They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. Stay away from people like that!

-2 Timothy 3:5, NLT

A type of person emerged during my dark season.

This is the type of person that the author of 2 Timothy warns us about in his letter. It is the type of person we are warned to avoid.

Avoiding outwardly religious people is sound advice.

These sort of people might use words like “love,” “grace,” and “forgiveness,” yet the substance of these words are conspicuously absent in their lives. They employ the words to manipulate. The words are merely sound devoid of substance.

The damage such people do to people’s faith is truly awful.

We have to separate what they did and said from what God really requires. In other words, we have to sort their ungodliness from true godliness. This is just one more task in already overwhelming situation.

That said, I find it comforting that such a verse exists in the Bible. It is a naming of a phenomenon that is sadly common.

For a long time, people have been trying to wrap themselves in the legitimacy of religion while refusing religion’s demands on them to live godly lives.

That said, avoiding such people seems to be sound advice.