⁵[These people will be] holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these.

Truly unfortunate is the reality that some people can be described in one or all of the twenty characterizations of 2 Timothy 3:1–4 and yet pass themselves off as godly. What self-delusion! That is the best we can say about them. The worst understanding is that they are nefarious to the max, thinking they are fooling the rest of the Christians, let alone God. The reality is they are not fooling anyone, least of all God. In fact, their spirituality (if there is any) is numbed with the callousness of sin. The power of the spiritual life is absent; the inner reality of communion with God is nothing more than a mental exercise that lacks spiritual reality.

Paul knows of what he speaks. Hardly could he ever forget how he justified in his mind the persecuting and killing of Christians, all in the name of the God of Israel. He had the form of godliness but denied the Christ of God and His followers. So the apostle now had a nose for sniffing out such imposters because he was one. And he could see it in himself when it would arise—witness the turmoil of Romans 7:14–24. We would do well to embrace the same self-awareness, to be on constant guard against any hypocrisy in ourselves. We should not just avoid others who act like this, but we must vigilantly avoid that same behavior in our own lives.

When the inner life comes short of Christlike character, the solution is not to double down on religious activity. That tactic leads to a legalistic, rules-based approach to the spiritual life. To this Paul writes elsewhere, “These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence” (Col. 2:22–23). Such living provides no traction for living godly lives.

We need to take careful note of this teaching. We are constantly pulled toward “the form of godliness,” for outward factors do provide some immediate tangible results, namely acceptance and position in the Christian community. But the dynamic of Christlikeness cannot be attained where “love of self” dominates. Make no mistake: self-love can motivate religious deeds. How is that? When we do all the right things but for our own benefit, status, or purposes, we run the danger of glorying in ourselves rather than in God. And the church suffers for it. So we must avoid such un-Christlike behavior, whether it occurs in others or in ourselves.

Lord, teach me to love others the way You love them, not in form only.