Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Home
Evangelical
2 Timothy 3:1-9 Difficult Times Are Ahead

2 Timothy 3:1-9 Difficult Times Are Ahead

Last updated on: December 8, 2015 at 9:48 pm by Jim Erwin

2 Timothy 3:1-9 Difficult Times Are Ahead 2015-12-08T21:48:31-05:00 Jim Erwin

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

2 Timothy 3:1-9 Difficult Times Are Ahead

I don’t know about you, but I have seen many changes in the religious landscape in the last fifteen years, and the changes have been increasing. When I entered the ministry, the Baby Boomers were entering the church. To accommodate them, churches built buildings, built bigger buildings, and made an a la carte approach to ministry: Celebrate Recovery, Singles groups, needs-based ministries like Divorce Care.

Yet over the course of the last fifteen years, the same changes that brought the Baby Boomers to the church also brought other moral ideas contrary to the church. At the same time, the cultural winds shifted as we saw last month. A wave of change within this country (which had already existed in other parts of the world) has changed the way the church is perceived and judged.

The church is not the first point of change in a person’s life. The church is not the place and people of influence like it used to be. The church has lost its salt and light in the general culture. In the past, we used to be the majority opinion. The values of the church (the Golden Rule, the Ten Commandments, the Great Commandment) have been taught as values in families and the nation. These values have been diminished in the last generation. As a result, the church now encounters new difficulties. This passage addresses these difficult times.

The church will encounter difficult times in the “last days.”

“But know this: Difficult times will come in the last days.” (2 Timothy 3:1, HCSB)

From other passages in the New Testament, it is clear that by the ‘last days’ is meant the whole Christian dispensation from the first advent of Christ to his second advent at the winding up of history. For example, Peter, preaching on the day of Pentecost, uses this expression in his quotation from the book of Joel. ‘In the last days, God says, “I will pour out my spirit on all people” ’ (Acts 2:17). Peter could not have applied that quotation to what was happening at Pentecost if it meant the days immediately before Christ’s return. Similarly in Hebrews the writer, speaking of God’s revelation says, ‘… but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son’ (Hebrews 1:2).1

How difficult will these times be? Paul starts to list off a set of characteristics of people who will make things difficult for the church in the “last days.” The reason things will be difficult is because there will be an age of godlessness.

“For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, without love for what is good, traitors, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid these people!” (2 Timothy 3:2–5, HCSB)

Godless people are not the lost who want to seek help. These are people who oppose the Gospel and oppose the church. The list starts with “lovers of themselves” and ends with the fact that they are not lovers of God. Romans 1 describes the godlessness that develops into the spiral of wickedness.

“For God’s wrath is revealed from heaven against all godlessness and unrighteousness of people who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth,” (Romans 1:18, HCSB)

Why do we avoid these people?

Godlessness defines this age and the people of this age. Paul tells Timothy to avoid these kind of people. We are not called to oppose them. We are told to avoid them. So if you encounter people who act this godless, you engage in arguments. You avoid them. I know people who try to engage these people online, especially on Facebook. It does no good. You can’t win the argument. It is better to find other formats to show the Gospel.

“For among them are those who worm their way into households and capture idle women burdened down with sins, led along by a variety of passions,” (2 Timothy 3:6, HCSB)

It was from the increasingly large group in society who displayed the preceding characteristics that the false teachers had emerged to plague the church. Their methods were insidious.2

The false teachers would come in to people who were morally weak and infect them with the virus of false faith.

“always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” (2 Timothy 3:7, HCSB)

This false faith consisted of learning, but they never would hear the freeing power of the Gospel.

Once more Paul connected false teaching with moral deficiency. Their carnality and immaturity rendered them easy targets for the false teachers (cf. Ephesians 4:14). Out of a so- called “openness to learn” they evidently embraced as a fad whatever new heresy came along. Their problem was that they could not recognize the truth when they saw it. 3

These teachers are compared to the magicians who opposed Moses and Aaron.

