Ways of Death and Hope

2 Timothy 3:1-9 (NRSV)

Godlessness

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! For among them are those who make their way into households and captivate silly women, overwhelmed by their sins and swayed by all kinds of desires, who are always being instructed and can never arrive at a knowledge of the truth. As Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these people, of corrupt mind and counterfeit faith, also oppose the truth. But they will not make much progress, because, as in the case of those two men, their folly will become plain to everyone. 

When I read a list like this, I find it easy to - at least momentarily - get discouraged.  That's a big list of negative descriptors and I'd be lying if I didn't own up to at least a few of those from time to time.

It's also discouraging because there are times that, despite what Paul says here, sometimes those adjectives describe a way of life that does seem to still be making progress.  The folly of those ways, at least so far, hasn't become plain to everyone.  We need only read the news each day to see that.

So taken as just this one paragraph, it's hard to remember that this snippet is from a letter that was meant to encourage.

If find when I read a paragraph like this, taken out of its original context, that I allow my eyes to fall naturally on the words or phrases that jump out at me the most.  For me, those lines are "holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power"  and "counterfeit faith."  The reality is that those truths do still exist today. Sometimes they exist in our workplaces.  Sometimes they exist in our homes.  Sometimes they exist in our churches, and sometimes, on my worst days, they exist in me.  

It's easy to point fingers when we read a text like this, but I don't believe that's the way it's meant to be read.  Instead, it calls us to reach for and cling to a honest faith. A faith that lifts up and does not put down.  A faith that is compassionate and forgiving and loving.  A faith that loves neighbor - even those neighbors who display much of these qualities.  A faith that loves and forgives ourselves when we display some of these qualities.

A faith that clings to resurrection hope that these ways of death do not have the final word.

Forgiving God: Forgive us not only for the ways in which we turn away from you, but also for forgetting the hope and love that you promise us in Jesus.  Help us to cling to that promise and forgive each other our trespasses as we pray earnestly that you forgive ours. Amen