What if Everything We Know About Living a Christian Life is Wrong?

Occasionally- I start to get concerned that I’ve completely messed this whole Christian thing up. I get to thinking that perhaps much I think I know about how to live is totally screwed up. Most of the people I’ve talked to about it seem to think that I’m doing alright, but what if they’re all screwed up too? So anyway, I was listening to the bible on CD today and I heard a few compelling verses:

2 Timothy 2:22-26

Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart. Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels. And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful. Opponents must be gently instructed, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.

2 Timothy 3:2-7

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 such people.

They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

So let me point out a few items here:

“Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.” Have I done that? What exactly are the evil desires of youth? Power? Money? Respect? Entertainment? Those are things that I still want. I’d say most people desire those things.

“Don’t have anything to do with foolish and stupid arguments, because you know they produce quarrels.” What exactly constitutes a stupid argument? I heard a couple of people arguing about the tribulation the other day. Does that count?

“People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents,…” Disobedient to parents? Is this talking to youths or adults? If it was to youth, surely this was a different time, because I don’t know very many children who are not disobedient to parents in some form or another. If it is to adults, then our culture does not embrace this type of obedient relationship into adulthood.

Here’s the one that really gets me worried, “…lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.” What does ‘having a form of godliness’ mean?! The person described doesn’t soud like someone that would have any form of godliness. Also, it seems like the juxtaposition of pleasure and God leads me to believe that the two are mutually exclusive. If that is the case, what is the definition of ‘pleasure’?

This is the kind of stuff that concerns me. Any comments?

Posted April 30th, 2007 by: Pedro
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