But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people!  2 Timothy 3:1-5 HCSB

In this scripture passage, Paul refers to the last days. He describes people as being lovers of self and lovers of pleasure. Just look at the qualities and you will see that many people fit into those categories today. They promote their own selfish agendas with no regard for how God instructs us to live in His Holy Word.

But look at the last description he uses in verse 5- holding to the form of godliness, but denying its power. Tony Evans describes this as religious camouflage. Outwardly they try to make people think they are religious. The problem here is that anyone can be religious. Religious is defined in the dictionary as relating to or believing in a religion. The problem with this is we can believe in a false religion. Charles Manson could be defined as religious. He had made his own self-serving religion and was a faithful follower of it. He also gathered many other lost souls to faithfully follow him in his false religion. God doesn’t want religion, He wants us to be in relationship with Him.

What Paul is talking about here is false teachers. 1 John 2:18, John warns that the antichrist is coming and that many antichrists or false prophets have come into the world. We are seeing more and more false prophets today. If you examine them closely, you will notice that what Paul described in our scripture passage is true of them. We have to be careful. Our pastor has been diligent in keeping us informed and warning us of false prophets and for this, I am very grateful.

The problem with these false prophets is that they appear to be godly. Some of them really talk a good game. But if you line it up with what the Bible tells us, you will see that although they hold a form of godliness, they deny God’s power. This is a very dangerous thing.

When we are truly saved and we truly love the Lord, we want to move from sin to righteousness. We know we will never be perfect, but we strive for perfection in Christ. We do the best we can do so that we can be the best we can be. We put God first in all that we do. We imitate Christ to the best of our ability (Ephesians 5:1). We put aside those things that hinder us from being a good witness to others. We deny ourselves because we are no longer lovers of ourselves but lovers of Christ. We put Jesus first, others second and we come last. We are the opposite of the adjectives Paul used to describe people in these end times.

Denying God’s power is a very dangerous thing to do. When we deny God’s power it is as if we don’t believe that we will come under judgment. Don’t ever kid yourself about that. We are told in 2 Corinthians 5:10 that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one of us may receive what is due for what we have done in the body, whether good or evil. When we lack faith, we deny God’s power. When we take vengeance into our own hands, we deny God’s power (Romans 12:19).

Are you denying God’s power? I spent many years denying His power. I loved myself more than I loved God. I fit the description of those in our scripture passage. Praise God, I stopped denying His power. I gave it all over to Him. I still can’t completely wrap my head around His awesome power, but I do trust in it. I no longer deny it. My prayer for you today is that you don’t deny it. When we accept His awesome power, we can see all the good He will do in our lives. We will have peace and joy regardless of our circumstances. And hopefully, others will want what we have and we can share His gospel with them so that they too can experience His power.

Have a great day!