Have you ever been to the dentist? Maybe you needed to have a cavity filled or a bad tooth pulled out. Then the dentist likely put some kind of pain killer in your gums before the procedure. That is so that you don’t feel any pain or discomfort when you are being operated on. Your nerves have been “deadened” in a sense.
In a similar way, when someone has an operation at a hospital, the patient will receive anesthesia to block them from feeling pain while they are being cut open with a scalpel.
One personal story I have also has to deal with teeth. I was nearly 7 years old before I lost my first tooth, which is rather late for most children. I had waited and waited to finally lost my first tooth, and I can still remember the day I noticed my first one. I was so excited! It was finally happening! I would finally have my adult teeth.
I wiggled and pushed them with my tongue, trying to get them looser and looser so they would fall out. But as I continued wiggling them each day, while they were getting looser, they were also starting to hurt more as the nerves started to get separated from my teeth. To make the story shorter, after I lost my first two or three teeth, I no longer was excited to get another loose tooth. I didn’t like the pain that came with that. Well, I eventually had my two front teeth loose at the same time, and because I wasn’t trying to wiggle them loose very much, my adult teeth were coming in behind them. Those baby teeth HAD to come out, or I could end up with some pain as my new teeth moved in.
Because I wasn’t wiggling my teeth because of the pain, I was given a pain reliever to rub on the gums around the loose tooth. This liquid would block the nerves signals from registering in my brain, and I could really start working on getting those teeth out.
Paul wrote that there would be people whose conscience would be “seared,” meaning that they wouldn’t feel any remorse or sorrow for any sins that they commit.
What should be the normal reaction someone should feel if they slam the door on someone’s fingers? They should feel apologetic and sorry for what they did. What if when a person slammed a door on their friend’s hand, and instead of apologizing when confronted, they just stared and walked away? The other person would probably be a bit upset that they didn’t even say “Sorry.”
And that is what Paul was writing would happen.
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;” 1 Timothy 4:1-2
When these people sin against God, they won’t feel sorrow. They won’t be sad or ask for forgiveness, because their conscience is seared. They won’t say they are sorry for the sins they have commited. They have what I call a “who cares attitude.” Trying to get them to feel sorrow about their sins would be like trying to squeeze water out of a stone. They are just hard-hearted and impenitent.
Like numbed tooth, they will not feel any sadness or pain when they sin against God. They won’t care when they sin against their neighbors. They won’t have any feeling at all.
It takes sorrow in a person to come ask to be forgiven. But that is why many people will be turned away when they go up to judgment before the Father. Because they are hard-hearted, unrepentant, un-loving, they will not enter into eternal paradise.
Don’t be one of these people. When you hurt someone, apologize. When you sin, ask for forgiveness and don’t do it again. What you need to do is treat others as you would want to be treated. Imagine someone sinned against you, what would you expect from that person? A sincere apology. Then do the same to God. Don’t be seared!
In Christ,
Andrew
Teufer Lake King James Bible Church 