Doubtless the foregoing title provoked a few grins.  But perhaps it also provoked someone to read what he would otherwise have ignored.  Regardless, the words accurately quote the KJV.  The dictionaries consulted define the Greek word as without self-control.  And many of the modern versions follow suit by translating the word in the same way.

“Men shall be . . . incontinent” (II Tim. 3:3).  When personal liberty becomes license and license becomes personal law, the peril here defined thrives.  It would be challenging to find a better word to characterize this present age than the one under consideration.  It is the description of an individual who is unhampered by considerations of God and righteousness, morality and ethics, reason and responsibility, or even the law and its consequences.  This behavior has been immortalized in the catch-phrase, “If it feels good, do it!”  That idea is the expression of behavior that has sunk to the level of an animal.

The fact that many feel little or no real restraint on what they do, say, and think (yes, what we think is to be governed:  “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ” [II Cor. 10:5]) suggests a society so ungoverned and ungovernable as to be near anarchy—the clear manifestation of peril.  It is no small problem when society sinks to such depths.  Such an attitude gives place to the rule of unrestrained appetite and explains the popularity of rock music, vile movies, sexual license, and general self-indulgence in a host of areas.  “If I want it I ought to be able to have it” is a prevalent attitude among many today.  The sense of entitlement, the abuse of credit for ordinary purchases, the idea that an employer owes employees some benefit or advantage are all examples of this behavior.  “I deserve it”—the thrust of many advertising promotions—encourages this damaging attitude.

But lest we grow smug, we must recognize that unrestrained behavior has filtered into the church world as well.  Many of the mega-churches (and would-be mega churches), rather than preaching the gospel, rather than declaring “thus saith the Lord,” go so far as to survey the unbelievers in their community to find out what they want in a church and then attempt to give it to them.  Such a stance actually feeds the entitlement mentality and hastens the rush to self-indulgence.  And if we are honest, most of us will admit that we have been influenced by this pervasive appeal to our fleshly appetites.  How many of our decisions are determined by what we want and what we can “afford” rather than by what the Lord wills for us?  Such attitudes lead to the peril of “incontinence.”

In commenting on our text, W. E. Vine offers a scathing one-sentence indictment against those who are identified as “without self-control.”  He writes:  “Such persons have a sense of what is right but readily yield to the temptation to evil.”  Therein lies the true peril.  Those described as incontinent are not those who are ignorant of the truth; they are those who have rejected it and are therefore to be doubly condemned.  Incontinence is a dramatic expression of apostasy, departure from the truth, and therefore evidences a sin that at its heart is deliberate and conscious rebellion against the authority of God and His Word.  Such sin is particularly dangerous to the righteous and to righteousness because it soon devolves into the two perils next mentioned in the text:  those who are “fierce” and those who are “despisers of those that are good.”  Let us examine our own hearts with the desire that we will be restrained by the Spirit and governed by the Word of God.