God’s Wrath on Unrighteousness
18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Romans 1:18-23
Godlessness in the Last Days
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, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. 6 For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.2 Timothy 3:1-9
3 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, 4 and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.2 Timothy 4:3-4
Friends, we’ve barely started 2025 and already I have reason for concern. I know, I’ve been tuned into too much social media, and yes, I admit, it’s impacted me.
I’m reminded of the verses above, and I have some comfort in the fact that Paul pointed these things out in the past. This means that we shouldn’t be too surprised if we see all that was predicted here, happening right before our eyes.
We’re seeing a lot of ungodliness and unrighteousness. I mean, sure – we’re seeing an increase in sin in the forms of the ‘wrong’ based on how we (as individuals and collectively) define ‘right’ and ‘wrong’; we’re seeing an increase of the ‘evil’ based on how we define ‘good’ and ‘evil’. Christ pointed out the modus operandi of our common enemy, and granted, we’re seeing a lot of it happening – people stealing from each other, killing each other, and destroying each other.
But the ungodliness and the unrighteousness I’m pointing out here runs deeper, and we can condense it into two things going on.
First, we’re seeing a lot of suppression of the Truth. We’re seeing a lot of opposition to the Truth. We’re hearing subtle and sometimes downright blatant downplaying of Christ and His finished work. God is gracious and continues to be gracious to us by reminding us that what can be known about Him is plain to us – Paul says that His eternal power and divine nature (composed of, but not limited to His grace and goodness, and His glory and greatness) have been clearly perceived in ALL creation, since the beginning of creation.
We’re seeing any attempt to discern the knowledge of God in all Creation, silenced. I dare to make the claim that the more oppressive of nations persecute, and even permanently silence the voices that so much as mention the name of Jesus Christ, or of His finished work.
We’re seeing any attempt to discern the knowledge of God in all Creation, suppressed. Let me be clear: There’s nothing wrong with questioning the Truth with the intention of knowing more about it. However, it’s another thing entirely when folks purposely attack the Gospel with no intention of honoring God or giving thanks to Him. It is as some people say: It takes more faith not to believe in Christ – and I say this because I could imagine how some folks would do so much more research than your conventional Christian – they’d read the Bible with the sole purpose of finding contradictions. I have no numbers but I feel as if this is happening a whole lot more, today.
Second, we’re seeing a lot of promotion of lies. With the boom of online activity and social media we have the special privilege of wisely discerning the exponential promulgation of falsehoods – distractions and Truth mingled with dubious ‘facts’. If opposing or suppressing the Truth isn’t productive for some people groups, then the other avenue for attack would be to promote and promulgate non-Truths.
I’m led to thinking that the strategies that fall under this form of unrighteousness are those that would actually allow some perusal into the knowledge, and even the love of God… however, the strategy would be to have the populace more inclined to love themselves, or any other created thing in this world.
These are the sorts of strategies that would have the people adoring themselves or being too fixated on others (individuals, communities, etc.). People would be hyped up in knowing all there is to know about themselves or other people, instead of putting even the slightest of honest consideration into who Christ is.
These are also the sorts of strategies that would have people just so overwhelmed by all the media that is shown to them at every single moment, just so the Truth of the finished work of Christ is simply drowned out by all the noise.
It’s extraordinary. It’s a famine.
We’re seeing the suppression and opposition of nutritious food / nutrition, and the Truth.
Consequently, we’re also seeing the promulgation and promotion of junk food / poison, and lies.
The more things change, the more things stay the same, indeed. Apparently, this isn’t anything new, but all this is serving as a reminder for us.
We’ve seen it before, and now we’re seeing it again. So, I ask myself, what are we reminded to do? How are we to respond?
The Righteous Shall Live by Faith
16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. 17 For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.” Romans 1:16-17
We respond by living by faith. As a response to the suppression and opposition of the Truth, we’re to double down on the Gospel. We’re to remind ourselves, that we live, first and foremost, by faith in Christ. In Him we live, in Him we move, and in Him we have our being. Through all this persecution and opposition, nothing can ever separate us from His love. Christ’s finished work has guaranteed that we are a new Creation, born again for good works.
Preach the Word
1 I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.2 Timothy 4:1-2
We respond by preaching the Word. In addition to letting the Gospel, and to letting the Truth minister to us, we’re also charged, as Paul charged Timothy, to preach the Word to others, as we preach the Word to ourselves. By the Word, we’re to let faith arise in us, and we’re to let faith arise in others – in season, out of season, by way of rebuke, reproof, and exhortation.
Perhaps we’re to respond by way of the suppression and opposition of the lies, and the promotion and promulgation of the Truth.
But is that really all? Are we to ‘fight’ according to their terms?
7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.
12 “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.John 16:7-15
Give thanks to God, because we aren’t alone in this uphill battle – in fact, He never left us alone. Now, as in back then, and in the days to come until the end of what we perceive as time, we have God with us. The Holy Spirit is with us, as the Spirit of Truth that guides us into all the Truth when we ourselves have trouble discerning the Truth.
The Holy Spirit is with us, hearing from the heavenlies, and telling us, according to His power and wisdom, what He hears. And we will know that it comes from our Father, when we know that it glorifies Christ. We’re reminded that the Holy Spirit is a direct channel or our immediate access to the Truth.
When we find ourselves powerless and even indifferent to appreciating or even reading the critical Truth, we have the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth, to strengthen our faith.
Give thanks to God, because we have the Holy Spirit, who goes deeper than any limited efforts of ours to preach the Word. Paul said, as a rebuke to the Corinthians – he planted, Apollos watered, but God gives the growth. Consequently, we preach the Word, but it is the Spirit that convicts the world.
First, He convicts us of our righteousness, our right standing with God – so right, actually, and ‘right’ not merely according to our standards – that we call Him our Father.
Second, and more importantly, He convicts the world – that is, the world that has not believed in Christ – of sin. I could imagine that in the day to day life of someone who has yet to believe in Christ, the Holy Spirit is at work, as intentional as He is gentle, to reveal the goodness of God, and Godly sorrow – both leading to repentance – at every single moment
When we find ourselves silenced and even harmed from preaching the Word, we have the Holy Spirit, the Helper, to not only preach to us, but to convict us, and the world.
So here we are, friends – with a reminder of our relentless enemy, of our charge to respond in the body of Christ, and, finally, of the faithfulness of our God – by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I started typing with more reasons to be concerned, but now I have more reasons to thank God, and to praise Him.
Isn’t it awesome how that works?
By the way, this article is exactly 2025 words long.
God bless you!
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