Fool’s Gold
“In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Today’s Text: 2 Timothy 3:10-17 (Living Life Daily Devotional)
This is one of the passages that preachers love to preach on. At the same time, it is very challenging for everyone, including the preacher.
Living in a “free” society, Christians do not have to suffer the kinds of overt persecutions that the first Christians did—or even as some Christians do today in places like North Korea, Somalia, Yemen, Libya, Sudan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, and India (the top eleven on Open Door’s World Watch List of nations where Christians suffer the most persecution).
And yet, “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” I have experienced that first hand when I was working in the extremely anti-Christian culture of NorCal high tech—even from other so-called “Christians.” Persecution will come because living a godly life in Christ Jesus means to live according to the word of God.
Sooner or later, every disciple of Christ realizes that being a disciple means to live according to the Holy Scriptures. And that is what being “wise for salvation” means as well. The challenge we face is that the Holy Scriptures are diametrically opposed to the ways of the world. And so being “wise for salvation” is utter foolishness as far as the world is concerned, leading to persecution in some form another (Mark 10:30; John 15:18-19; 1 Corinthians 1:20-27).
The Scriptures actually talk about the persecution of the saints a lot.
But what other choice does the believer have if we have become convinced of the absolute truth of what we have learned in the Scriptures? Should we be “foolish for salvation” so that we can appear wise in the eyes of the world? May it never be!
God has given us the Bible so that we may be “thoroughly [not partially] equipped for every good work.” But what is it that we are equipped with? The equipping that we receive from the Bible is “righteousness.” And the “good work” is simply the product (the fruit) of our “righteousness.” Pursuing “good works” without being equipped with the righteousness that comes from the word of God is of the devil.
That is why Jesus Himself pointed out for us what the priority of our lives ought to be.
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
— Matthew 6:33
That seeking must be in the word of God, and the fruit of righteousness, learned from God’s word, is the good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do (Ephesians 2:10). And by the way, those good works that God has prepared in advance for us to do has been revealed in the word of God, as well.
We love to appear wise in the eyes of the world, but we offend the Lord every time we do so. We hate to appear foolish in the eyes of the world and avoid it like the plague, yet we please our Lord whenever we do so because we trust Him and not the world—we love Him and not the world—we are found in Him and not of the world.
May I be a fool for Christ. May our Canvas family be a community of fools for Christ.
Father, You alone are worthy of trust. Everything else is suspect. You alone know and desire what is best for us, because of Your love. The world is mired in self-love, and that to its own destruction. Help us to see the foolishness of the world. Help us to see the wisdom of trusting in You and You alone. Thank You for Your word. In Jesus’s name. Amen.