“Just as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so these also resist the truth, men who are corrupt in mind, worthless in regard to the faith.” (2 Timothy 3:8, HCSB)

These names are the traditional names of the false magicians who opposed Moses and Aaron. They are not named in the Exodus account. However, rabbinic tradition gives them these names. Their names may mean to oppose and rebel.

Paul alludes to these figures generally in the way that the rabbinic writers did. His readers presumably know the developments surrounding these two characters in tradition.4

“But they will not make further progress, for their lack of understanding will be clear to all, as theirs was also.” (2 Timothy 3:9, HCSB)

What lessons do we learn from this passage?

First, bad times are made for good people. That is, when times get tough, good things start happening in our lives. What takes the wrinkles out of the shirt I wear? The heat and pressure of an iron. What turns a lump of coal into a sparkling diamond? Heat and pressure. So, too, I have noticed that the tougher the times—whether it be financially, spiritually, relationally—the more wrinkles are smoothed out, the more the brilliant light of Jesus shines, the more people grow in their walk with God.

Second, good people are made for bad times. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego were three kids who refused to bow the knee to Nebuchadnezzar’s statue. “Throw us into the fiery furnace,” they said. “If God chooses to deliver us, so be it. But if not, that’s okay, too” (see Daniel 3:17, 18). When were Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego seen in this light? When times were dark.

The darker your campus or your office, the easier it will be for you to shine for Jesus Christ. Perhaps it was tougher in some ways in the fifties when everything was white picket fences, home-cooked meals, and Ike. Perhaps it was tougher in some ways to stand out or stand up because the contrast may not have been as great. On the other hand, in these times when things are so perverse and polluted, we can stand out without even trying!5

1 Peter Williams, Opening up 2 Timothy, Opening Up Commentary (Leominster: Day One Publications, 2007), 65.

2 A. Duane Litfin, “2 Timothy,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 756.

3 A. Duane Litfin, “2 Timothy,” in The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures, ed. J. F. Walvoord and R. B. Zuck, vol. 2 (Wheaton, IL: Victor Books, 1985), 756.

4 G. K. Beale and D. A. Carson, Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament (Grand Rapids, MI; Nottingham, UK: Baker Academic; Apollos, 2007), 907.

5 Jon Courson, Jon Courson’s Application Commentary (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson, 2003), 1410.

Previous Post

December 8, 2015

2 Timothy 2:1-26 Pictures of a Christian Minister

Next Post

December 8, 2015 2 Timothy 3:10-17 Personal Advice for Living the Christian Life

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 1 Chronicles 1 Corinthians 1 John 1 Kings 1 Peter 1 Samuel 1 Thessalonians 1 Timothy 2 Chronicles 2 Corinthians 2 John 2 Kings 2 Peter 2 Samuel 2 Thessalonians 2 Timothy 3 John Acts Advent Amos Book Review Colossians Comics Culture Watch Daniel Deuteronomy Ecclesiastes Ephesians Esther Exodus Ezekiel Ezra Galatians Genesis Guest Post Habakkuk Haggai Hebrews Hosea Humor Inspiritational Isaiah James Jeremiah Job Joel John Jonah Joshua Jude Judges Lamentations Lectionary Lent Leviticus Link Love Luke Malachi Mark Matthew Micah Movie Review Nahum Nehemiah Numbers Philippians Political Watch Prophecy Watch Proverbs Psalm Revelation Reviews Romans Ruth Science Watch Sermon Series Sermons Simple Thoughts Song of Solomon Titus Top Ten Uncategorized Video Review Zechariah Zephaniah

Select a Month May 2026 October 2025 September 2025 June 2025 February 2025 January 2025 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 July 2024 June 2024 April 2024 March 2024 January 2024 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 June 2023 May 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 January 2022 June 2021 January 2021 October 2020 July 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2009 June 2008 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 July 2007 June 2007 May 2007 April 2007 March 2007 February 2007 January 2007 December 2006 October 2006 September 2006 May 2006 April 2006 March 2006 February 2006 January 2006 December 2005 September 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which prophet had a vision of a rebuilt Temple with flowing water?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Ezekiel Joel Micah Daniel