How did we get here? How did the culture become increasingly the 2 Timothy 3 mentality?
2 Timothy 3:1-5 "3 But realize this, that in the last days difficult (ragingly insane) 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,
These people even have a form of religion they call Christianity but have no love for God or others, their hearts have not been changed into a new creation by Christ because they saw "religion" as a means to feel safer and make themselves look good to others. It is not about God at all, we know this because we almost never hear the church goers mention the name of Jesus Christ. As 2 Timothy says; they have a form of religion but deny Christ in their life.
When I was a child I remember going to visit my cousins on a Sunday afternoon. We came home from church, ate our meal, took our naps and then took a short drive over to our aunt and uncles home for a visit. They had several children and there were three children in my family.
Upon arrival we found the children watching their new television. In those days we didn't have one yet because they were a new appliance that many people did not yet have.
It was a beautiful day and our aunt and uncle's family had a large field where we could play baseball or just running around in a game of tag.
Everyone ignored my suggestion that we go outside and play because the children were all planted in front of the television and would not go out to play. The parents didn't turn it off so the children could interact with one another so the idea that the television was more important than the guests was firmly planted in the minds of the children.
The adults were not watching the television and went into the other room to visit. I remember being bored by the television with a burning desire to interatact out in the beautiful weather with my counsins. Just for perspective I am over 70 now and have seen this mentality of device over relationship grow exponentially over the years.
As society prospered and technology increased we saw people move from the television stance in a chair to the phones everyone carries and checks many times during the day to see if anyone they wish to talk to is calling. However the phone allows someone to swipe off people, ignore or block them at will.
I see people spending more time on their phones in texting than I do interacting in conversation with people standing right in front of them. This is an objectification of those on the phone, they become objects to be used rather than people with whom to develop meaningful relationships.
Many people if not most are seeing others as objects to be used and discarded than they are seeing them as friends to be valued, protected and supported.
We now live in a culture that sees people as a means to their end. They use them as sounding boards to boast of their lives or to provide something they need but they do not see them as human beings to be valued. People are discarding others regularly for the slightest misstep or for not elevating them as special without a hint of guilt or remorse about it.
One of the elements of close relationships is the ability to discuss something while desiring to understand the other person's thoughts and actions. This is almost non-existent now, a thing of the past that I fear can never return.
Romans 1:30
"slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents."
Philippians 2:21
"For all the others look after their own interests, not those of Jesus Christ."
I have encountered often gossipers who think they see something in someone that they have no evidence for, passing on what they think they know as though it is fact. When there is no human connection to the person being maligned there is no guilt for ruining their reputation with others who didn't see anything to judge.
This is the kind of judging God says not to do, that is unrighteously judge someone based on the desired belief about them. Usually these assessments of others have more to do with jealousy and what someone wishes to believe than they do on any rational facts.
Warning; never tell gossipers what is going on in your life, it is better for them to make up a lie than to have a half truth that makes them sound credible.
Romans 15:1-3
"We then that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves…"
Psalm 10:3-4 " 3 For the wicked man boasts in the cravings of his heart; he blesses the greedy and reviles the LORD. 4 In his pride the wicked man does not seek Him; in all his schemes there is no God.…"
Boasting and posturing is a big part of the life of those who love themselves above everyone else. They use technology to easily discard and revile others without any sense of shame over doing so.
Psalm 94:4
"They pour out arrogant words; all workers of iniquity boast."
Psalm 52:7
"Look at the man who did not make God his refuge, but trusted in the abundance of his wealth and strengthened himself by destruction."
Our culture is trusting in their ability to have what they want when they want it not in Christ. When electronic devices take priority over relationships we know that we have moved into a cold culture of objectification of people.
This is not to mention the indoctrination that occurs from television or internet shows. This media has brainwashed many people into believing what they see on the screen. They think because it was on the screen it must be true.
This objectification and selfishness we see today affords antichrists to maintain control over the minds of people. When we realize that Christ has been maligned, His principles ignored and His being used to glorify themselves, we know we have moved into the end times apostasy and the end of the church age is almost over. We know too that when this age is over then begins the tribulation, a time so horrific it makes anything mankind has seen so far look like a cake walk.
Believers don't have to be depressed about any of this but we do need to understand what is happening so that we do not take it personally allowing the attitudes and actions of people to affect our walk with Christ. We need to stay focused on Christ and His calling for each of us. Hallelujah
Hebrews 12:1-3
Jesus, the Example
"12 Therefore, since we also have such a great cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let’s rid ourselves of every obstacle and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with endurance the race that is set before us,
2 looking only at Jesus, the originator and perfecter of the faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
