Can an author who lived two thousand years ago have anything relevant to say to us today? Silly isn't it? Aren't you glad you don't live during a time when people are lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power? Whew, what a list! Indeed, that would be a terrible time to live. That was the time that guy Paul was writing to Timothy about, not now.
We live during a time of peace, when all of us share good will with one another, so Paul's counsel to Timothy is probably useless. Besides, who need's advice from someone who lived before the Wright brothers?
Self-help, three step, ten step, one weekend, just twenty minutes a day books are flying off the bookstore shelves. Paul said the people in the last days would always be seeking instructions, but never arrive at knowledge of the truth. Gracious no. If people arrived at knowledge of the truth what would happen to those self-help book sales? What would happen to a lot of revenue generating elements of consumerism? Look around. Aren't we already doing a great job of taking care of ourselves?
For instance, have you heard of Black Friday? It's the day after Thanksgiving, you know, Football Thursday. Don't we stand shivering in line at 5am because we share in the spirit of Christmas? You don't suppose, just maybe, the spirit of Christmas has been swallowed whole by those profligates Paul mentioned? Can you imagine the damage Paul's economics could do to the global economy? He would probably exchange toys for clothing, fruitcakes for food and if there was a God, God forbid, Blu-ray DVD players for wells. We've got plenty of water, thank you.
How can some dude who lived shortly after B.C.E. became C.E. begin to understand the intricacies of a modern culture, a culture so health conscious we have a pill for everything? Soon we will have a pill to neutralize the side effects of the pills we are taking now. You think we have a lot of people battling depression now, imagine the depression we would have if we actually took that guy Paul serious?
Obviously he does not even understand the way we play church; the money that can be made teaching folks to name it and claim it, do this and get that. The Prayer of Jabez was written before Paul lived, but I wonder what Paul would have done with that? Never mind, we can probably guess.
Is it any wonder Timothy lacked confidence when Paul, writing from prison said, "What persecutions I endured! Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. Indeed, all who want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted."
Hey, that dog won't hunt, and that pep talk won't sell. Paul, and that God he always wrote about, had a lot of strange ideas. Stranger yet, there are still a few people here and there who actually believe this stuff.
Enough of this, it's time to get serious. Do you think before this Christmas, Best Buy, or someone else, will sell a Blu-Ray DVD player for a hundred bucks or less?
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