October 01, 2026 | Be Connected
Choosing a Godly Life in an Evil World
Scripture: 2 Timothy 3:12-13(NIV)
12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Devotional
The world will never run out of evildoers and imposters. There will always be people who try to confuse us and dissuade us from our Christian pursuits. In fact, Paul says these spiritual naysayers will go from bad to worse. Don’t expect it to get better. Do expect to get hassled or even persecuted if you stand up and speak out for Jesus.
In yesterday’s reading, we learned how Paul was persecuted on his first missionary journey in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra. After that, he want to Derbe, where things were apparently calmer. The Bible simply says they won a large number of disciples there. He could have left Derbe, traveled south, and caught a ship back home. Instead, look what Paul and Barnabas did:
Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust (Acts 14:21-23).
Paul and Barnabas went straight back into the teeth of where they were persecuted. Then they warned the believers that similar things awaited them and put leaders in place for the church in each city. The word “church” is interesting in this reading from Acts. What church?
Paul was expelled from Antioch, plotted against in Iconium, and stoned nearly to death in Lystra. By all accounts, his first missionary trip looked like a failure. But look again. Paul won many believers in Antioch, several Jewish and Gentile followers in Iconium, and scores of disciples in Lystra. Not a failure, but a success.
Today’s verse simply says, “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.” It doesn’t call for positive growth charts. It calls for faithfulness.
And that is what we have been called to. Faithfulness, even as evildoers go from bad to worse.
