Week 424

Perilous Times Week 7

Traitors, Headstrong, Haughty

Who Need Friends Like These?

…traitors, headstrong, haughty… (2 Tim 3:4, NKJV)

As we continue to make our way through the end times list Paul gave Timothy as a warning of people to be wary of, we come to these three which are particularly heinous on a relationship level. As I alluded to in my paragraph title, the phrase with friends like these, who needs enemies is more than apropos. In aggregate, they describe people who are obsessed with only one thing: self. And, while other times have had self-expression as its motto, it is safe to say that we are currently living in a time when drawing attention to one’s self is not only very important, but profitable. The advent of the cell phone, which is least used for phone calls is a prime example. The camera on these devices has even changed the way we take pictures since it allows and even promotes putting the owner in every picture if possible. We even have selfie sticks to make it easier to get ourselves in a picture without having to be Stretch Armstrong and get the background in the shot. And I haven’t even mentioned the various and sundry social media sites that people use to show how good of a dancer they are or pontificate on even the tritest of topics. If there was ever a generation that epitomized the love of self, it is ours.

Keep Your Enemies Closer

And when it was day, He called His disciples to Himself; and from them He chose twelve whom He also named apostles … and Judas Iscariot who also became a traitor. (Luke 6:13, 16, NKJV)

The first word in our three words is really easy to define overall, but it only appears 3 times in the New Testament so the biblical context is pretty simple to nail down. And when Jesus called His apostles, it is seen here describing a most infamous one: Judas Iscariot. There are not many names that evoke such strong feelings as this guy. Soon-to-be parents rarely if ever choose Judas as a name for their son. As we can see by the original language for this word, it means exactly what you’d expect as the word is prodotés (prod-ot'-ace) which means betrayers, treacherous. And if we want a real time example, we can turn to the last of the three places this word is used and it really brings this one home:

“You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you. 52 Which of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? And they killed those who foretold the coming of the Just One, of whom you now have become the betrayers and murderers, 53 who have received the law by the direction of angels and have not kept it.” (Acts 7:51-53, NKJV)

Stephen said this to those who would eventually stone him and in that audience was none other than Saul who would become the Apostle Paul. So, when Paul wrote this to Timothy, he knew exactly what the word meant since he was a “Judas” as well.

A Few More Comments

I think we can glean a few more aspects of this trait by hearing from a few Bible commentators. The Pulpit Commentary explains the word this way:

It does not mean traitors to their king or country, but generally betrayers of the persons who trust in them, and of the cause of the trust committed to them; perhaps specially, as Bishop Ellicott suggests, of their brethren in times of persecution. In Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible we read this:

Traitors .... To their princes and sovereigns, whose deaths they have contrived and compassed, and whom they have assassinated and murdered; and have been betrayers of the secrets of persons, which they have come at by auricular confession to them; and of their best and nearest friends, to preserve and secure themselves.

As you can see, these people are dangerous as much by their compulsion to turn on people as the closeness to them they engender before they do it.

Look Out, Here I Come

The next trait is found in the word “headstrong” and when we think of people like this we tend to see someone who acts before they think and that would be a good approximation. The Greek word for this is propetḗss (prop-et-ace') (an adjective derived from 4253 /pró, "before" and 4098 /píptō, "to fall") – properly, "fall forwards," i.e. headstrong; rash ("heady"), brought on by unbridled passion, etc. This may not seem so bad on its face, but like so many of these characteristics, we need to dig a little deeper. As one would think, these people would make lousy ambassadors or representatives since they would just blurt out whatever is in their head, before carefully and deliberately working out their thoughts. But they are inconsiderate and driven by unbridled passions so the damage they do can be considerable and hard to repair. As mentioned earlier, they are only thinking of themselves when they say or do things and are prone to not care how it hurts others. Oblivious is not a correct term to ascribe to them since they don’t care how much harm they cause. But the connotation is not of someone who is randomly blurting out things but is a good person at heart. No, they are evil inside and spew forth vileness and wickedness without care for the messes they create.

Cloudy With A Chance Of Moral Blindness

The last word for consideration now is “haughty” or “highminded” and it is the Greek word typhóō (toof-o'-o) (from typhos, "smoke") – properly, to blow smoke, cloud up the air; (figuratively) having a cloudy (muddled) mind-set, i.e. moral blindness resulting from poor judgment which brings further loss of spiritual perception. As the third in a bad set of attributes, this one may explain the previous two. These are one’s that are blinded by pride like a person enveloped with smoke who can’t see around them. Their only impediment is not just that they only think of themselves. In the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges commentary of 1 Timothy 6:17 it says this about being “highminded:”

The compound verb occurs in N.T. only Romans 11:20, ‘Be not highminded, but fear;’ ‘do not, because of your Christian standing, assume a lofty superiority over your “broken” Jewish brother;’ and the phrase of which it is compounded only Romans 12:16, ‘Be of the same mind one toward another. Set not your mind on high things but condescend to things that are lowly.’

Such an issue almost split the early church as the newly established Christian church thought they were so much better than the Jews they once were and were loath to let converts from the Jewish world in without undue rules and regulations. But we must not relegate these that the Apostle Paul mentions here as well-meaning people. Rather these selfish people have no humble motives at all. They are morally blind by their own designs. They are hard to convince that they are wrong about anything. That’s harsh, but true.

Again, Beware Of These Things

I may sound like a broken record, but the constant takeaway is to make sure these traits don’t crop up in us. We must ask Holy Spirit to blow away the smoke of pride that sometimes blinds us to the truth about our actions and motives. Let us willingly go into the refiners fire and be purified by its heat and let all impurities come to the top and be seen and removed. It’s either that or have a loving father send trials and persecutions our way to turn up the heat. Both work, but one is easier on us than the other. I guess the best advice for now is to get close to the one who loves you the most and let Him purify you by being close to Him as opposed to having hard times wake you up to how far you’ve drifted from His presence. The choice is up to us.