True bravery is following Christ in a world that claims to know God but in practice they hate Him. Pretend Christianity is on the rise, everywhere we look there are many people who lack all the fruit of the Spirit but attend "church" gatherings every week.
These people spend more time boasting about their happy indulgent lives than they do seeking God. They even read their Bibles but lack the luster for the Word to obey it.
2 Timothy 3:1-5
3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."
These people want to know things about you so they can judge the food you eat, the clothes you wear, the friends you have but have no interest in your love for Christ and worse they judge wrongly with little to no information except what they have heard in the gossip mills.
They want knowledge about the Bible to be able to appear wise and understanding but have no love except for themselves.
Appearances are far more important to them than authenticity or appreciation for God and others.
These people want to appear superior but have no desire for correction, instruction or self-reflection according to God's Word. These people will gather information about us so they have a half truth to spread to others, they do not want a relationship around Christ but one that elevates them personally.
2 Timothy 4:4
"So they will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
Those who do this will believe false doctrine and interpret events in terms of their own twisted mindsets and desires.
2 Timothy 4:3
"3 For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance with their own desires,"
If these people cannot control you or your perception of them they will avoid you and gossip about you to others deliberately misinterpreting events or words to cause distrust in others for us.
Do not be surprised when this happens, it happened to the apostles, the prophets and Jesus Christ too.
Those who rejected Christ the most were the religious leaders. They held sway over the people so much so that most who heard of Jesus Christ rejected Him because of them.
It is vitally important that we follow Christ and not men! In these last days right before the rapture of the church. It is also important to remember that you will be rejected and maligned by those in church gatherings for desiring to follow Christ fully.
Most people in the gatherings today only want to "appear" to follow Christ but are full of arrogance and self-will, desiring to be seen as superior and special without regard for His Word.
2 Timothy 3 shows us just how disrespectful and full of pride the last days churches will be, they will have a "form of religion but deny God" in their lifestyles and desires.
2 Timothy 3:1-5 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness although they have denied its power; avoid such people as these."
The last days religion will judge food, clothing, and everything else according to their ideas heavily peppered with worldly wisdom that is of no use to the believer for the Kingdom of God. Their focus is completely on their own exterior presentation than they do about their inward being.
Developing godly character is not the goal of most people who say they are Christians in our day and I suspect it was like this in the days when Christ walked the earth because of the corrective letters Paul had to write to the churches.
Luke 1:74 "74 To grant us that we, being rescued from the hand of our enemies, Might serve Him without fear,"
It is important to avoid those who will not listen and who are hell bent on maligning our walk with Christ and most of all to avoid becoming like those who do this by allowing it to unnerve us. We must remain steady and resolute to allow the Holy Spirit in us to speak and act through us, that nothing we do and say would be expressed through our flesh.
One way to help us walk uprightly without worldly responses is to surround ourselves with those who are authentic believers full of the fruit of the Spirit and avoid those who are pretenders.
We cannot avoid the world and we should share the gospel with the unsaved but pretenders are stubborn and will ruin our walk if we spend too much time with them.
2 Corinthians 7:1
"Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God."
Those who are pretenders defile our walk, place pressure on us to be like them and demean everything we do to weaken us, don't let them by removing them from your life. If you have to be without human companionship most of the time you are not completely alone because Christ Who saved us lives in us, we are never alone.
Hallelujah!
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