II Thessalonians 3:1 “Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you: 2 And that we may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked men: for all men have not faith.”
Why is there so much cruelty and wickedness in this world? It is often said that there is a little good in everybody, as if all you have to do is fan that little bit of good and it will spring up just like a hot coal under dry kindling. And, if you fan it enough, that cruel and wicked person will start doing good. The Biblical truth is that some folks have no good in them at all and when you fan them with goodness, they simply become more inflamed to do more cruel and wicked things. The Lord told some folks that “I know you, that ye have not the love of God in you” (John 5:42). Peter wrote of those who are “as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption” (II Peter 2:12). These “natural brute beasts” only have a “carnal mind” that “is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7). They only have this “enmity” because “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Romans 8:9). Some of these “natural brute beasts” will present themselves as the Lord’s Children; but, in truth, they are simply “false prophets, which come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves” (Matthew 7:15). We cannot make the Lord’s “sheep” (John 10:14) out of “ravening wolves”, because they “have not faith”; thus, they “have not the love of God in” them. Those who do have this “faith” are those to whom God Himself gave it (Hebrews 12:2); these are the “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” (I Peter 1:2). Those who are not the “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father” do not have “faith”, cannot get it, and do not want it. All they want to do is to satisfy their own “carnal” lusts to do more and more cruel and wicked things. It is true that some folks with this God-given “faith” have not been taught the truth about God, some have been totally miss-taught, and some have not grown “in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ” (II Peter 3:18). These do have the hot coals of “faith” in them that can be fanned with godly love and Biblical teaching. But, we must realize that when you fan some folks with loving-kindness, all you get is more cruelty and wickedness! They just, even more harshly, “speak evil of the things that they understand not”; but, “they shall utterly perish in their own corruption” (II Peter 2:12).