DAILY WORD 1/21/21
By: Christopher Louis Reid
Tags: Bible Commentary, Leadership Skills, 2 Timothy 3, Persecution, Daily Word

12. Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.

13. But evil people and impostors will flourish. They will deceive others and will themselves be deceived.

2 Timothy 3:11–12 NLT

Today’s Passage covers two subjects that Paul has rehashed over and over throughout the Books of 1st and 2nd Timothy; Christians who live a Godly life will Suffer Persecution, and False Teachers will arise in the Last Days.

This has been mentioned so many times that it becomes obvious that Paul is trying to hammer these points into our heads so that we can in no way be caught by surprise when we are confronted by them.

Because of this, I’ve covered these topics in my DAILY WORD posts quite a bit. However, if Paul is concerned with our uptake of this information, it behooves me to ensure that as many times as he mentions it, that I rehash the subjects as well.

So, here we go. Paul knows what kind of Suffering we will face if we Answer the Call from God and become Leaders of other Christians. He has faced such Suffering throughout his tenure as a Leader but there is more to his intimate knowledge than just that.

We cannot forget that the man we know as Paul, one of the most revered and prolific Leaders and writers of the New Testament, began his life as Saul of Tarsus, one of the most feared and zealous persecutors of Christians that had ever terrorized God’s Believers.

So, to say that he knew what it was that these Christians were going to face as far as Suffering and Persecution goes, is a stark understatement, because he was one of the ones that had put them through a lot of that terror.

However, God Transformed his life on the road to Damascus (Acts 9) when He Showed him His Glory in the Form of a literally Blinding Light. God Spoke to Saul through that Light and asked why he was persecuting His people?

Saul asked Who was Speaking and God Told him that He was Jesus. He asked what God wanted him to do and he followed His Directions from there, eventually becoming the man that we know today; Paul who is giving us these warnings. But between his beginning and his death, Paul went through not only a Great Transformation but quite a bit of Persecution as well.

This is why he was so adamant about ensuring that those that took on the mantel of Christian Leadership were prepared for what he knew was coming. He had been on both sides of that particular coin. As persecutor and persecuted, he was in a position unlike any other, to speak on the subject.

Paul needed his Leaders to be ready for what he knew was on its way. For him not to give them warning, was for him to ignore his own experience and hard-won knowledge, and to fail in his mission. He needed them to carry a Strength within themselves through Preparation, that would take them through the trials he knew were coming.

Today, in this country, we are not yet facing the kind of Persecution and Suffering that Paul is warning us about here but you can be assured that it is indeed coming. The Word warns us of this and the climate in this country shows us just how swiftly things can shift from normalcy to chaos.

That chaos will sweep over the Church in the Last Days, driving many Christians who are not prepared for it to recant their Faith. This is unacceptable, especially for those that have been Called to Lead God’s people to the Truth. If the Leaders of the Church falter and fail, how are their followers supposed to display the Strength to endure?

The other situation Paul mentions over and over in these Letters to his Leaders is the rise of False Teachers. Those Christian Leaders that fall from the Truth and deceive “the very elect” with the lies and False Doctrines that they preach,

This is as dangerous a circumstance as Persecution and maybe more so, because it is coming from within the very Church that is supposed to be Guiding God’s people to the Truth. But those that fall into the category will do the exact opposite, they will steer the Church toward their destruction.

These False Teachers and Deceivers have been duped by the enemy and will, in turn, fool those that are seeking Truth in Guidance away from the exact thing they are looking for. If you are not versed in the Word for yourself, you can easily fall into this trap, because you will not know the Truth from the lies.

Paul, as the Leader of the Early Church, and as the writer of these Letters that we use even today, has to be sure that his followers have all the tools they will need in his absence to combat all of the weapons of the enemy, especially his most devious ones.

These two circumstances are just two of the examples of the kind of things that the enemy will try and utilize to lead us off the Proper Path and onto the Path of Destruction, where we will suffer his fate along with him.

But if we are aware of them, and we “Study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen that need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth.”, we can be confident in our Ability and Preparation to fight back against the wiles of the enemy.

But if we are not Prepared, if do not heed Paul’s warnings, we will fall into the traps and pitfalls that have been set for us. This will mean our destruction and if we are Christian Leaders; it may mean the destruction of God’s people as well. We have a responsibility to be ready for this war, and Paul is helping us, through these repeated warnings, to do just that!

Have a Thought-Provoking Thursday and Get Right, So You Don’t Get Left!

#dailyword