Copyright 2014 Theresa Harvard Johnson
2 Timothy 2:26 CJB, “Also he should be gentle as he corrects his opponents. For God may perhaps grant them the opportunity to turn from their sins, acquire full knowledge of the truth, COME TO THEIR SENSES and ESCAPE THE TRAP OF THE ADVERSARY, after having been captured alive by him to do his will.”
Have we overlooked this command in the midst of our faith?
Have we cast it aside for the sake of self-righteousness, judgement and dogma?
As people of God, it can be easy to focus on the teachings of the condition of people and forget the “compassion-of-Christ” component that burns through it. I am not speaking of humanity’s kind of compassion which changes like the wind, but the kind of compassion that our Father has shown forth in pursuit of us throughout of eternity. A compassion rooted in His great love! We must remember that the primary purpose of sharing the truth of the Gospel rests in the hope of reconciliation. It is the blazing foundation of every administration of ministry in Christ – that if a man hears the Gospel, he will turn his heart toward the Lord. Period. When we fail to grasp this truth, the scripture above infers that we should be catalysts for causing people to gain GOOD SENSE.
To be senseless literally means to lack a conscious reality of CHRIST. The passage also moves us to understand this reality: That it is God’s heart that NO MAN should perish if at all possible (2 Peter 3:9). But we – people of God – should never become the problem or a hindrance to this process. In truth, we are the SOLUTION to the problem men face.