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2 Timothy 3:1-9

Senior Pastor Alex Kennedy

In this passage, Paul describes difficult times in the "last days". The last days began as soon as Jesus returned to the Father, and continue until He returns to make all things new. Paul's explanation takes us deeper than circumstances. He takes us into the human heart and reveals what happens when we love ourselves, our possessions, and our pleasure more than we love God. We all worship something or someone, and our life is an overflow of that love.


What we love shapes how we live.

When our desires become supreme,

others needs become inconvenient.


Paul goes on to bookend a long list of negative traits with misplaced "loves". These are:


Love of self and money - Christ is not explicitly denied, He's just effectively displaced. This is the subtle deception of narcissism, and the key to the rest of the list. When the love of God is replaced with other loves, all sorts of vices follow.


Proud

Arrogant

Abusive - speech that maligns others

Disobedient to their parents

Ungrateful - a spirit of entitlement

Unholy

Heartless

Unappeasable - can not admit wrongdoing, refuses to forgive offenses

Slanderous

Without Self-control

Brutal

Not loving good

Treacherous - betraying the well-being of another for personal gain

Reckless - someone who rushes "headlong" into trouble

Swollen with conceit - insanely arrogant


Lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God - someone who elevates the desires for the moment above all else...even God. Jesus said that the Greatest Commandments are to "love God with all your heart" and to "love your neighbor as yourself".


The root of the trouble in these "last days" is that people are utterly self-centered and lovers of self. Thankfully, the gospel is the answer to this problem!


Paul goes on to say that there are some "having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people." Paul is describing people whose religious appearance is convincing, but whose lives contradict it.


Jesus reserved His most intense words for religious leaders. (Matt 23:28) Paul isn't talking about sinners in need of Jesus. He is talking about people within the church.


Jesus is merciful to those

whose lives are a mess and

who admit they need Him,

but to those who play the hypocrite,

there is nothing but rebuke.


Finally Paul says that certain people would also try to win converts to their ungodliness. Paul warns that when unresolved guilt and unbridled desires intersect with smooth-talking teachers, spiritual captivity follows. False teachers can be persuasive, but persuasion does not make a message true (v7).


Thankfully, evil has a limited shelf life,

and Truth always prevails.

In the end, God wins.


Questions to Consider:

  1. If someone could see behind your public religious life, what would they find? (Remember, struggle does mean you have a fake faith. It's what you do with the struggle.)
  2. Where has self-love made you difficult to live with?
  3. Where has the desire for money compromised your obedience?
  4. Where has pleasure become your master?
","author_name":"Carmel Baptist Church"}