Godlessness in the Last Days
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.
6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
Paul's Charge to Timothy
10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, 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. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
1) V1-9 – 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. 6They are the kind who worm their way into homes and gain control over weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, 7always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth – men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone.
In v1-9, Paul attacks false teachers, noting their damage at Ephesus, but also reminding of Judgment Day, where God proves His victory. He begins by noting “terrible times in the last days,” referring to the time between Christ’s first and second advent, and lists a block of sins (Romans 1:28-32), which will characterize the pains of birthing the new age of eternal glory during which we will reign with Christ. Though some theologians (postmillennialists) see Christ returning to a Christianized, flourishing world, more (premillennialists and amillennialists) see Jesus coming to restore a world in chaos and corruption by consummating His own kingdom. Each of these sins has selfish idolatry as its root (v2-4); people refuse to love God (v4b).
Yet in v5, where Paul elaborates on the behavior of the false teachers and those who follow them, he hints that they may very well be professing Christians, “having a form of godliness but denying its power.” This makes them especially dangerous and deceitful; thus he commands Timothy to, as well as us, to “have nothing to do with them.” In v6, we see that they have made their inroads with, literally “sneaking into the homes of,” the “weak-willed women” of the Ephesian congregation. They likely seduced families, and even broke them apart, by appealing to the stay-at-home mom while the husband / father was at work. And it didn’t help that the women were not strong in their faith (v6); they were “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (v7). In other words, the false teachers were instructing them into foolishness and ignorance, and their ignorance only compounded the problem, making them fall farther from the truth than they already were. They did not have the good conscience that Paul has noted frequently, and thus their minds were restless, always curious, but never content and settled with the truth. So we see from this illustrative warning that the “terrible times in the last days” will affect the church as well as the rest of the world. The Church is not exempt from these tribulations.
In v8, “Jannes and Jambres” are only mentioned here in all of the Bible, but Jewish tradition taught that these were the names of pharaoh’s magicians who attempted to duplicate all of Moses’ (and Aaron’s) miracles prior to the Exodus. They battled against Moses, and in the same way, the false teachers in Timothy’s congregation battled against truth. Paul calls them “men of depraved minds,” which literally means that they have become depraved and continue to be increasingly depraved through an outside agency, namely Satan and/or his minions, resulting in their willful rejection of the truth (Romans 1:18-32). Paul concludes in v9 that, though these battles will continue until Christ returns, they will not win this spiritual battle in physical reality, for “their folly will be clear to everyone” (Matthew 7:20).
2) V10-13 – 10You, however, know all about my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, 11persecutions, 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. 12In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, 13while evil men and impostors will go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.
Paul contrasts the false teachers as he appeals to his own “teaching, …way of life, …purpose, faith, patience, love, endurance, persecutions, [and] sufferings” to remind Timothy that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (v12). Thus all true Christians should expect persecution and trials to come their way (Matthew 10:17-18; John 15:20; 1 Peter 4:12; 5:9; Galatians 4:29). When we take v12-13 together, we can infer that all people are bad, but that “everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus” will be made good (sanctified) through persecution (Romans 5:3-4; 2 Corinthians 12:9-10; James 1:12; Revelation 2:10). The rest “go from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.” One commentator adds, “Those trapped by sin, self, and Satan tend to trap others!” The way to guard against these “evil men and impostors” is to emulate Paul and his nine traits listed in v10-11.
3) V14-17 – 14But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, 15and how from infancy you have known the holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Once again, Paul contrasts his words toward the false teachers (v13) with those toward Timothy (v10-12, 14). He is not to yield to false teaching, but he is to “continue in what [he has] learned and [has] become convinced of.” The application for us in this, says Calvin, is that “we ought to unlearn all that we have learned apart from Christ, if we wish to be his disciples.” He reminds Timothy that he has “known the holy Scriptures from infancy;” the Jewish custom was to teach the law to children beginning at five years of age. Also, Paul notes that these Scriptures “are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” Calvin says, “It is a very high commendation of the Holy Scriptures, that we must not seek anywhere else the wisdom which is sufficient for salvation; as the next verse also expresses more fully. But he states, at the same time, what we ought to seek in the Scripture (Christ Himself); for the false prophets also make use of it as a pretext; and therefore, in order that it may be useful to us for salvation, it is necessary to understand the right use of it.”
In other words, the Old Testament, properly interpreted, leads to faith in Christ (1 Peter 1:21). Timothy is living by the Book, and he needs to continue doing that. Why? Because it’s God’s word, and it’s useful! “The primary purpose of Scripture is mankind’s redemption,” one commentator says. And he goes on to say regarding v15, “The mechanism of redemption…is mankind’s faith response to God’s Messiah. This is the essence of apostolic preaching.” The Greek word for “All” in v16 is small, but it is crucial; Paul’s meaning is clear. God exhales every word of His word; and this happens not by might, not by power, but by the Holy Spirit (Zechariah 4:6; 2 Peter 1:21). I pray for my children the prayer of Paul, which reminds of this topic, from Ephesians 3:16-17 – that God “may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.”
Scripture has another, subsequent purpose as well, from v16-17; once having brought mankind to faith in Christ, the Scripture equips believers for godly living. It is “useful,” and meant to be used, “for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.” I couldn’t have said it better myself; but teaching is to impart knowledge; rebuking is to show error; correcting is to turn away from error to righteousness; and training in righteousness is to guide in the right direction. This purpose is in itself merely a means to an end, that “the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
The word translated “thoroughly” as an adjective, might better be rendered as the noun “adequate,” followed by a comma, though in fact both “thoroughly” and “equipped” are cognate verbs in the Greek. It’s used only here in all of Scripture, but it means “complete and proficient,” “perfect for a purpose,” or “entirely suited.” And taken together, as one commentator says, the phrase is speaking of “gifted, functioning maturity which is brought by the Spirit through the Scripture.” Apart from Scripture, in other words, we cannot do the good that “God has prepared in advance for us to do” (Ephesians 2:10). So to summarize, Paul wants Timothy to stand on the Scriptures for several reasons. First, they bring salvation; second, they are inspired, breathed out, by God through the Holy Spirit in the words of holy (set apart) men; third, they are practical (they bring sanctification) – one commentator has said with many in agreement that there is no more practical book in the world than the Holy Bible; fourth and finally, the Bible is sufficient; nothing more is needed. So stand firm.
Bible text from Gospelcom.net. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society.