Jump Start # 901

2 Timothy 3:6-7 “For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Our passage today describes a disconnect toward the Divine. Paul is telling Timothy what will happen in the last days. It will be difficult times, using Paul’s words. The chapter begins with a string of wrong and bad attitudes and behaviors. Included in that list are: arrogance, lovers of self, conceited, unholy, disobedient to parents, lovers of pleasures, lovers of money, haters of good, gossips, unloving, and holding to a form of godliness but denying its power.

What a mess. They appear somewhat religious on the outside, maybe just a bit, but inside, they are far, far from Christ. They need a complete re-wiring of their thinking. Some how they just don’t get it. They don’t see the bridge between faith and everyday living. They haven’t grasped the core concept that Jesus must be Lord of our life.

Our verse magnifies this problem with the expression, “always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

Always learning is awesome. That’s a great characteristic. It shows interests and the desire to know more. Learning is a journey. It takes effort to learn. These people were learning. They hadn’t thrown in the towel on religion. They hadn’t jumped head first into hedonism, although it seems they were heading that way. There is something about Christianity that fascinated them.

Some have given up on learning. They stick their big toe into Christianity and that’s about all they want or think that they need. Some have been going to church services for decades, listening to hundreds of sermons, reading hundreds of bulletin articles, sitting in hundreds of Bible classes, but they are stuck with a basic knowledge of Bible facts and principles. Sitting in a biology class doesn’t mean a person is going to learn biology. There is some thinking, working, homework, applying and doing that is necessary to learning. Tired and preoccupied minds may sit in a church building, but those minds are not learning unless they are growing and thinking and working toward learning.

There are some common things necessary for learning. A person needs the right tools. If I took a college biology class, but never got the class book, showed up without a notebook, or a pen and just sat there staring at the professor every day, I’d be gone by mid-terms. That is a sure and quick route to flunking out. To get it, a student needs to take notes, read the text, do the homework. Now, how about us with the Bible? Show up to church services with no Bible, pen, notebook and just staring at the preacher for a while. How is that person going to be any different than the biology student who just sits there?

Paul said these people were ever learning.

The second aspect Paul states is that although they were always learning they were never able to grasp it. His words are, “never able to come to the knowledge of truth.” They didn’t get it. Had they actually grasped what they were learning, they would have seen the humble Jesus who had the heart of a servant. They would have understood that the first step in discipleship is denying self (LK 9:23). That alone would have killed the arrogant attitudes they clung to. Their priorities were out of order. Their thinking was out of alignment.

This ought to show us that some who go to church services are far from Jesus. These people were learning, they were worshipping, they were around the faithful. Those inside the church buildings need Jesus just as much as those on the outside. It is these kinds of members that give the church a bad name. The attitude of these people will hurt others. They will think that they are right with the Lord when they are not. Their arrogance will be their down fall. This divine disconnect will cost them their souls. They are a danger to the church. This is why Paul is warning Timothy about them.

The last days had begun. These people were a threat to Timothy and the Ephesian church where Timothy was preaching. Understand this divine disconnect continues today. You’ll see it at work. There are those who talk about their church in one breath and then unleash the worst attitudes and language with the next. They will talk about church and then going to the bars for a night of drinking. They talk about church and trashy shows. They talk about church and cuss. They talk about church and don’t connect that their behavior shows that church is doing little good for them. Do you see that?

Ever learning but never coming to the knowledge of truth…Learning about Jesus ought to make us humble, holy and thoughtful of others. Learning about Jesus ought to change us. When it doesn’t , something is missing.

Roger