Year 5, Day 329: 2 Timothy 3

Theological Commentary: Click Here

Discipleship Focus: Character

• Character: Having the interior life that is necessary to support the work that God sets before a person.  It is hearing from God and obeying.  It is doing the right thing when nobody is looking.

When Paul is writing to Timothy about some advice about the future days, Paul really focuses in on character.  Notice what Paul says about the character of human beings in general.  Lovers of self.  Selfish.  Lovers of money.  Out of control.  Unable to be appeased.  Conceited.  Pleasure seekers.  Two-faced.  Yeah, that sounds about right.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not saying that human beings are that way all the time.  In fact, I’d be willing to bet that very few if any human beings are that way all of the time.  If we were that way all of the time, what on earth would God find redeemable?  Of course, I am over-asserting my point.

At the same time, though, as I read through the list I cannot say that there are any qualities on that list that are not a part of me.  In fact, I cannot say that there are any qualities on that list that I don’t fight – some even on a daily basis!  So while I doubt that any human being falls prey to qualities on that list all the time, I do think it is fair to say that most human beings find themselves fighting something on that list all the time.

That’s why this is a chapter on character.  Character is who you are when nobody is looking.  I know on a good day that who I am when nobody is looking is a man who is resisting the self-centered humanity within me.

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