. As we continue to look at this passage, we will look at 2 Timothy 3:4 today. Remember that we are looking at these characteristics in terms of how they affect our families, churches, and society.

If you would like to read the previous post, you can by clicking here. You can also read the post on 2 Timothy 3:2 by clicking here.

Traitors: This brings on a sense of betrayal and that happens only when we are close to another. That’s when it hurts the most – when a close friend or family member betrays us and our trust. Homes are broken because of adultery, fornication, drug abuse, alcoholism, etc. This is a betrayal to those who should be most trusting.

It has been said that those who are closest to us are those who will hurt us the most. Part of this is just our human responses to conflict and problems. However, the other part is that we have opportunities given to us by the devil to betray the trust of our loved ones. And we take them at times.

Instead, we should be trustworthy and loyal to those whom we love. We should be caring for the feelings of others instead of being selfish in our desires and willing to betray and hurt those closest to us.

Heady: We all know that person in our family or group of friends that is reckless or rash in their decision-making. They make their decisions based on feelings and the here and now. There is a difference between an adventurous attitude towards life and a reckless, careless attitude towards life.

We must be of a “sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7) and make our decisions based on the Word of God and His will for our lives. Let us take care as to what God thinks of the decisions that we are going to be making. Our decision now will affect our loved ones in the future (even if we don’t have a family yet).

For instance, a life of immorality now while one is single will lead to marital problems in the future when that person gets married. It could lead to a replication of attitude in their kids and adverse effects down the road. Let us weigh every decision with the Word of God and verify that we are in the will of God so we won’t make reckless, careless, or rash decisions.

Highminded: Oh, the Bible speaks oft of a “puffed up” person (especially in 1 Corinthians 4). It relates to being prideful of oneself or conceited. The Bible speaks of being prideful also.

Pride in the home will make for a tumultuous trip. When one spouse thinks too much of themselves to do a chore and forces the other to do it, it causes resentment. When one spouse desires to be waited on all day because they think they run the house, it causes resentment. The way God designed marriage and the home is with mutual love and respect.

Instead of saying no to the chore we hate doing, we should do it out of love for our spouse so they don’t have to do it. Instead of desiring to be waited on, we should wait on our spouses to show them the respect we have for them and for what they do all day long. Let us not be prideful or conceited in the home!

Lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God: At the beginning of this series, we said that all of these characteristics were rooted in the heart of a person. What is our heart a lover of? Is it pleasure or is it God? This isn’t to say that if we love pleasure we cannot love God or vice versa. It is to ask what does our heart love more?

If we love God, He will shower His blessings upon us and we will have holy pleasure. But, if we love the pleasure of this world, we won’t know the holy pleasure God grants. We shouldn’t live for the here and now but for the then and then.

If we keep our hearts right with God and in tune with His Word, we will find ourselves loving Him more than anything this world offers. And we will find ourselves helping our family to love Him more than anything as well. Without Christ and His love, we are nothing in this world. We must be careful to love this world for we are just sojourners and this world is not our home (John 17:16).

In our next post, we will finish our study of this passage of 2 Timothy by looking at 2 Timothy 3:5.