Although
it seems like Paul is talking about people sneaking into people’s homes at
night … Paul’s actually making a snide comment about religious people who go
into houses seemingly in a religious mode but who actually are not proclaiming
true religion. They go into houses and
teach false things, sucking people into their way of believing through their
passion. Such people always seem to be
in the process of “discovering” truth but never really arriving at the presence
of God.
Thoughts for Today
First Thought:
Paul
talks about weak-willed people who are “burdened with guilt.” There are people out there who want to guilt
you into believing in God. There are
people out there who want to make you believe in God by scaring you about
Hell. There are people out there who
want you to come to what they are presenting as God for all the wrong
reasons. We need to be careful about
these people. Jesus did not come to
scare us into Heaven – although our relationship with God is important enough
to take very seriously. Neither did
Jesus come to guilt us into God. Jesus
came to genuinely teach us about God so that through the draw of the Holy Spirit
we come to God on His terms.
What
other “false tactics” have you heard people use to try and get others to
believe in God? What is the best way to
talk to others about our relationship with God?
Why do you think your answer is the best way?
Second Thought:
Passion
is another thing we have to be careful about.
Passion is absolutely necessary in faith. Jesus was quite passionate about His
relationship with the Father. But that’s
just it. Jesus was passionate about the
Father. So many times people in the
faith get passionate about seemingly good things and they forget to be
passionate about God, too. For example,
helping people in Haiti is great. But it
should supplement our passion for telling them about God, not replace it. Being passionate about being kind to our
neighbor is good, but it should not replace our passion about telling our
neighbor about our relationship with God.
Is
it easy to get passionate about good things only to realize that we’ve lost our
passion about God? Why might it be so
easy for us? How can we help remember to
stay passionate about God in addition to being passionate about work that
should point to God?
Third Thought:
Paul
warns us about those who always seem to be on the path of finding truth but who
never get there. This might be a subtle
point, but it is really true. Jesus came
to give us truth. He is the truth (and
the life and the way, too)! We need not
be on the path to truth – we can know truth when we know Jesus. We can tell others truth by telling them
about Jesus and His relationship with God.
Yes, we should be growing closer to God.
But while we are doing that we can be proclaiming truth with confidence.
What
is the difference between a person who is trying to discover truth versus a
person who knows truth? How do those
people talk about God differently? What
can you do to make sure you are actually proclaiming truth?
Passage for
Tomorrow: 2 Timothy 3:8-9
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