2 Timothy 3
This chapter describes the Christian landscape and the challenges that a Christian will face.
1 But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.
2 For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy,
3 unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good,
4 treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God,
5 holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; avoid such men as these.
In the last days, and I believe that the times that we live in are the last days, it will be difficult to practice and preach the truth. This is because most people will not want to know the truth. Let’s examine this a little deeper…
The truth is opposed to loving oneself, or giving pleasure a higher priority than God, but rather, teaches us to deny ourselves. So naturally, people who love themselves, or love pleasure, will not want to hear the truth. A lover of self is one who all wrapped up about doing what their mind tells them to do, and not what God (through the Bible) tells them to do.
The truth is opposed to loving money. In fact, the truth tells us that the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil, and that those who desire to get rich will wander from the truth. Like the rich, young ruler, those who love money will reject the truth.
The truth is about humbling oneself before God. A boastful person is someone who brags about their accomplishments and the accomplishments of their family. An arrogant person is someone who thinks and acts as if they are something when they are not. A reviler is someone who criticizes others in a demeaning way. Boastful and arrogant people are often revilers too. A conceited person is one who thinks that he has accomplished more than he actually has. These types of people won’t accept a word about humbling themselves before God.
A person who holds on to a form of godliness but denies its power is one who goes to church meetings on Sundays (and other days) and talks about church, and participates in all types of church activities, but has no interest in not being a lover of self, or a lover of money, or boastful, and so on.
The list goes on… we must examine ourselves to see whether we are part of the above list, and if we are, we must repent and change.
When we come across others in the church who are part of this list we must avoid those people. You can’t help them, and they can’t help you, and being around them will only pull you down.
6 For among them are those who enter into households and captivate weak women weighed down with sins, led on by various impulses,
7 always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
The knowledge of the truth sets you free from sin (Jn 8:32). When you go to Bible study after Bible study for years, and you learn a lot but you never apply any of it in your own life so as to overcome in the times of temptation then you are a person who is always learning but never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Are you a person who is weighed down by sin? That is, are there sinful things you do again and again and it affects your ability to live and work and enjoy life? Are you a person who, when a thought comes to your mind to do something wrong you just go ahead and do it with considering its consequences (i.e. led on by various impulses)?
There are people, who claim to be Christian, who prey on such type of weak people who are weighed down by sin because they operate on whatever impulse they get. They tell you that they can set you free, and when you believe them they take your money through some gimmick or the other, but in the end, you are still enslaved. That is why you need to avoid them.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these {men} also oppose the truth, men of depraved mind, rejected in regard to the faith.
9 But they will not make further progress; for their folly will be obvious to all, just as Jannes's and Jambres's folly was also.
These people oppose the truth because their mind thinks in a way that makes it impossible for them to believe the truth. It is difficult for such people to make spiritual progress because their whole way of thinking is wrong. For them to make spiritual progress they have to retrain their mind from the foundation up, and that is not an easy thing to do. You will see them make one mistake after the other, and continually mess up their life.
10 Now you followed my teaching, conduct, purpose, faith, patience, love, perseverance,
11 persecutions, {and} sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium {and} at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me!
Such people persecute the men and women of God, but God is always in charge, and He will not let anything go beyond what you can bear (1 Cor 10:13).
As a Christian, you must have the right motivation / purpose, and you must behave properly, and you must teach the truth, and you must do it with patience and love, and you must keep doing it. While doing all that, you will endure hostility from sinners, and you have to suffer through that. That was the way Paul lived, and that was the experience he had.
12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
There are no exceptions – if you live the way Paul lived, you will be persecuted too. Therefore, if you don’t feel the heat of persecution, your Christianity is not quite what it should be.
Now I am not suggesting that you begin saying and doing things to make yourself obnoxious to everyone around you. What I am saying is that when stand up for the truth, people will not like you. For example, if all Christians around you celebrate Christmas or Easter, and you don’t, and you tell them that you don’t, they will persecute you. Or if your friends are gossiping, and you refuse to join in, but walk away, they will begin gossiping about you – things like that.
13 But evil men and impostors will proceed {from bad} to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
14 You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned {them,}
15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.
Imposters are people who appear to be legit but are actually frauds. You will find them everywhere in the church. The people around you will deteriorate in the spirituality. And as they deteriorate, they will pull others down with them, and others will pull them down too.
However, you have to navigate through all that without being contaminated. The Bible will be your sole guide, and whatever people tell you, you have to compare it with what you’ve found in the Bible. Don’t depend on what other people have found, but you have to search things out yourself, with the help of the Holy Spirit.
The Bible is able to give you the wisdom you need to get you saved and keep you saved. It will help you believe what God wants you to believe.
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;
17 so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
There is only one uncontaminated source of truth, and that is the Bible – in all its entirety. It is God’s word to you. It tells you what God is like, and what He expects of you. It tells you what the right path is (this is teaching). It tells you when you are on the wrong path (this is reproof). It tells you how to come back to the right path (this is correction). It tells you how to get on, and how to remain on the right path (this is training in righteousness). All other sources (not just heathen religious books, but also including commentaries, seminary professors, pastors, Bible teachers) must be suspect and is quite likely compromised.
If you understand the Bible and practice what it teaches then you can avoid being deceived by evil men and imposters. Then you can actually serve God and do something eternally meaningful for Him and His kingdom.
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