“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God – having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” -- 2 Tim. 3:1-5
Tonight is week 4 in our congregation’s study of the theology of John and Charles Wesley. We will be talking about the importance of having both the form and the power of godliness. This text will be central to our conversation.
What is most interesting about this warning is that the author is actually warning us of people who look like disciples of Christ but are actually disciples of themselves or the ways of the world. It is a warning against people who aren’t really lovers of God, they just play them on TV. It is a warning against those “good, churchgoing folk” that are really no less self-absorbed, greedy, and mean than anyone else. It’s a warning against people who have the form of godliness, but deny its power.
In his book Recapturing the Wesleys’ Visison, Paul Wesley Chilcote offers an analogy that demonstrates the need for both the form and the power of godliness. “It is like the old story about the sailboat,” he says. “The purpose of a boat with sails, of course, is to skim across the surface of the water. But if there is no wind, the boat lies dead in the water despite the means it has to utilize the wind. Likewise, if the sails are not unfurled, then there is no way to put the wind to constructive use. It simply blows you about – or blows you to pieces.”
Make sure, as you sail through the rest of your day today, that you are on the water when the wind comes. And when that wind comes, open your sails in the form of godliness so that you may be safely led by the power of God.
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