Submit yourselves to God, draw near to God and He will draw near to you. I promise you that His desire will be for you to be reconciled to your true brothers and sisters in Christ. Go to them and seek forgiveness. You may say, “Yeah, but he said!” or “Yeah, but she said!” So what! Is not God able to make all things right? Get the devil out of the picture and all that stuff that seems so important will look like nothing.
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. 2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, 4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these. 2 Timothy 3:1-5 (NASB)
No Christian would argue that this list characterizes man in these last days, but sadly, these very things are tolerated in professing believers in our time. This passage and other obvious Bible verses that state these things are simply ignored by professing Christians and Christian leaders. They give lip service to the Bible, but disregard what it actually says. How often do we encounter a professing brother or sister in Christ and as we attempt to deal with them Biblically are rudely attacked from an obvious base of pride manifesting itself in arrogance? I personally find that very disquieting. Yes, it may accomplish what that person wanted in getting us to back off, but what has it done to our relationship and, even more importantly, what has it done to their own relationship with God, if one did indeed exist to begin with?
