1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
Although Paul begins this passage with speaking of terrible times, the passage is essentially about the heart of people. Remember, Paul is writing this letter while imprisoned, knowing that his days are approaching an end. His thoughts and hopes are still with Timothy, hoping that he can help Timothy harness the strength inside him to move forward as a great and powerful force in Ephesus. This charge to Timothy is at the same time a charge to us.
Secondly, Paul says that the people he describes will be a sign of the condition of the world in the last days. The detrimental condition of the world will be centered around the erosion of the people in it. It is easy to imagine that people will be numb to this behavior, the children will be reared in it, the religious leaders overwhelmed by it. Perhaps the religious leaders will succumb to this and become a part of the problem and won’t understand the dire nature of the world. Jesus speaks of this in his day in Matthew 16:3: ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
Lovers of themselves: Is there something inherently wrong with loving yourself? Our current society lauds this, telling us that it is healthy and self-affirming to love ourselves. Sometimes this leads to pride. Other times to sin. The preoccupation with ourselves can lead to the preoccupation to feed ourselves with a variety of vices. It can also lead to self-delusion. If we come to the conclusion that we are built in a certain way (according to our own assessment), then we can justify sin in new ways. Perhaps the love of self is where all of the following descriptions Paul uses flows from.
Paul says this in Romans 12:3: For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. What Paul means is that we have to think of our lives, attributes, talents, gifts, even thoughts, with the sobriety of what has been given to us. If we aren’t appreciating what has been given, then we can easily fall into the trap of entitlement.
Lovers of money: Money is something we all need to survive in our society. To earn money for those we are entrusted with is important. But it isn’t everything. Far too many people have been driven to madness by wanting more than they have, only too learn too late that the dangling coins they desired were just out of reach. John D. Rockefeller was one of the richest men in the early 1900s. He became a billionaire and started Standard Oil. He is often considered one of the richest men who ever lived. A reporter once asked him “How much money is enough?” Rockefeller answered “just a little more.” Do you see that with that understanding he could never get to a place of comfort, joy or peace? He would continue to chase the rabbit, so to speak, wandering through the forest for ages, never with it completely in reach. Solomon talks about this affliction in Ecclesiastes 5:10-12:
Whoever loves money never has enough; whoever loves wealth is never satisfied with their income. This too is meaningless. 11 As goods increase, so do those who consume them. And what benefit are they to the owners except to feast their eyes on them? 12 The sleep of a laborer is sweet, whether they eat little or much, but as for the rich, their abundance permits them no sleep.
When we love money for money’s sake, and forget that money is simply a tool, then we have fallen into the trap that the love of money offers.
Boastful, proud, abusive: The problem with these three are the same: they are about the self. Boasting is about telling the world how great and wonderful you are, pride is about feeling how wonderful you are, and abusiveness (blasphemous in KJV) is the natural outward expression of a self-absorbed person.
Disobedient to their parents: The breakdown of authority in the family is a signal of the society’s health as a whole. In Ephesians 5:21-33 Paul lays out the criteria for a healthy family. It begins with the husband and wife loving Christ independently. The love for Christ is the foundation of the individuals, and only becomes stronger as they come together as a couple. The man is the spiritual head of the household and the woman has a place of a co-leader in the household with different duties. This love is expressed to the children who in turn understand the importance of the family unit. The child’s response to this is obedience. If he/she is obedient to the parents (led by Christ), then the unit is not fractured.
But in our society we’ve experienced a complete breakdown of this unit. The men do not stand up and the women cannot lead the way a man should. The child is suspended in-between understanding what he is supposed to do. Therefore he rebels. In all eras this is true, but in the end times we will see the complete breakdown of this godly concept, spawning millions of children who are disobedient and looking for new ways to belong.
Ungrateful, unholy without love, unforgiving: Thanklessness is a sign of entitlement. People will believe they deserve their good fortune and have no concept in thanking God for their provision. Unholy without love is the idea that people will be without familial love. They won’t have a concept of the family unit and it won’t be important to them. Unforgiving is the hardness of their heart. They would rather be bitter and spiteful, hang onto their hate and sadness instead of rectifying it.
