The word unappeasable was in 2 Timothy 3:3; now, lest I be guilty of taking a word or verse out of context, the entire passage reads:
But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. [2 Timothy 3:1-5 (ESV)]
As a follower of Christ, it is uncomfortable for me to read this passage. Because when I do, I have to look in the mirror that Paul is holding up for his young disciple Timothy and see where I have fallen short in my own faith. Paul wasn't chastising Timothy, he was warning him of times to come.
Whether you are a Christian, atheist, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist, agnostic or whatever, I believe you would be hard pressed to argue against today's world mirroring what Paul wrote. Does that mean we're in the Christian end times? Will the Mayan prophecies come true (if you believe certain interpretations of the Mayan calendar, etc.)?
It was the end of the world for these poor folks...
I only have to look back a couple of weeks or months and see where unappeasable may have applied to me. The Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays are prime examples of when many of us eat way too much. It's not that I wasn't full, it's just that there were so many good things to eat; it can be hard to say 'no'.
This blog isn't big enough to look at each word Paul used to describe the last days and comment on how accurately each can be applied to our world today. I could get on my horse about reality shows, idol shows, sporting events, homes, cars, money, clothes, jewelry, food, drink, movies, TV, the Internet, physical relationships...well, you get the idea. It's not hard to find evidence that we are unappeasable.
Do people still carry riding crops?
Now, I don't think that there are billions of people running around trying to figure out how they can get a Rolls Royce and sip champaign in front of the Department of Health and Human Services. Still, it's hard to argue that we like to be comfortable. But where do you draw the line between comfortable and unappeasable?
I know I'm guilty of crossing that line...what do you think?
X
I think "unappeasable" is an easy word to pass over in this group of verses. It's easy to read a lot of the others (lovers of money, proud, disobedient to parents, unholy, without self-control, reckless, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, etc.), and either say, "Yeah that's me, yeah that's me, yeah that's me..." or "Nope not me, nope not me, nope not me..." (I'm more the first, by the way) and to simply miss unappeasable. Can't remember ever giving a lot of thought to what it meant or its importance. In my own life, I tie it back to loving pleasure than God; it can be so hard to separate from what I like or what makes me feel comfortable! Thanks for teasing this out Xanthopre.
ReplyDelete(Personally, I also passed over "heartless". Not sure why!)
Brandon, thanks for dropping by and taking the time to comment. Although looking at my pageview stats it 'seems' as if people are reading my blog, comments are a concrete measurement!
ReplyDeleteOne of the cool things about the Bible is how God will pop you with a word now and then. Generally, it's a given that no matter how many times I read a passage, I'll get something different out of it at different times. But sometimes the 'call' is a little more strident.
Thanks again!