Identification of the Godly # 4

Identification of the Godly # 4

Once more, we would emphasize the fact that 2 Timothy 3:12 occurs in a passage which is describing a season of declension and departure from God - as the verse which immediately follows also goes on to show. Those seasons of declension are designated "perilous times" in the opening verse of the chapter; and therefore, we must supply answer to the question, What is it that particularly constitutes any "time" or season "perilous" to Christendom? Surely, the reply is obvious: It is the withdrawal of the Holy Spirit's power, when His gracious operations and unction are withheld, because insult has been done to Him. Then it is that the restraining hand of God is also removed, and the flesh is given more or less free rein. The consequences are obvious: Instead of peace, there will be strife, prayer becomes formal, preaching is flat and profitless, hoary "tradition" supplants "the present truth" (2 Peter 1:12); and a dead orthodoxy is the result. 

 Soon, a dead orthodoxy is followed by heterodoxy, the Scriptural standard is lowered, worldliness comes in apace, and Christ is shut out (Revelation 3:20). 

"But evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived" (2 Tim. 3:13). It is religious "seducers" who are in view, the unregenerate men who occupy most of our pulpits today; and who by their "form of godliness" (2 Tim. 3:5) delude the unwary - delude them, because they fail to perceive that their lives (moral and respectable though they be) deny the power or reality and efficacy of the same.

"Perilous" indeed is a season when such preachers abound! And what the special word to us at such a time? The next verse answers: "But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of" (2 Tim. 3:14). Be not swayed by what nearly every other professor is doing - look well to your own bearings.

"Continue," do not depart from "acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness" (Titus 1:1). If others are determined to make shipwreck of the faith, see to it that you "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." But remember that faithfulness will cost you something. In a "perilous" time, you may - probably will - have to walk alone, as Enoch did. Persecution will come upon you not from atheists and infidels - but from those who still keep up a form of godliness," but who are strangers to its living power. It will come to you from empty professors whose compromising ways are condemned by your refusal to conform thereto; whose worldliness and carnality is rebuked by your spirituality. It was the religious leaders of Israel who hounded the Saviour to death!

Thus, it is by their godly living, the true are distinguished from the false, and by the opposition which they meet with from the latter, that they may be clearly identified. Their care to avoid what they call "singularity" and "puritanism" - and thus, to escape "persecution" -0 is what exposes the empty professor! The true people of God - then, are clearly distinguished from empty professors. 

Genuine godliness is a new nature within - manifesting itself without; the mere form of godliness is nothing but an external cloak, seeking to hide the old man. Genuine godliness issues from filial fear and spiritual love; the mere form of godliness issues from servile fear and selfish love. Genuine godliness is vitalized by the Holy Spirit; the mere form of godliness is regulated by selfish considerations, or is stimulated by emotion. Genuine godliness is lasting; the mere form of godliness is only evanescent.

~A. W. Pink~

(The End)