KJV Bible (Photo credit: knowhimonline)

If these are the last days what should we expect? Faith to decline. False teaching to increase, men to become “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”, (2 Timothy 3:1-4).

Paul also explained that in the last days instead of seeking the truth and God, people would seek confirmation for whatever they wanted to believe, and practice. “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, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.” (2 Timothy 4:1-4)

These are not pretty pictures, men and women living their lives purely seeking to pleasure themselves without considering the world around them and most importantly those less fortunate than themselves. To make matters worse instead of seeking the truth they only look to confirm their selfish beliefs and justify their actions. Has this already occurred? Are we living in the last days?

We are the ambassadors of Christ. Jesus gave us the great commission to go into the entire world to teach everything he commanded and to make disciples. (Matthew 28:19-20) Sometimes we cowardly remain silent while we hear the world justify outrageous actions, abortion, pornography, violence, just to name a few. We also stand by while many, including Christians, become more materialistic and hedonistic.

It may not be popular but our focus in these trying times must be preaching the gospel that changes lives, a gospel that teaches us to love God above all things (Mark 12:28-30), to obey the commandments (John 14:15), to love one another, regardless of our differences (Matthew 5:43-48), to love our neighbors as we love ourselves (Mark 12:30-31), to do unto others as we would have them do to us (Matthew 7:12), that directs those that have to help those that do not have (Mark 10:21, Acts 4:32-35) that emphasizes sacrifice, giving and kindness over pleasure, taking and callousness.(Matthew 25:35-40)

The living and preaching of this gospel should be the purpose of our new year. It begins at home and then extends to the rest of the world. Let us begin today!