1 Timothy 4:2, (End times) Seared Consciences

I used to love to lift weights but one of the hassles about lifting is that when you begin your hands get blistered and callused. The bars and dumbbells are ribbed for better gripping and this leads to your hands having a rough couple of weeks until they firm up and get used to the friction. After you have done it a while your hand become rough and unaware of the friction because they have developed a tolerance to it and it no longer bothers you. Paul says in verse 2 that in the last days many people hearts will become like the hands of a lifelong weight lifter, they will no longer feel the friction caused by the sin of this world and they will openly walk in it. He says that those who fall away from the church and will do so because their consciences have been seared hot iron. Meaning the conscience will no longer warn them of the wickedness in their lives and around them.

This portion of scripture is like what Paul said in Romans 1:28 when God says that he will turn those who refuse to accept the truth over to a reprobate mind. It is a very scary situation to find one’s self in when the God given conscience no longer warns you of the sin around you. We see it all around us as more and more sin is becoming openly accepted by the masses not only in the world but also in the so called Christian churches. They have ignored the friction of the soul against this sinful world so long that their hearts have become callused and they no longer bat an eye at what God calls evil. They have compromised their values and bought into the lies of this world, that a modern society must be tolerant of everyone’s choices and opinion. Yet they neglect the opinion of the One who matters most, God. We need to wake up a see that the times Paul is talking about to Timothy are upon us now and the end is near.

1 Timothy 4:3-5, (End times) Manmade rules will reign

Growing up in a neighborhood full of boys who was all about the same age we had some epic sports battles in whose ever yard we decided to play in. One of things that would happen regularly was debates over the rules of the game we were playing. We didn’t always play traditional sports and many times we made up our own games with our own sets of rules. Well in a group of young men it is inevitable that someone is going to get their feathers ruffled if they don’t get their way and this would end in a split or faction. The group would have to choose sides and decide what the rule was going to be in effect and if the others didn’t like it, they could hit the road, and sometimes they did until they calmed down. All this drama over a set of rules made up and enforced by a bunch of kids. Paul tells Timothy in verses 3-5 that in the last days that people will cling to manmade rules and neglect or ignore the commandments of God.

He deals with things such as marriage and the dietary rules that where prominent in their time, but we can see this in our world today as well. Manmade dogma (doctrine) seems to have taken hold of many Christians and instead of sticking to the basis of the word of God all we end up with is splits and divisions in the body of Christ. Many refuse to expect the truth of God’s word and instead replace them with the lies as Paul pointed out in verse 1 of Chapter 4. When people begin to esteem their man-made rules over the God given rules then there is a major problem in the Body of Christ. It is quite alright to set aside things to separate yourself from this world or to abstain from certain things to set yourself aside for God but it is not ok to judge others by rules you have set for your life. It is not ok to say they are going to Hell because they choose to eat something you have chosen not to eat or to wear something you have chosen not to wear. None of these things will send them to Hell, the only thing that will is leaving this earth without knowing Jesus as their Lord and Savior.