Slanderers: Slander is the act of telling a mistruth in order to hurt or shame another person. In our society, social media is a conduit for this. It becomes an often anonymous source of spewing hatred onto the airwaves. Slander in our political system is rampant and accepted. In political elections it is encouraged to misrepresent the other side in order to make one side seem better. This is bandied by surrogates and sycophants who spin the mistruths into a palatable new truth, muddying the truth to the point of ambiguity.
The problem, when we look at it spiritually, is that slandering is a lie. It is an Act of the Flesh (discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, dissensions, faction, and envy) and is the type of sin that affects the slanderer, the people around him and the person it is directed at.
Without self-control: Self control is one of the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). A Fruit of the Spirit is an outward sign that the Holy Spirit is working inside you, just as an Act of the Flesh is an outward sign that you do not have the Holy Spirit operating within. If we cannot operate with self-control, then we are acting simply on instinct. Life becomes about feeding what we crave, gluttonous scoops of whatever satisfies us, regardless if they are within God’s Law or not.
Brutality: The brutal nature of man can also be called the base nature of man. There are many examples of brutality in our culture. We see the horrible way people treat each other. We see vicious crimes. We see people operating with an unloving, unforgiving, stone-cold heart.
Not lovers of the good: In our culture we see an abhorrence to the ways that good people live. To go to church, to have a quiet life, to be respectful and respectable all sound extremely boring and ridiculous. Where’s the drama? Where’s the calamity and excitement? Our modern world often craves this and those with restless hearts do as well.
Treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God: Paul lists a number of other characteristics of a society gone wrong, but again they all track back to one solid truth: they are all about the self-absorbed person. Treacherous (traitors in KJV) people are able to overturn their loyalties for their own selfish purposes. Rash (headstrong) people act out without considering others, conceited (haughty) people believe in their own abilities and truths. Lovers of pleasure are only concerned with their own satisfaction. It all comes down to the self-fulfilling attitude that blocks others out while they satisfy their own lusts. Having a form of godliness but denying its power: Our culture is very good about creating its own truth. This is called Moral Relativity. When we create our own truths and call them good, it may seem good to us and others, but it very well may not have any bearing on the real truth. In the 1960s, many people sought the wisdom of the gurus teaching of far-east techniques and concepts. We could look at this from the outside and say, “that seems good for them. They’re trying to find God and enlightenment.” When we see them, they may seem filled with a joy and peace we could only hope for. It seems Godly, it seems like they’ve found something we’ve all missed. But the guru cults dried up by the mid-seventies with a generation of young people wandering out of the cults addicted to drugs, sexually abused, and with no real clarity about God or holiness. When we don’t have a firm grasp on the the vine, we can easily wither and die.
Have nothing to do with such people: With all the things Paul listed, it seems he sets a very difficult order for us to follow. How can we possibly do this? And are we supposed to? Didn’t Christ tell us to be like Him, and didn’t he spend his time with the tax collectors and harlots in an effort to bring them into the kingdom? Paul is making a very strong point that is perhaps clearer in 1 Corinthians 15:33: Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.” If we are consistently around people like this, we are more likely to be corrupted by them. Human nature dictates that we are social creatures and all have a yearning to belong to others. If we are willingly connected to people with the above characteristics, we are walking a tightrope. The better idea is to surround ourselves with affirming people, who carry the same Godly values, so that we won’t fall into the trap of slow immersion into a lifestyle that will bring us to ruin. When we choose to be led by the spirit and abandon controlling our own fate, we have a head-start on understanding where God wants us to be and who he wants us to be attached with. This is the principle of abandoning self and submitting to Godly influence. When we submit to this influence, then the false doctrine that surrounds us and the empty philosophies that yearn to capture us suddenly aren’t as threatening. It is easier to see their false natures. It is the same with people. Those people with false natures, the ones who secretly or ignorantly hope to corrupt, are easier to see as well.
6 They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over gullible women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7 always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
How does this captive spirit work? The spirit Paul talks about is the spirt of antichrist, also spoken of in 1 John 2:18-19. This is the spirit active in the world both in Paul’s time and in ours. The problem, as Paul puts it, is that it infiltrates the home first, and if no one is the gatekeeper, then the gate is wide open to any teaching. In Paul’s time women were mostly home, not operating in the world like a man did, which weakened their foundation and made them more susceptible to errant teaching. Those who are gullible, whether man or woman, are in danger because they haven’t anchored themselves to any deeper or meaningful truth; all teaching sounds rational and true to them.
