2 Timothy 3:1-17
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, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
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, reprobatea concerning the faith.
9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.
10 But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, charity, patience,
11 Persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra; what persecutions I endured: but out of them all the Lord delivered me.
12 Yea, 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 thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;
15 And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto 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:
17 That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.
How we should Encourage each other to do God’s Work
2 Timothy
Ian Mackervoy
Chapter 3
Evil persons in the last days (3:1-9)
v1 You should be aware that in the last days life will be very difficult. v2 People will love money and love themselves. But they will not love what is good. They will claim that they are better than other people. And they will be proud. They will say cruel and insulting things. They will not obey their parents. They will appreciate nothing and they will not believe in God. v3 They will show no natural love. They will be hard and cruel. They will say things about people that are not true. They will be wild and have no control over their own actions. They will hate all that is good. v4 You cannot trust them. They act without caring whether what they do is good or bad. They are vain and proud. They will love pleasure rather than God. v5 They will have some kind of religion but they will deny the power of the truth. Do not have anything to do with such people. v6 Some of them get into homes and gain control of weak women. These women are slaves of *sin and have all sorts of wrong desires. v7 They are always learning but they are never able to know the truth. v8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, these people are enemies of the truth. They have minds damaged by evil and a belief that is false. v9 They will not get very far. Like Jannes and Jambres, it will be plain to everyone that they are foolish.
Verse 1 The *Lord Jesus will return one day. The period before he comes will be the last days. They will be terrible times and life will be hard. The next few verses list the bad attitudes and the evils that are to come. We can see them all already in the world. But they will spread wider and get far worse in the last days.
Paul writes this not to frighten us but to warn us. He wants to prepare us for what is to come.
Verses 2-4 Paul lists the kind of attitudes that people will have. And he lists what they will do in the last days. This gives the reason why life will be so hard. It is not that these things are new. There have been people like this all through history. But in the last days, there will be a big increase in such evil.
These people will not look after anyone else. They are selfish and only think about themselves. Their aim in life is to get as much money as they can for their own benefit.
They will think of themselves as being most important. They are proud of what they have. And they are proud of what they are in their own opinion. They try to convince people of how much better they are. They talk as if other people, as compared to themselves, are of no worth.
They will say evil things. They will not respect other people in how they speak. They will be insulting and not polite. They will not obey or show respect for their own parents.
They are not at all grateful for what they are or have. They do not give thanks to God for all that he has given. They live as if there were no God. This is because they will not believe in him.
They do not have natural feelings and they do not show love. They never forgive people if they think that they have done wrong things to them.
They will wrongly accuse people and speak bad things about them. They are not able to control their own actions. They are fierce and wild. They hate everything good because they are evil.
You cannot depend on them because they will not be loyal. They will not do what they have promised. They do things without thinking. And they do not care what the effects might be. They will do anything to get what they want.
They see themselves as important and they are proud of it. Their one aim is to satisfy their own desires. They love to please themselves. They have no room for God in their lives. They do not love or know him.
Verse 5 Many of these wicked persons say that they have some kind of religion. Some will even claim to be Christians. A true belief in God will have the power to change us. And it will change how we live. The attitudes of these people show that they do not have a real belief in God. How they live denies the power of their religion. And so it shows that their religion is false.
Paul tells Timothy to avoid these people. He should not receive them into the church.
Verses 6-7 In that society, the women stayed in the home. Few of them went to school or had an education. Some of the false teachers went from house to house. They persuaded the women to let them come in. They lied to the women. They said that they had come with good news for them.
Once in the house, these teachers explain their strange ideas. These ideas seem good to those women who were weak. They believed what they heard. And so they came under the control of the false teachers.
Some women were weak. They would accept without question what they heard. It was so easy to convince them that these false ideas were the truth. They were conscious of their *sins and they wanted to find an answer. They suffered from the shame of what they had done. They knew that in their hearts there were all kinds of wrong desires. Here was a message that could make them feel better, they thought.
These women were eager for change, for new things. They wanted to know about the latest ideas. But with all their searching, they could not find the truth. So they remained in their *sin. And they did not know the truth that could set them free. This truth is the *gospel of Christ.
Verse 8 There was a tradition that these two men, Jannes and Jambres, did magic. They were evil men, who were against the truth of God. They opposed Moses and Aaron whom God had sent to free the *Jews from Egypt. Paul says that the false teachers are like those evil men. What they were doing was not the same. But like those men, these are enemies of the truth. They are working against God.
They have believed a lie and there is no truth with them. The evil that they have accepted has ruined them. Their minds have become wicked. They can no longer know what is true or receive it. They have denied the truth of God.
Verse 9 These false teachers may seem to succeed. But that success will not last long. The truth will win in the end. In due time, all will see the true character of these teachers. They are foolish to oppose the truth.
Jannes and Jambres were foolish to oppose Moses. They could not do the powerful works that God gave to Moses. God defeated them. And everyone could see that they were foolish. So it will be with all who oppose God.
Continue in what you have learned (3:10-17)
v10 But you know all that I have taught. You have seen the manner of my life. You understand my aims and my *faith. You know my patience and love. And you know that I never give up. v11 You know the *persecutions and all that I suffered in Antioch, in Iconium and in Lystra. I had to go through those *persecutions, but the *Lord rescued me from all of them. v12 All who want to live a holy life in Christ Jesus will have *persecution. v13 Evil persons and those who cheat will get worse. They will lead people from the truth. And they themselves will believe lies. v14 As for you, you must hold on to what you have learned. And you must hold on to what you have believed. You know who taught it to you. And so you know that it is true. v15 Since you were a child, you have known the holy *scriptures. They can show you how to receive *salvation. This *salvation is by *faith in Christ Jesus. v16 All that is in the *scriptures came from God. They are useful to teach us what is right. They show us where we are wrong. They help us to change and to make right what is wrong. They train us so that we can live good lives. v17 The *scriptures are there to make the person who serves God able to do all kinds of good works.
