People to Avoid

2 Timothy 3:2-5 English Standard Version

2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

That is a rather long list of character traits to avoid. Perhaps today we can look at just one of them which does not stand out quite as noticeable as some of the others.

Unappeasable, not able to be pacified, placated, or satisfied. The definition adds three parts of personality traits that differ slightly.

Pacifiers are given to babies. The implication is a lack of maturity.

Placated has to do with haggling, coming to agreeable terms. They are unreasonable.

Satisfaction is the most common of emotions and revolves itself around self-interest. Some people just have to “have it my way”.

We might find this true of a Christian who is not yet matured and is still struggling to catch their footing. This trait by itself does not indicate a person is not a true Christian. So how can we decide just which traits are contained with certain personalities that should be avoided?

It is likely that these personalities contain more than one of the character flaws but the real clincher is in denial of the Holy Spirit’s power to change them. They will hide behind the facade of godly behavior. Fellowship in the spirit is beyond their capability. There is no unity of faith.

Ephesians 4:11-14 English Standard Version

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

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