Ephesians overview – 3:14-19, part 51: Inner man; the good heart developed by commitment to the Lord in all circumstances.

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Title: Ephesians overview - 3:14-19, part 51: Inner man; the good heart developed by commitment to the Lord in all circumstances.

All who desire to live godly will be persecuted.

2TI 3:12  And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

It’s important to see the context of this verse. Why are the godly persecuted, and why is it important to remain faithful to godliness when we are?

2TI 3:1-5

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; and avoid such men as these.

It’s no mistake that at the top of the list of everything wrong man would do was to be a lover of self. All the rest that Paul insightfully writes flows from this top problem. The fallen man without God is alone in the world. We don’t discover this until we’re old enough, but from birth we go astray from our Creator.

Without God, man seeks to give to himself, protect himself, and knowing that men should have worth (things he ought to do and not ought to do), he elevates himself and calls himself holy (holding to a form [outward shell] of godliness). If he can satisfy himself that he has accomplished this, which he is only lying to himself, then he sits content, i.e. the man who built barns and filled them. If he cannot satisfy himself in this, he lashes out at others (unloving, irreconcilable, gossip, brutal, treacherous, reckless) and claims that he has been treated unfairly. This is where all the claims of social injustice comes from.

2TI 3:6- 9

For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses, 7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. 8 And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected as regards the faith. 9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, as also that of those two came to be.

MAT 10:16-18

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves. 17 But beware of men; for they will deliver you up to the courts, and scourge you in their synagogues; 18 and you shall even be brought before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.”

PRO 29:9-12

When a wise man has a controversy with a foolish man,

The foolish man either rages or laughs, and there is no rest.

10 Men of bloodshed hate the blameless,

But the upright are concerned for his life.

11 A fool always loses his temper,

But a wise man holds it back.

12 If a ruler pays attention to falsehood,

All his ministers become wicked.

What are the believers and lovers of God to do?

2TI 3:10-17

But you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance, 11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord delivered me! 12 And indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them; 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings [Timothy’s mother was a Jewess] which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17 that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work [the epignosis leading to the truth].

1PE 4:19

Therefore, let those also who suffer according to the will of God entrust their souls to a faithful Creator in doing what is right.