”...constant arguings of men being depraved [of] the mind and having been defrauded of the truth, supposing to being profit good-worship.”
-Constant arguing. Bickering. Our heart-sickness stemming from spiritual malnourishment has us constantly at each other’s throats. Constant friction. At least for those who have lifted up their hearts in pride and have walked out from under a humble submission to the authority of God and His Word. They are in fact depraved. Depraved of mind, and defrauded of truth - and in truth, they are depraved of mind BECAUSE they are defrauded of the truth. Once you start down that path, once you begin to question, did God really say that?, then all bets are off. You have laid the groundwork for depravity, a fertile seedbed for interpersonal friction.
-Depraved. It refers to something which is spoiled, corrupted. A decided change for the worse. It is the endgame of moths and worms and termites. Termites in the brain - that’s what’s happening. And yes, it is terminal. There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is death. Men (and women) of a depraved mind. It is completely tied to being defrauded of the truth, deprived of the truth. And it is largely self-inflicted. They cast God out of mind, and He gives them an outcast mind (Romans 1.28). Literally, they test (and fail) God and His truth in their mind, and they receive back a mind which fails the test. A mind and a life which necessarily results in doing things which are improper. Unable to not sin. God gave them over. When we kick God out, He gives us exactly what we (think we) want. When we change Him out for something-other-than, when we exchange Him and His truth for that which is not, He totally gives us over. And there is no coming back, my friend. There is no coming back from total depravity - apart from the grace of God. There is no hope of rescue apart from His divine intervention in Christ His Son.
-So we see people who can’t get along. Constant friction. Easily offended. Rage monsters. Intolerant and impatient. Straining out gnats and dividing at the drop of a hat. Or less than that even - the drop of a visor, or a beanie. And we see something else. Sadly, another symptom of this depravity is greed. The ol’ profit motive. Paul is about to tell us that the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil (1Timothy 6.10). Well, Paul here mentions that some of these depraveds are actually expressing an interest in religion. They are going thru the motions of devotion. But they’re in it for the money. They love money. They’re in it for what they can get out of it. What does it profit me? Their heart isn’t right towards God, it’s not at all surrendered to Him, but hey, if there’s money to be made, then count me in. This affects even those in the pulpit. Decades of greedy preachers and televangelists who are getting rich off the backs of the faithful have created an entire generation of skeptics, disenchanted with the charlatans and shenanigans they have seen or heard about on tv and in the news, guys (mostly all guys) who pad their wallets and bank accounts and uglify our fair religion and Founder like gold on pigs. It might be interesting to see how many preachers would still do it as a lifestyle if they couldn’t do it for a living. I.e. if they weren’t getting paid. Or if their income was something less than six figures.
-Paul shows us in these verses what the unsurrendered life looks like. The essence of depravity is me-first. Conceit. Spiritual arrogance and pride. Whereas the humble heart, the surrendered heart, puts me in my proper place. It is the proper perspective on Who God is, and who I am in relation to Him. Ranking Him first, above me-and-mine, and above all else. It all begins here. This is the jumping-off point - get this right, and everything else falls into place. Good worship. Godly God-like-ness. Well-oiled relationships. Contentment. And what we see next, is that there is actually great profit to be found in losing it all...
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