Only A Form of Godliness Won't get the Job Done!

II Timothy 3:1-9 It's not hard to get caught up in the thinking that the good people are in the church and the bad people are out there - that what we do, if we can justify it, is okay. Our Scripture says that in the last days there will be terrible times. The “last days" describes the time between the first and the second coming of Christ. The idea is that the conditions he talks about will become worse and worse. The list of things has always been in the world - that's the way the world is. Paul is talking about behavior and attitudes among those who consider themselves to be Christians. The phrase that gives it away is: "having a form of godliness ..." People in the world have never cared about having a form of godliness. We would do well to use this list as a mirror to take a close look at ourselves. Which ones describe me? What am I like when Pastor is not around - when I'm on my own turf? Even if I don't shoot people in classrooms and beat up helpless old ladies in the street. What is going on in the privacy of my own mind and heart? How's my thought life? Proverbs 23:7 says that, "as a man thinketh in is his heart so is he ..." (KJV) Learn to start seeing a red flag when you use your position as a Christian, to get special favor, rather than as an opportunity and enablement to serve. "Always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth." If we are not seeing at least danger areas in this list relative to our own lives, we are in denial. A person who has no feeling in a limb needs to routinely examine the area for damage and infections. Sometimes, because we've been exposed to the ways of the world so long, we've "lost our feeling" in regard to accepting its ways as our own. Let's take time often to examine ourselves, find the infections and flaws and with God's help start making the necessary corrections.