I have been doing some studying in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 for a message I will be giving to our youth group next Sunday. I have been going back to the meanings of the words Paul writes to Timothy in the original Greek. It’s amazing how a passage can come to life when looking beyond the surface into the context and getting a little help in understanding it from reading commentaries.
1But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.
I have been going verse by verse, and word by word, finding things I would venture to guess most of us miss in a casual reading. The first thing I found, and perhaps the most profound part of this passage is that Paul is referring here not to the unbelieving world we live in, but to those who would claim the name of Christ within the Church. These people he says ‘have a form of godliness.’ What he is saying here is that these people look like Christians! These seem to be pious and upright people, until you dig into their hearts and lives. I have so often looked to passages like this with the idea that the world is in a downward spiral, only to realize the Church has been infiltrated and is in its own spiral.
What is helpful in looking at this passage is learning what is meant by “last days.” My original understanding was that the last days meant just prior to the return of Christ. As I read through the passage and commentaries, it became obvious that the “last days” have been here since the time of Christ. This phrase signifies the Age of the Church; the dispensation. This totally changes one’s understanding of this passage as well as several other New Testament passages.
So now we see that we are already in the last days and there are frauds within our churches. Paul defines several characteristics to watch for:
People will be selfish and greedy. We can see this obviously within much of the televangelist and Health & Wealth gospel movement. There are obvious lies in the Health & Wealth doctrines about who God is and what He wants with us. Jesus tells us that the Pharisees were greedy in Luke 16:14. We also know that Judas’ downfall was his greed. As the treasure, he stole from the money bags of Jesus and the disciples’ ministry regularly.
Here the Greek word for boastful means an “empty pretender.” These people will make boasts about good works, but will obviously not do them from love of the Lord.
The word for abusive in verse 2 is “blasphemos” which is obviously where we get our word blaspheme. Broken down into its root words it means (blapto) to hurt or harm (pheme) the fame or report [of God]. These people will tell lies (and half-truths) about God that will damage his reputation among men. This is so obvious within several movements such as the Emerging Church where leader Brian McLaren has gone so far as to say that Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists can accept Jesus as Savior and still stay a Muslim, Hindu, or Buddhist.
These people are disobedient to parents. God commands obedience to parents for one major reason, that being instruction in the ways and Word of the Lord. Children who did not listen to their parents under Old Testament law could be stoned to death. As harsh as this was (and I don’t advocate this today), it instilled a respect in children for their parents and a willingness to listen to correction. As it is, we have a generation within the Church that is questioning everything their parents taught them and leaving the faith en masse.
The word here translated in the NIV as unholy could also be translated as meaning wicked.
Moving to verse 3, the translation of without love is insufficient. It more appropriately means without natural affection, signifying that people no longer love even their own parents or children which should come naturally. These are brutal savages; the kind that sell out their families (even possibly to be martyred), abandon their children, and don’t even love their own spouses.
Looking at the word slanderous, our NIV translation doesn’t even come close. The Greek word here is diablos which is a name for the Devil. Taking the word diablos further, it means a false accuser.
These people are without self-control and brutal. They give in to their lusts and every desire they have. Without regard to the evil it may cause they do what they want when they want to and cannot resist temptation. They don’t love goodness or good men, but hate and despise them.
Verse 4 says they are treacherous which could also be traitor or betrayer. Going back to “without natural affection” we see that they will betray even those they should love. They are potential Judas’ within the body of believers.
Lovers of pleasure here is from the Greek word philedonos from the roots philos, to love, and hedone which is the root of the philosophy of hedonism. They seek pleasure in the desires of the flesh, are given over to their lustful desires, and they have no love for God or His commands.
“Having a form of godliness, but denying its power,” these people remain in their sin and are not regenerated believers. Paul tells Timothy, and we should follow this advice, to avoid these men! This may mean casting them out of a church body, or leaving a church if they are in the pulpit or some sort of leadership position.
This passage has huge implications for our churches today. While I don’t want to rush to judgment and declare everyone who believes something I don’t a heretic, we must quickly and actively discern whether the teaching we hear and those around us are believers in the same Gospel Jesus preached. Remember “Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light!” Do not be deceived, be on your guard, for the last days are here.
