from bad to worse

Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

2 Timothy 3:12-13

The Christian life is not a “safe place” in the world. Jesus promised His disciples that the world would hate them because it hates Him (John 15:18). Paul taught young churches that Christians enter the kingdom of God through “many tribulations” (Acts 14:22). It isn’t easy being a follower of Jesus. It IS however filled with joy. It IS very rewarding. But we are carrying a cross... the means of our public humiliation, ridicule, and execution. And we should not expect for Christian influence to ever get easier.

Paul warned Timothy that the path for society is that all cultures will trend from bad to worse. It isn’t going to get any easier. We won’t suffer less. As society marches fiendishly forward in a headlong rush to hell, Christians will need to stay true, at the cost of increasing persecution. And we will have to fight deceptions that infiltrate the church. There will be evil people in society with influence and leadership. There will be imposters even within the church... deceiving and being deceived.

There is a prescribed path that withstands this decay. It means two commitments rule us: 1) Stay faithful to the good faith we learned from God’s Word and those who mentored us in it’s truth (2 Timothy 3:14-15). 2) Proclaim it and equip other disciples through the Word so that they may do good works in an evil age (2 Timothy 3:16-17). The sacred writings are our only sure source as things go from bad to worse. God’s truth will hold our hearts and lives steady as we see all around us people giving in to deceptions that destroy and sadly compel some to defect.