Came across this scripture last night, and found it relevant to something going on in my life right now…
Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage-with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.
Now, for those who don’t know, the book of 2 Timothy is a letter from Paul to Timothy where Paul is giving encouragement and instruction to Timothy for his ministry in Ephesus. Apparently, the same problems that happen today were problems back then…z other than all the technological achievements that have happened since. It’s very easy to find supporters of any cause under the sun. The problem is that until a person realizes they’ve been duped into believing something not based on truth, they won’t change. When you try to convince them that it isn’t based on truth, they study more from the “false prophets” who led them to their false truth, instead of those who actually speak the truth. They may say they study them as well, but all they really do is listen to a few speeches or read a few articles with nothing but skepticism in their hearts, unlike the times they study their false prophets.
One example of this is those political party followers who are either Die Hard Republicans or Die Hard Democrats. This is only a guess, but I’m sure any thinking person would agree my estimate is close, 90% of those people wouldn’t change their mind about their party affiliation unless their political party went the way of the Whig Party.
When it comes to Spiritual matters, I don’t know the answer to waking someone up to their bad influences or “false prophets”. I guess for the time being, I pray for God to reveal Himself to those I’m discussing, and for Him to guide me so that I can be a reflection of Him.