2 Timothy 4:3-4 (ESV)
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but
having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their
own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off
into myths.
These verses likely described Paul and Timothy’s day, but reading it sounds
a lot like today. People will not put up with sound teaching. Rather, they will
gather around themselves teachers who excuse and validate their own passions. That
sounds a lot like Woke philosophy and theology. The underlying idea for much of
what we call Christianity today seems to be that our passions define us. God
made us with these passions, therefore we should pursue them. If anyone or anything
opposes or hinders my pursuit of my passions that is oppressive and offensive.
The problem with that is that it is not a Biblical framework from which to
begin. The Biblical message is that we live in a broken world and we are broken
individuals enslaved to sin. Our need is to be rescued and transformed, not to follow
our passions. Our passions are affected by that brokenness. To follow Christ is
not to pursue our passions, but to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and
follow him (Lk 9:23). That is not a popular message today, but it is Jesus’s
words, not mine. Maybe we should pay attention. Maybe the best life in found
not in satisfying my passions, but in dying to myself and following him (see
Romans 6 & 8).
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