Since the 1960s and the emerging “Jesus Movement,” evangelical Christians have frequently elevated new converts to a position of near superstardom. My wife and I remember well the elevation of B.J. Thomas in the late 1970s. In his book, The Family Roe, Joshua Prager tells the tragic story of Norma McCorvey (aka the “Roe” of Roe v. Wade fame). McCorvey, an alcoholic, a chronic drug abuser, a lesbian, but also a mother, apparently converted to Christianity and became a “star convert,” paraded before crowds and the media. But her struggle with enslaving sinful habits demonstrated the messiness that goes with sin. She tried to live up to evangelical expectations, but rarely succeeded. She is a monument to the folly of elevating a new convert too quickly.

Paul continues his focus on the virtues of the Christian life.

Paul begins to describe the virtues of the justified believer.

Years ago, G.K. Chesterton wrote, “When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing; they then become capable of believing in anything.” There is no better characterization of the state of Western Civilization than Chesterton’s acerbic observation. In a culture where we gather in comfortable silos of thinking and the ideology of that silo prevails over everything, truth is no longer important. The obvious, common sense conclusions are ignored and what the Bible calls foolishness reigns supreme.

John F. Kennedy, a war hero running in his first congressional campaign, delivered a speech on 4 July 1946, at Faneuil Hall in Boston. It included a haunting meditation on the American soul: “A nation’s character, like that of an individual, is elusive,” Kennedy said. “It is produced partly by things we have done and partly by what has been done to us. It is the result of physical factors, intellectual factors, spiritual factors. . . . In peace, as in war, we will survive or fail according to its measure.” JFK was speaking of the national character.

Paul begins his exhortation on what the justified life looks like.

What do American Christians believe about God, salvation, ethics, and the Bible? Ligonier Ministries and LifeWay Research partnered to find out. Every two years, these two ministries take the theological temperature of the United States to help Christians better understand today’s culture and to equip the church with better insights for discipleship. Their findings are in a study entitled The 2022 State of Theology. In the Pastoral Epistles of the Apostle Paul (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus) the phrase “sound doctrine” appears nine times. The Greek term translated “sound” means that which is conducive to health—in this case spiritual health. Paul connects sound doctrine with godly living; in God’s eyes, sound doctrine produces righteous living.

Paul calls for the worship of God and introduces his teaching on the godly living that results from sound doctrine.

The anecdotal evidence for Christianity’s decline in America is not difficult to discern. Broadly speaking, we see it in the decline in church attendance. We see it in the millennial generation’s lack of commitment to institutions such as the church. We see it in the decline and closing of many Christian Bible colleges and liberal arts colleges. And we see it in the divisiveness in many churches produced by the COVID pandemic and the poisonous nature of politics seeping into church life. However, a new study just released by the Pew Research Center confirms some of our suppositions and observations.

Paul declares forcefully that God is not done with the Jewish people and will bring them to salvation at the return of His Son.