Verse 10 In contrast to the false teachers, Paul had taught the truth. The false teachers had not believed it. Instead, they had changed it to fit with their own ideas. But Timothy had accepted it as true. He knew all about what Paul taught. He had travelled and worked with Paul. He had seen how Paul lived out what he believed. Paul gave to Timothy a good pattern to follow.
Paul’s aim in life was to please the *Lord. His main purpose in life was to *preach the *gospel of Christ to all people. He believed and trusted in God. He always tried to do what God wanted him to do.
He was patient with people and he loved them. Even when they were unkind to him, he still wanted the best for them.
Verse 11 Paul reminded Timothy of what had happened to him in these places (see Acts 13:45; Acts 13:50; Acts 14:1-6; Acts 14:19). These events showed how he had acted with patience and love. At the time, Timothy was a young man who lived in Lystra. No doubt, he could remember all that had happened. Paul had to suffer much from the people in these cities. But he says that the *Lord delivered him from them all.
Verse 12 Paul is not the only one who has to suffer for being a Christian. All who live out their trust in the *Lord Jesus will have *persecution. To live a holy life in Christ Jesus means to belong to him and to live as he directs. All who want to live like this must be ready to suffer. It should not surprise them when trouble comes because they serve the *Lord.
Verse 13 There will be a growth in evil as time goes on. Those who are wicked will get still more evil. There is so much that is false. And there is so much that will turn people from the truth. Even the false teachers will start to believe what they teach. They will cause each other to trust in wrong things and to fight against the truth.
Verse 14 Timothy must continue in what he had learned. He must not accept the new ideas of the false teachers. He must remain loyal to the truth that he had believed.
He should continue in what he had learned. This is because he knew who taught him. He knows what they believed. And he knows how they lived. He can trust them because he knows them.
Among those who taught him were his mother Eunice, his grandmother Lois and Paul.
Verse 15 It was the custom for the *Jews to teach their children the law of God from an early age. This law of God is the *Old Testament, called here the holy *scriptures. Timothy’s father was not a *Jew but his mother Eunice was (Acts 16:1). She and his grandmother, Lois, taught Timothy the law of God when he was a little child.
God gave these *scriptures to prepare the *Jews and us for the coming of the *Messiah. He is the *Lord Jesus Christ. He came to die for us so that he could bring us to God. This is *salvation. And we receive it when we believe in the *Lord Jesus. The *scriptures teach us about the *Lord Jesus and about our need of *salvation. By the *scriptures, we can know the truth because they are the words of God.
Verse 16 God has given to us all of the *scriptures. It is as if he breathed them through the human writers. Peter tells us that holy men spoke by the Holy Spirit (2 Peter 1:21). The *scriptures are then in a real sense the word of God. As the *scriptures come from God, they must be important for us. He has given them for our use as a necessary guide to how we should live. Paul then gives four areas in which the use of the *scriptures is of great benefit.
They show us what God is like. And they show us how God sees us. They teach us what pleases God. Christian teachers should teach the *scriptures. This is because in them is the truth that God wants everyone to know.
The *scriptures show us what *sin is. By them God tells us that all people have *sinned. He uses them to convince us that we have done wrong things. He shows us where we have wrong ideas and thoughts.
The *scriptures teach that, as we trust in the *Lord Jesus Christ, God can forgive us our *sins. If we *repent of them and bring them to God, he will remove them from us. By doing what the *scriptures tell us, God can change us. He can correct the errors in our minds and in what we do.
The *scriptures are there to educate us in all that is right. They teach us how to live, as God wants us to live. It is essential then that Christians read them and learn from them.
Verse 17 The purpose for which God gave the *scriptures was to prepare his people for good works. As they obey the word of God, they are able to do what he expects them to do. When God has chosen people to do tasks, he qualifies the people to do them. God makes them able to do all that the tasks require.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.Lord ~ a title for God, or Jesus, to show that he is over all people and things.
gospel ~ the good news that God saves people from sin by Jesus Christ.
Gospel ~ one of the four books at the beginning of the New Testament.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.
New Testament ~ the last part of the Bible, which the writers wrote after the life of Jesus. It is about the things that Jesus did and taught. And it is about the church.
Jews ~ people who were born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for the Jewish people.
Jewish ~ people or things that are from the Jews.
faith ~ trust in someone or something; belief and trust in God and in Jesus Christ his Son. The faith is the Christian religion. It is what Christians believe.
persecution ~ when enemies of God hurt people because they believe in Jesus Christ.
scriptures ~ the books of the Bible.
salvation ~ the result when God saves us from sin and punishment; the new life that God gives. He gives it to those who believe in the Lord Jesus.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.
Lord ~ a title for God, or Jesus, to show that he is over all people and things.
preach ~ to speak out the message from God and to teach his word.'Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible; the holy things that the writers wrote before Christ’s birth.
Messiah ~ the Christ whom God promised to sent in the Old Testament. Messiah is a Hebrew word that means ‘anointed one’. ‘Christ’ comes from a Greek word that means the same.
Old Testament ~ the first part of the Bible; the holy things that the writers wrote before Christ’s birth.
Hebrew ~ the language of the Jewish people.
anoint ~ to put oil put on someone’s head. This shows that God has chosen the person for a special task.
Jewish ~ people or things that are from the Jews.
Jews ~ people who were born from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children. It is also a name for the Jewish people.
repent ~ to change one’s mind and heart, to turn away from sin and turn to God. To turn one’s mind and heart away from sin is to repent.
sin ~ to sin is to do wrong, bad or evil; not to obey God; sins are the wrong things that we do.