More on 2 Timothy 3:2 ...

“Disobedient to their parents”

(2 Timothy 3:2, October 23, 2011)

1 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty.

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ...

disobedient

God has given us authority structures for our own good. See Romans 13. He has set His Son to reign on Zion's holy hill, but He warns us that throughout this entire gospel period which He called “the last days” there will be many people who will be disobedient to lawful authorities.

Some Jews, like John the Baptist, probably assumed that when the Jewish Messiah came, we would almost instantly see the fullness of every Messianic promise. God's plan was different than that. He would work through sinners in reaching sinners. He would use weak people to reach weak people.

This was not an incidental element of His plan. It is glorifying to God to display before heaven and earth His strength as it is perfected in our weakness. He is our boast. We magnify His Name.

If the obedience just came only through His instantaneous grace working immediately on every one of His children, this would be less glorifying to Him than His current way of expanding His kingdom and His reign. We need to understand that in these last days there will be disobedient people. He knows us. He uses us. He changes us.

to their parents

Perhaps the most disappointing kind of disobedience is the rebellion that rips apart families. Not only are children disobedient to parents, but parents exasperate their children.

We might make our peace with civil disobedience, or workers being insubordinate, or church members being unwilling to submit to the elders in the church. We might try to overlook unwise governors, bosses, and pastors, and just take the abuse that they unwisely push upon their subordinates. But it really hurts when our families break down in front of our eyes. We don't even know how to fix the family problems that are all over our society and our church, but what really breaks our hearts is that this bad news touches our own families.

We long for the Messiah who obeyed His parents even though they did not understand Him. Our disobedience in family relationships has been more than covered by His righteousness and death. He alone can speak real peace into our souls. Will we listen to His Word? Will we be led by the Spirit of holiness?

It is one of the defining marks of people who are full of the Spirit of God that they submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. To be united with Him not only in Name, but in power, seems most essential if we are to turn away from the temptation toward familial disrespect in an age when all authority is suspect, and where so much authority has been truly abusive.

At the head of the most important family unit is a Father who has given His Son for us. At His right hand is an elder brother who is committed to the fullness of your good order and life. It is the Spirit of the Father and the Son that alone can keep us from falling into the sad patterns all around us. Christ is our King, but a King who died on a cross knows our weakness and is determined to bring us into family relationships that show the marks of His powerful healing.