“Today’s world has reached a stage that if it had been described to preceding centuries, it would have called forth the cry, ‘This is the apocalypse!’” —Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

Paul warned Timothy, “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days”. He was referring to the time period that had begun with the coming of Christ, continued in Timothy’s day, and continues in our day as we await Christ’s return. The “last days” and the “terrible times” have been in effect for 2,000 years.

2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, 3 Without natural affection, truce breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.

Paul is not telling Timothy to write down something that will be for future generations. Paul is giving instruction that tells Timothy what to do now in his own time.

More than just terrible times or difficult times, the word that is used suggests violence. It’s the word that is used of the Gadarene demoniac. There will be uncontrollable times, wild times, in these last days.

Luke 8:37 Then the whole multitude of the country of the Gadarenes round about besought him to depart from them; for they were taken with great fear: and he went up into the ship, and returned back again.

Paul’s description of the inversion divides for the most part into brutal pairs. We must remember that they are an inspired descriptions of the false teachers and their converts as they “ministered” amidst the intimacy of the house churches in Ephesus.

Paul lists 18 individual items that are characteristics of the ungodly which he says we must beware.

The first four depict selfishness: lovers of themselves, lovers of money; boastful, and proud.

Paul’s brutal description springs from the inversion that had taken place in the false teachers’ hearts, where their love of God had been replaced by love of self.

The first commandment is to love God with heart and soul and mind and strength; the second is to love our neighbors as ourselves, but these people are characterized first and foremost by loving themselves.

The next two terms suggest socially destructive behavior: abusive, whether in word or deed, and disobedient to parents. This disobedience to parents is not the only disobedience, of
course, but it reflects a certain kind of rebellion at heart that is fundamentally rebellious against God himself. It’s true that authority can be abused, but then it is no response to be suspicious of all authority, for some authority is genuinely ordained of God, but where there is a disobedience to parents, almost always there is a disobedience to all structure, a kind of in-your-face anarchy, that is also embracing an anarchy against God.

Disobedient to Parents

We have raised several generations of young rebels who do not understand authority in the home, and, therefore, there is no authority outside the home.

An educator, Dr. Pierce, from Harvard, was lecturing two thousand teachers in Denver, and this is what he said; I want you to listen to it: he said, “Every child in America who enters school at the age of five is mentally ill because he comes to school with an allegiance toward our elected officials, toward our Founding Fathers, toward our institutions, toward the preservation of this form of government, patriotism, nationalism, and sovereignty. All of that proves that children are sick because the truly well individual is one who has rejected all those things and is what I would call the ‘true international child of the future’.” “

We can assign for reading and discussion any filthy book that comes off the press; we can study Karl Marx and George Bernard Shaw; we can invite witches, homosexuals, and anarchists into our classrooms to air their ideas, but we must not teach the Bible, nor have token prayers, nor Scripture readings in our school.”

The Bible says you withhold correction from a child, you are condemning him to hell because he’ll end up a rebel against Almighty God. (Proverbs 23:13–14)

Without Natural Affection

3:3 “without natural affection, unloving” literally means, “Without family love.”

Then there are four “un” words. words that mark the absence of something: literally, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, and unforgiving, which shows sometimes sins manifest themselves in the absence of good, in the absence of virtue.

Not lovers of the good. That is, unloving of the good. They might love all kinds of things. They might love their own glory, their own self-promotion. They might love their money, they might love their home, they might love their children, but they don’t love the good.

They were also “ungrateful, unholy” both of which naturally flow from abuse and disobedience to parents.

Truce Breakers

We have come to a day and an age when a man’s word means literally nothing, whether it’s a marriage contract, a business contract, a church covenant

The false teachers were “without love, unforgiving”. They violated their most intimate relationships. They lacked family affection. Their natural domestic affections were smothered. They were unforgiving because they were implacable when offended.

Incontinent, Fierce, Despisers of Those That Are Good

he mentions those who are “incontinent”, out of control—“fierce, despisers of those that are good.”

They were “slanderous, without self-control” Their slandering tongues resided in bodies that could not govern themselves. They were “set on fire by hell” ( James 3:6).

They were “brutal, not lovers of the good”. Their brutality was like that of savage, untamed beasts.

Then there are four items which show, perhaps, that Paul is moving from characteristics of the age to the false teachers themselves that he is confronting in the epistle. He calls them treacherous, rash, or impetuous, conceited, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. This treacherous category is important.

The False Teachers

2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;

They were “treacherous, rash” rash, fits well, for false teachers will stop at nothing to get what they want.

