A short time ago, I learned of a church building in our neighborhood that was for sale. For years now, Grace Fellowship Church has been looking for a building of our own, so we thought we should go and give it a look.
This had once been a thriving congregation. Faithful Christians had given sacrificially to construct that building. They had consecrated it to the Lord and had worshipped there for many years.
Yet now that building was deserted, decaying and up for sale.
What happened? How did that church go from thriving to dying? How did it slide from healthy to sick to dead?
I think I know. I think Paul tells us in his second letter to Timothy, the letter he wrote just days or weeks before his death. There, in chapter 4, he looks into the future, he sees a church being destroyed, and he warns us how it happens. It’s as straightforward as four simple steps.
This church is destroyed by people claiming to act in the name of Jesus.
Before we get to those four steps we need to see one critical piece of information: This church self-destructs.
The church is not closed down through government persecution; it is not afflicted by cultural pressure and does not succumb to the attacks of another religion. This church is eroded from the inside, from within the membership. This church is destroyed by people claiming to act in the name of Jesus.
Here are those four simple steps that lead to a church’s self-destruction.
Step 1: Reject truth.
Paul warns Timothy that “they will turn away from listening to the truth.” The first step in destroying a church is turning away from what is true, losing interest in the truth as God reveals it, growing weary of what God says is true and lovely.
What was once a love of truth becomes a dislike and then disgust toward truth; what was once a hatred of error becomes an intrigue and interest in error. Hearts begin to harden.
Step 2: Reject truth-tellers.
As they turn away from the truth, they necessarily turn against the truth-tellers. So Paul tells Timothy that in that day to come, “they will not endure sound teaching.”
It’s not that people won’t know what is true, but that they won’t endure what is true. Because they have come to hate the truth, they will now hate those who proclaim the truth.
The very teachers that once drew them will now repulse them.
