Beware of “having a form of godliness but denying its power” preachers.

Believers, consider 2 Timothy 3:1-5: "But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people."

At first, one would think vs:1-5 is just about people who are sinning openly and leading outwardly vulgar lifestyles but consider verse 5 which they all have in common:

“having a form of godliness but denying its power...."

The NLT version says "They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly.”

These people that Pàul wrote to Timothy about here aren’t thugs and such who are openly wallowing in sins. Paul said they have a form of godliness. People think of them as “holy.” Such preachers have a form of godliness (righteousness.) On the outside, they preach, look and act all religious, moral, holy and righteous but on the inside, they are all the evil things that Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3:1-4. Such reject the power of God in making the sinner godly (righteous.) See the power of God expressed in Romans 3:

“26...and He makes sinners right in His sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.”

But these people who are “having a form of godliness but denying its power” tell you differently. Such stand on their pedestals of righteousness from self-effort at obeying the law (self-righteousness) and deny the power of God to make the sinner who believes righteous apart from works. Unless the Lord exposes their evil deeds, you will think that they are really godly and do not commit sin at all! Paul spoke of such preachers that "reject the power that could make them godly" in 2 Corinthians 11:15-

"And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works."

These ministers of Satan that have "a form of godliness" are pastoring churches and preaching their brand of righteousness straight from the pulpit. They sound and act extremely moral and righteous and preach strongly against sin. They always act like they just finished having lunch with Jesus. They are well-respected because they preach a lot about righteousness and living a godly life and not wearing wigs and skinny pants, just like the Pharisees, but herein lies what exposes them as agents of Satan:

their own method of attaining righteousness (being godly) in the sight of God and overcoming sin is never through what Christ has done to make us righteous and enjoy God's blessings but on what we must do by ourselves, by human effort at obeying the law.

They “reject the power that could make them godly.” They teach that one can be godly (be like God) by law-keeping aka through knowledge of good and evil, the same way Satan deceived Eve by seducing her to eat from the tree of the same name. See Paul's typology of the law as the forbidden fruit in Romans 7 (MSG) -

"The law code started out as an excellent piece of work. What happened, though, was that sin found a way to pervert the command into a temptation, making a piece of “forbidden fruit” out of it. The law code, instead of being used to guide me, was used to seduce me."

Satan is still seducing people through his ministers today by deceiving many into thinking that they can be godly by human effort at keeping the law. It seemed good to Eve, as it seems good to many in the church today. But the end is death. The letter kills. We can do nothing without Christ, least of all be godly, but these ones deny God's power in making the sinner who believes righteous through Christ.

Philippians 3:2 counsels us concerning such preachers: “Beware of dogs...” This is how God makes the sinner godly/righteous but they reject His power: Romans 5:19-

“By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”

Also 2 Corinthians 5:21: “For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Our sins for Christ's righteousness. Any other brand of righteousness is "a form of godliness." Our own righteousnesses (from law-keeping and the good things we do) are filthy rags according to Isaiah 64:6.

Consider James 2:10: "For whosoever shall keep the whole law yet stumble at one point, he is guilty of all."

Those who think their law-keeping, tithe payment and good works done to get right with God count for something have no idea about the severity of God’s law. Under law, the one who only lied about his location for a good reason is as guilty as the child-molesting rapist murdering ritual killer and under the same curse. And all have sinned.

Jesus said in Matthew 5:20- "But I warn you—unless your righteousness is better than the righteousness of the teachers of religious law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the Kingdom of Heaven!"

Do such preachers really think that we can beat the Pharisees at law-keeping, especially when Romans 3:20 says- "For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are."

Absolute righteousness is a prerequisite for salvation and no one can attain this. We can't have one leg on Mt. Sinai (law) and the other on Mt. Zion (Grace.) See Paul's analogy of law and grace in Galatians 4. Isaac (the church today) was not a combined product of Hagar (law) and Sarah (Grace.) He was borne purely of the power of the Spirit. No human effort involved.

We can't say "I will do my best to keep the law and Jesus will see that I have tried and consider me." This is the "neither cold nor hot" that Christ spoke of in Revelation 3.

It is either works (human effort at keeping the law) or grace (undeserved, unmerited favour.) See Romans 11:6 "And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace. But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work."

The summary of the message of teachers of a false doctrine is: “Now that you are born-again, you have to do your best to obey the Ten Commandments and do good things in order to remain righteous and saved and to make it to heaven or else God will abandon you.” This is the sure way to get cut off from Christ according to Galatians 5:4-

"For if you are trying to make yourselves right with God by keeping the law, you have been cut off from Christ! You have fallen away from God’s grace."

No hope for man through keeping the law so God made a way for us to be righteous and save us from sin and death. Because He loved us so, "...He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Receiving God’s abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness is the only way to not be counted among “the wicked;” to be godly (righteous) and reign over sin. Nothing to do with human effort at obedience. Romans 5:17 says-

"For the sin of this one man, Adam, caused death to rule over many. But even greater is God’s wonderful grace and His gift of righteousness, for all who receive it will live in triumph over sin and death through this one Man, Jesus Christ."

Not our own righteousness that comes from keeping the law and doing good things (they are filthy rags according to Isaiah 64:6) but His righteousness that is given to all who believe as a gift.

With Christ we don't GIVE to GET; we GET to GIVE. We get to love more, give more, do exploits and live a life of moral excellence that exceeds even that which the law demands; we get to give even beyond the lawful regulation of the tithe.

When we seek God’s kingdom (the gift of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit) and His righteousness (not our filthy rags one from our puny attempts at obeying the law,) "all these things shall be added unto you." We get to live right. This is the message of Christ: Grace- undeserved, unearned, unmerited favour.

Believe Right and you will Live Right.