Perils to the Soul
Have you
noticed the growing fascination that some have with other people’s perils? They
pay good money to watch stunt drivers jump a string of cars, or a tightrope
walker make his way across a tiny rope 200 feet above the pavement. We marvel
when someone unnecessarily puts himself at risk.
The
greatest risk of all is the danger that threatens our soul. Paul warned that
perilous times would bring dangers that threaten to undo us (2 Tim. 3-4). These
perils include:
1. Ignorance of God's Word. Some will
“creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with
sins, led away by various lusts, always learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth” (3:6-7). Those who do not know God's word are fair game
for religious racketeers.
2. Doctrines of Men. “Now as
Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of
corrupt minds, disapproved concerning the faith” (3:8). The Egyptian magicians
resisted Moses by imitating his works. Satan is the great imitator. What God
does, he counterfeits, forcing us to distinguish between truth and error.
3. Prejudice. “But they
will progress no further, for their folly will be manifest to all, as theirs
also was” (3:9). One who judges before he knows the facts is prejudiced. Some
students searched the Scriptures and rejected the truth, while the Bereans
searched the same passages and received the truth (read John 5:39; Acts 17:11).
How can the same act (studying the Bible) produce such different results? The
first group was prejudiced; the other, honest.
4. Desire to Please Men. Paul warns
Timothy that God will judge him (2 Tim 4:1), and therefore he must continue to
tell people what they need to hear, whether they like it or not (vs. 2). One of
Timothy's greatest problems would be the "itching ears" of those who
demand something besides truth (3-4).
Covet correction and don't let
these perils steal your soul!
- by Rick
Duggin
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