They were “conceited” far too impressed by their own opinions, egos the size of small planets, unwilling to think through things out of a confessional heritage anymore because they’re telling everybody else who is right.

Lovers of Pleasure More Than Lovers of God

What a devastating critique of these false teachers. There is not a redemptive syllable in the entire paragraph.

Form of Godliness

This appearance of godliness, this form of godliness, can have many different shapes. It may be fine liturgy, or it may be a whole lot of noise, or it may be a lot of fluent God talk, but what is missing is the transforming power of the gospel which actually changes people’s lives.

They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him.

They had “a form of godliness” in that they had the externals of religion in place. They were experts on the externals. Legalism was their forte. They had carefully metered everything out for their followers—they had a rule for everything.

“Myths and endless genealogies” rolled from their lips, mixed with the most delicious Hebrew fables ( 1 Timothy 1:4). They were absolute phonies, forms without substance.

This was the “last days” reality for Timothy and the Ephesian church, and it still pertains in these last days in the contemporary church. J. C. Ryle, the great evangelical leader of 100 years ago, understood the reality as few have. Ryle wrote:

“Look in another direction at those hundreds of people whose whole religion seems to consist in talk and high profession. They know the theory of the gospel intellectually and profess to delight in evangelical doctrine. They can say much about the “soundness” of their own views, and the “darkness” of all who disagree with them, but they never get any further! When you examine their inner lives, you find that they know nothing of practical godliness. They are neither truthful, nor charitable, nor humble, nor honest, nor kind-tempered, nor gentle, nor unselfish, nor honorable. What shall we say of these people? They are Christians, no doubt, in name and yet there is neither substance nor fruit in their Christianity. There is but one thing to be said—they are formal Christians. Their religion is an empty form.”

What to Do

Paul ends this first paragraph by saying, “Have nothing to do with them.” Clearly, that’s not saying, “Have nothing to do with anyone who ever participates in any of these sins,” because we’d have to excommunicate everybody, starting with ourselves. There would be rather few of us left. Yet there is a certain kind of pattern to this kind of “anti-Godness,” to this ungodliness. There are consequences to our beliefs and how we live and what our relationships are, and so forth.

The first paragraph profiled the lives of false teachers, and this paragraph describes their “ministries.” Paul continues derisively, “They are the kind who worm their way into homes” (v. 6a). These homes were apparently well-known because the original Greek says “the homes.” They were probably the spacious homes of the wealthy, where house churches often met. The verb literally suggests “creeping in” under false pretenses. The idea is stealth.9 They were religious sneaks.

Their disciples. Their disciples are described as “weak-willed women, who are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (vv. 6, 7). The epithet “weak-willed women” is purposely derisive, literally reading “little women.” The diminutive is not intended for women in general but describes a situation involving particular women and suggests immature, childish women.10

2 Timothy 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, 7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest to all men, as their’s also was.12 Yes, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.13 But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.14 But continue you in the things which you have learned and have been assured of, knowing of whom you have learned them;15 And that from a child you have known the holy scriptures, which are able to make you wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Their guilt and oppressive desires had turned them into “religious dilettantes,”11 women who were “always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth” (v. 7). Here in the Pastorals knowledge of the truth means faith, repentance, and salvation. The terrible reality was that they were learning and learning and learning but never coming to know Christ (cf. 1 Timothy 6:3–10).

This “last days” quest goes on today. Some devote their lives to the rediscovery of the mysteries of the heart, or the discovery of the numerical key to prophecy as in the spurious bestseller The Bible Code. But they are put off by the simple gospel because they find it too guilt-inducing. So in all their learning, they never become free.

It builds on the assumption that the gospel comes to us and actually does change people. It doesn’t simply declare us just because of what Christ has done. Salvation is more than justification. It is also regeneration. It is Spirit-empowered transformation of life. Such that Jesus himself can say, “By their fruit you shall know them.”

This does not mean we achieve a certain kind of perfection. It doesn’t mean anything like that, but where there is a whole pattern of public sins that everybody can see are antithetical to the gospel, at some point you have to say, “That’s not Christianity. This is Christianity.

Have nothing to do with them.” This does not mean don’t make any friends with them or don’t evangelize them or don’t be civil. It means in the church, in the context of the confessional body of Christ, make sure these people do not constitute part of the leaders that will in turn influence other people to live in sin.
In these last days it will get harder and harder for leaders to be Godly leaders and for everyone else to live a Godly life. If we understand this, we can be better prepared to avoid it, and be on guard to heed Paul’s warning.