“Be careful that you don’t let anyone rob you through his philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the elements of the world, and not after Christ.”

Paul is directly addressing the fundamental issues we face today in all our church situations. We cannot sustain our powers of judgement and ignore what is going on around us. Paul says if we do, we will be robbed of our faith and devotion to the Lord Jesus and lose the cutting edge of our love for Him and other people around us. Philosophy abounds and everyone has their own ideas, walking in the light of their own understanding, but not seeking the wisdom of God. The gospel that will bring people to faith is not preached and people accept the self-help advice and think God is helping them. 

It is all vanity and vexation of purpose. It deceives people and builds the speaker and the hearer up in the pride of their own thinking. These man-made and man-propagated philosophies will drag us down and lead us astray. They are entirely this-world orientated and do not teach the way to God. They are sinful and will lead us away from the Lord and teach us to rely on fables, which will ultimately let us down when the going gets difficult.

Science has been infiltrated with materialistic philosophy and has led to the blinding of the human mind to the glory for the created order. Science has been hijacked by this materialism and it has infiltrated our culture to a detrimental degree. People are living like there is no God, because we have swallowed the falsehood in the name of Science. Science is now the new religion and has set it self up against the Creator to its own detriment. Scientific findings are interpreted by the philosophical mindset of the enquirer and we see the godless belief systems being foisted on our society and taught to our children. We follow the tradition of men and not the revealed Word of the Lord. We close our minds and hearts to Him and prefer our own way. People set themselves up against the Lord and many follow them, because they are accepted as “scientists” or “clever.” This so not what the Bible teaches and we are now seeing the unravelling of the mindset of the atheistic world view and true science is showing us something quite different. 

The Scripture is true and God’s way is the way to life and peace. Our own way leads us to death and the destruction of our minds and hearts. Our minds become dim and we are deluded and our hearts atrophy and we do not accept God anymore. God tells us plainly what He thinks of the worldly mindset. He says it it foolish and will destroy our eternity. People do not believe God or pay attention to His reasoning and verdict on our lives, and so find themselves treading the path away from God and into unbelief and spiritual death. Paul does not want this for His Christians bothers and sisters, and so he is writing this letter and showing the glory of the Lord Jesus. Only as we see Him, will we be kept from error and all falsehood. 

“Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness,”

2 Timothy 3:16