In this time of swirling truths, there is an intelligence that is in the air, a way to proceed intelligently without ever reaching the real truth. Perhaps intellectualism is what Paul is referring to. There may be many avenues of study and intellectual debate, but none of it arrives at the truth and becomes a display of ego.
8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these teachers oppose the truth. They are men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
Jannes and Jambres were the magicians who dueled Moses in Egypt (Exodus 7:8-13). As they were able to produce magic in order to delegitimize Moses’ claim of being sent by God, the teachers who tout alternate religions, self-help theologies, cults, and cultural phenomenons, also work in opposition to God. It may seem like some self-help teachers and gurus do work in alignment with God and surely some do, but most are teaching for their own self-aggrandizing purposes. Even so-called Christian leaders fall into this. Paul calls these men having “depraved” minds, who are working outside the tenants of faith and creating their own inroad. In time their motives will be revealed.
A Final Charge to Timothy 10 You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11 persecutions, sufferings—what kinds of things happened to me in Antioch, Iconium and Lystra, the persecutions I endured. Yet the Lord rescued me from all of them. 12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13 while evildoers and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Paul instructs us to understand a few important things about Christian life. First, it isn’t easy. If we want to pursue God and fight for God, we must endure pain and misery. It wasn’t easy for Paul to take on this mission but his pain and suffering was a footnote in how he performed his mission. The concept is this: whatever suffering is endured is temporary. God provided for Him throughout all of it, and we must view life as the same. We may want more and desire in different aspects of our life, but looking back into the past we must understand God provided what was needed, not always what was desired. Like the complaining Israelites in the desert, they wanted meat and fish like they had in slavery in Egypt, even in the midst of being provided for with manna. God gave them what they needed. Instead of understanding the provision and being thankful they grew resentful.
Persecution is part of the walk. We will be demeaned, perhaps ridiculed, maybe fired or bullied or worse. But again, God provides from those who are his. In this persecution there is an uphill battle, an impossible mountain to climb that doesn’t seem conquerable. But God doesn’t ask us to get to the top. He often just asks us to reach as far as we can, pass the backpack off to someone else and allow them to continue the journey. We are only able to do a portion of the work, the work allotted to us. Evil will continue. Wrongdoing will grow. Hardness of heart will expand. But if no one is acting as a light in the darkness, will anyone be able to see it?
14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15 and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
This final piece of Paul’s work is as much for Timothy as it is for us. Continue in what you have learned (1 John 2:20). Don’t let the world culture swarm over you. You have knowledge that can help you form a cocoon around the imposing world. That cocoon must expand to fit others. Timothy knew this because his mother and grandmother taught him. This teaching has gained him wisdom that can only be verified and strengthened through scriptures. The scriptures are God-breathed; that means they are straight from God, written through the inspired hearts and hands of men. The God of the universe has given us a manual in which we can understand who God is and what he desires from us as human beings.
If this is the inspired word of God, then we have to understand that it is ALL beneficial for us. We may not agree with how God does some things, but if it is of God, we must understand and follow its authority. To neglect that means we are in opposition to His authority.
The scripture is good for a variety of things:
Teaching: It is there to help us and help others. As our faith grows, we will be able to share with others in fundamental ways. When we group with others and learn and grow, we begin a community of like-minded people who can help us reinforce our own beliefs.
Rebuking: When something isn’t in alignment with God’s Law, we have the right to address that with others. Rebuking means to “call out” items that are in opposition to God, whether it be within yourself or others. In calling it out it must be gentle and constructive. But you can’t rebuke someone or something without understanding the word itself, so being in connection to the word is important.
Correcting and training in righteousness: Like teaching and rebuking, the bible is essentially there to help us train. To train in righteousness means to train to do the right things. But what are the right things? Those are the things that God cares about. By understanding the scriptures we can come to conclusions about what God loves and what he wants from us. When we align ourselves with others to explore and understand those things better we are using the scriptures as a training manual to understand God and others in this life.
In this training, we begin to understand the heart of God. It works inside us, activating the Holy Spirit. We begin to listen, grow, and the things that God wants for us become the same things we want. When we listen to God, we become equipped. But what is God equipping us for? For good works. That is the amazing thing about scripture. Ultimately it is training us to do God’s work, to learn, listen, and jump into action.