It is often the case that what is missed by the recipient of some exhortation is the loving motivation that prompts it, the desire on the part of the exhorter to prevent harm from coming to the one he exhorts.  The flesh views the exhortation as an infringement on its independence and an impediment to its desires rather than as a warning intended to result in blessing instead of chastening.  The peril mentioned here represents a very clear example of an exhortation that holds the potential to be badly misunderstood.

“Men shall be . . . heady” (II Tim. 3:4).  The NASB translates this word as reckless.  Other versions, with equal clarity, translate it as rash.  Robertson defines the word as headstrong; another authority suggests that it means disposed toward recklessness.  The words vary slightly, but the sense is consistent.  Those who are “heady” are swift to seek their own will and quick to pursue their own desires.  Their emotions and desires motivate them rather than what is right, what is in accord with God’s Word, or even what is measured by reason.  Clearly, such people are a hazard to others, but first and foremost they are a hazard to themselves.

The literal meaning of the Greek word is to fall headlong and plainly brings out the danger posed by such individuals.  People who are heady, who follow the path that leads to the satisfaction of their own desires, do so because they believe that happiness lies in that pursuit.  The word that describes them, however, makes clear that the selfish, thoughtless choices they make, believing that they will be happy, are dangerous and destructive.  While they believe themselves to be running after happiness; Paul reveals that, instead, they are falling headlong to destruction.  As Vincent explains, such people are “headstrong in pursuit of a bad end under the influence of passion.”

We have raised to adulthood an entire generation characterized by no more profound or worthwhile motive for its actions than “headiness.”  The “Me Generation” has come to adulthood and is now raising a second generation that not only operates in this way but believes such an attitude to be positively virtuous.

But the Word of God clearly elaborates the principle that service and self-sacrifice are to be dominant characteristics of believers.  When two of the Lord’s disciples came to Him seeking to be first in the kingdom (And who hasn’t experienced similar desires?), the Lord rebuked them with these words:  “Whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister [servant]:  And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.  For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many” (Mk. 10:43b-45).

The person who consciously and deliberately embarks on a course of seeking to fulfill his own desires may truly be said to be reckless.  Like the teenager who gets in a car and risks his life and the lives of others while racing down the road at breakneck speed for a few moments of thrilling pleasure, the person who foolishly pursues his own desires without regard to the will of God is risking his eternal life for the sake of some fleeting gratification.  And when a civilization, such as ours, is characterized by such careless abandon it is nearing destruction.  The Lord is not interested in putting a damper on our happiness, but He is interested in preventing attitudes and behavior that result in eternal loss or even damnation.  May we recognize and flee the peril of headiness, the reckless pursuit of our own ends.